The Shape of Days

Some of you might recall that in the fall of 2004, I was a small part of a scandal involving some forged memos. I did a little original reporting, got my name in the press a little bit. It was a fun time.

Word on the street is that now Dan Rather is suing CBS News for — hell, I don’t know. Something. Something related to his firing. The whole thing bores me to tears, frankly. I couldn’t even be bothered to read the first paragraph of any news story on the subject; I’m not even sure I read the entire first sentence of any of them. Guy sues former employer. And so on, whatever.

But this evening a sometime correspondent sent me an e-mail that contained an Internet address, and what I found at that Internet address was downright hilarious.

I haven’t made my way through the whole thing yet, but here’s my favorite quote so far:

You actually think that Killian wasn’t pressured by higher-ups to keep Bush’s record clean, or that Bush wasn’t grounded, or that any of the things alleged in the memos were false? … You might as well answer whether or not you believe the general content of the documents were true, irrespective of the providence of the memos.

That’s really the whole story of the Rathergate scandal in a nutshell, man. Somebody held up some memos and said “Look what these prove.” And some other people examined those memos and said “Uh, these don’t prove anything, ‘cause they’re fake.” And some other people sat back in their chairs, laced their fingers behind their heads and said that what the memos prove remained true whether the memos were real or not.

In other words, the belief that George W. Bush’s service record in the Texas Air National Guard was altered by his commanding officer due to pressure from outside the chain of command became an article of faith to certain people.

And there’s no sense arguing with faith.

---

I think this is an appropriate occasion to go on the record yet again with my personal mea culpa.

I voted to re-elect George W. Bush in 2004. I donated to the campaign, I soapboxed, I encouraged everyone I knew to re-elect the President.

If we had that election to do over again, exactly as it was, I would cast my ballot the same way.

But that’s not an endorsement of the sitting administration. It’s a condemnation of the other nominee. You know. Whatshisname. Edwards. Or whoever it was.

But whether George W. Bush is a good President or a bad one — and that’s an argument we could have all night, with my coming down squarely on the side of “both!” to the infuriation of all participants — making stuff up in order to attack a political candidate in an election year is just wrong. Of all the allegations made by CBS News against the President that fall, precisely zero have thus far been supported by any documentation whatsoever. And the documentation the network produced to back up its story turned out not only to have been forged, but clumsily forged. Amateurishly forged. Forged by somebody who didn’t have the foggiest idea what he or she was doing.

Whether the CBS memos were faked — and they certainly were — has nothing to do with President Bush’s qualifications to hold office or his character or what size shoe he wears. The forgery is a simple fact, devoid of moral context.

And now, three years on, to deny that simple fact strikes me as incredibly funny.

• Anniversary
• Favorite blog moments of 2004
• Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2004