Imagine that President Clinton (and let's be gentle with the man, his poor heart and all) after having lied to the country about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, finally fessed up to the world: "My fellow Americans, I am sorry to report to you that I lied in office—I did, in fact, make out with Ms. Lewinsky."
You'd've been pissed, right? Even if you hadn't cared what he did with Ms. Lewinsky in the first place. You'd be even more pissed when you found out that this wasn't the end of the story, and you'd probably see the case cracked open again. And so we're back to AWOL.
Though Eric Boehlert's account of Paul Lukasiak's extensive research paints President Bush as one squirrelly coward, I really don't think that take is the important one today. For all the bitching and moaning about how this issue has been treaded and retreaded, the blame falls squarely with President Bush. If the White House would set the dogs on any TANG file-toting journalist that shows up at the door, or instead (as they said they did back in February) release Bush's complete records and move on, we could all say, "President Bush sure was one squirrelly coward," and get on with a campaign on more current events. But this Soviet document production standard just ensures that journalists will keep ripping off the band-aid, for better or for worse, until the White House finally tells the whole truth or tells the media that it isn't picking up the phone.
Anyway, in related commentary over at The Corner, Jonah Goldberg is asking bloggers with "specialized expertise in fonts, printing, etc. [to] please add your insights to the effort" to prove that the documents released on 60 Minutes last night (and corroborated by the White House afterward) are forgeries, because, he says, he would very much like it if they were forgeries. So that's a different take.
Posted by Kriston at September 9, 2004 1:38 PMIt's all about the "th". As in, did they, in 1972 have the capability to superscript "th" when you don't leave a space?
187th without a space creates a superscript...
187 th with a space leaves it as is...
Then there are a bunch of other things pointed out by Powerline and CNS. What if they are forgeries?
Posted by: j.scott barnard at September 9, 2004 4:46 PMwell, then CBS gets egg on its face and the rest of us move on. Looks like powerline is slashdotted at the moment, but last I saw most of the objections there had been addressed, except for the superscripted "th". Sure, it's possible that they're forgeries, but I'd call it an outside chance at this point.
Posted by: tom at September 9, 2004 5:00 PMmr. marshall proves that TH thing wrong rather quickly.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_09_05.php#003460
i'm not surprised people are questiong if they are forged, but i'm inclined to think they aren't, just because the white house hasn't asserted that, and also, CBS is really standing by their case:
CBS News released a statement yesterday standing by its reporting, saying that each of the documents "was thoroughly vetted by independent experts and we are convinced of their authenticity." The statement added that CBS reporters had verified the documents by talking to unidentified people who saw them "at the time they were written." ...
A senior CBS official, who asked not to be named because CBS managers did not want to go beyond their official statement, named one of the network's sources as retired Maj. Gen. Bobby W. Hodges, the immediate superior of the documents' alleged author, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian. He said a CBS reporter read the documents to Hodges over the phone and Hodges replied that "these are the things that Killian had expressed to me at the time."
"These documents represent what Killian not only was putting in memoranda, but was telling other people," the CBS News official said. "Journalistically, we've gone several extra miles."
Posted by: catherine at September 10, 2004 9:05 AMGreeting. Nobody is ever met at the airport when beginning a new adventure. It's just not done.
I am from Great and now teach English, please tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Simple gant charts, this was a professionalism which had been founded by rodney atkinson, who had based down from northumberland with 20 plans to play the friend."
Regards :-D Kane.
Posted by: Kane at September 6, 2009 3:09 PM