Posted 1:08 PM by Robert

A Murder-Suicide Pact?

Dan Rather and CBS News seem well on their way down the drain, drawn below by almost certainly fraudulent documents apparently provided by the Democratic National Committee and Kerry-Edwards. The DNC and Kerry-Edwards also had a heavy hand in setting up the preposterous Rather-CBS interview of Ben Barnes, a Democratic activist, Kerry fundraiser and former Texas House Speaker with recovered memories of having helped President Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard. Mr. Barnes own daughter, Amy Barnes, has publicly dismissed Barnes' claims as political and opportunistic. The Barnes interview and document mess have made CBS News and Mr. Rather laughing stocks, and concern is beginning to emerged from CBS News that Viacom, the CBS parent company, may see a silver lining in the collapse of Dan Rather in the form of an opportunity to scale back the entire unprofitable news division.

Despite its probably having been suckered and savaged by Kerry-Edwards and the DNC, so far CBS News has stood its ground and refused to turn on them, even citing a "confidentiality agreement" with the document source as the basis for refusing to make full disclosure.

Perhaps that "confidentiality agreement" is really a murder-suicide pact. The existence of such a pact would explain why the DNC is now running a bizarre attack ad incorporating part of the Rather-Barnes interview. Although the DNC ad does not use the discredited memos, it does have the effect of making Kerry-Edwards appear to endorse Mr. Rather's involvement, thereby depriving Kerry-Edwards of any safe distance from the ongoing Rather-CBS meltdown.

Perhaps the murder-suicide pact provided for something like this:

DNC/Kerry-Edwards murders CBS/Rather with phony documents and a phony interview, and then commits suicide by publicly embracing the polluted CBS/Rather materials. And, on top of all that, the DNC ad continues to drag the entire campaign back to the 1960's, even though that is exactly what Bill Clinton correctly told Senator Kerry was killing the Democrats' chances, and even though it is clear that voters don't care about Mr. Bush's service record because he's not running on it.

Why did CBS/Rather and DNC/Kerry-Edwards agree to go out this way?

Beats me. It's not even death with dignity.

UPDATE:

The Republican National Committee shot back a one-line statement: "The video the Democrats released today is as creative and accurate as the memos they gave CBS."