Finally addressing the documents presented as part of Dan Rather’s partisan attack, President Bush has said that the core issue of the controversy should be the veracity of the documents.
President George W. Bush has for the first time raised questions about documents used to bolster a report that he received preferential treatment during his Vietnam era military service.
And amid mounting Republican attacks, the CBS network, which broadcast the allegations against Bush, has stepped up its inquiry into the authenticity of the documents.
“There are a lot of questions about the documents and they need to be answered,” Bush told the Union Leader newspaper based in Manchester, New Hampshire in an interview on Saturday. “Let the truth come out.”
“I think what needs to happen is people need to take a look at the documents, how they were created, and let the truth come out,” he told the newspaper.
As Rather continues his Dien Bien Phu defense of his story, ridiculously demanding the content of forged documents is the actual issue, CBS seems to hope the story will just blow over and leave the public consciousness. Will the storm pass? Today’s Sunday Reader section of the print version of the Dallas Morning News printed 24 letters from the public, a plurality of nine (mostly negative to CBS and Rather) dealt with the issue. This issue is not going away fast enough, andCBS’s stance behind a story based on four faked (I know it, you know it) documents and the testimony of a man, previously shown to be a liar on this same topic, cannot withstand the seige.
The sooner the capitulation, the more integrity CBS can salvage.