Okay, let's take bets!
How long before we start hearing lefties allege that the CBS forgeries were part of a sinister, "reverse dirty tricks" tactic, masterminded by Karl Rove?
Don't laugh! I've already heard it once, and I'm waiting to see whether others will pick up the chorus.
UPDATE: Well, that didn't take long. Two minutes after I posted this, I went to Power Line, and read the following account of Ted Koppel's interview with Chris Lehane:
Koppel returned to the forgery issue late in the show during an interview with former Gore operative Chris Lehane. This was the damage control segment but, significantly, the damage being controlled was not that inflicted on CBS, but rather the potential damage to the Kerry campaign. Koppel and Lehane agreed that the campaign almost certainly was not responsible for the forgery because the consequences of being caught are too high. (Lehane even floated the idea that the Bush campaign might have been responsible).
Comments
Well, the "righties" blamed the (false) intern story on Wesley Clark. A poll on the Hannity site asked the question. "Since the recent intern story came out of the Wesley Clark camp, do you think the Clintons were behind it?"
The story was pushed by Rush, Sean, Drudge, as well as British and Australian newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch.. but somehow the more pertinent fact became that it somehow originated in a conversation reporters had with Wesley Clark, a conversation some of the reporters who covered him don't remember.
Hey, as soon as I heard of this memo, I posted it on the Bey message board. I also, however, admittedly started discussing the intern story as if that was true.
As far as who can start rumors these days, almost anyone can. The only good may be that those busy starting rumors have stopped creating computer viruses for the time being.
Posted by: PE | September 10, 2004 09:48 AM