Remember Mary Mapes? In a piece she wrote for The Nation, Mrs. Mapes discusses the connections being made between the Los Angeles Times’s retracted Tupac murder tale and the 2004 CBS Bush National Guard story.

Prior to air, I spoke with the man who oversaw Bush’s commanding officer and he confirmed to me that the content of the memos was “very familiar” and that Bush’s unapproved departure from the Guard had angered his commander. After the ferocious reaction kicked in, however, he quickly caved to the crowd and said he had never confirmed anything to me.

Facing a mob is frightening, even for a career military man.

I believe that the rabid right-wing reaction was the invisible handiwork of the Bush Administration. Bush spokesmen themselves never told us they thought the documents were false. In fact, when we showed the documents to White House staff before airing the story, presidential spokesman Dan Bartlett said the memos really confirmed Bush’s version of events; that they indicated his commanders were aware that he had skedaddled away from the Guard. See, Bartlett seemed to say, his commanders were discussing it right there in the memos!

I’d like to see a Dan Rather comeback. I think more right-wing brains would explode over that than a Clinton / White House do-over.

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