Things just couldn't get any worse for the Bush Administration. They are already irrelevant--whether it concerns foreign policy, domestic policy, the culture at large--there is little or no interest in them or what they have to say. They are the past. Everything happening this week has been about the future--the next President, the race for the nomination and the race to see who can get in there and fix everything that is broken (see the GAO report Blue Girl is going over with a fine tooth comb)
Then, this happens:
Breaking: It looks like former CBS News anchor Dan Rather will indeed get his day in court. On Wednesday evening Justice Ira Gammerman of the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan made a preliminary ruling denying the TV network's motion to dismiss Rather's $70 million lawsuit. "I think discovery should go forward," said Gammerman.
Rather's suit, you'll recall, claims CBS unfairly shuffled him off the air after that infamous 60 Minutes Wednesday story about Bush's performance (or lack thereof) in the Texas National Guard. Rather alleges that being shown the door was just the network's misguided attempt to placate the White House and shield CBS's then-parent company Viacom from political fallout. You know, the usual reasons for dismissal from a high-profile media job.
Now that the case will be moving forward, Rather's lawyer Marty Gold wants CBS to start forking over internal emails and documents to prove his case, including exchanges between network brass and the White House. Naturally, this has CBS lawyers asking the court to limit the scope of the discovery. "It seems pretty clear they don't want to produce [the documents]," said Gold.
Well, that wasn't too difficult, was it?
The incident, which fueled the wingnut dreams of so many wannabe "investigative" bloggers, stands as one piece of unfinished business. Did Bush have his associates "scrub" his National Guard records to hide, I don't know, a positive test for cocaine? Some other nasty piece of business? A little AWOL?
Here's Rather, talking to Karl Rove in 1972--what a great photo. And a great haircut:
Who knows? But maybe, just maybe, this case will reveal what was done behind the scenes to make certain that the American people wouldn't get to find out the truth.
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