Rather's Suit Goes Forward--Will The Truth Come Out?

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.

Good! Now maybe the right questions will be asked! In court! Under oath!

Dan Rather is suing CBS News for $70 million dollars over the treatment he received in the wake of the fallout over the story Rather presented on the midweek edition of 60 Minutes that accused the incumbent president of failing to fulfill his obligations to the champagne unit of the Texas Air National Guard his daddy’s connections got him attached to.

Since the story tracks, but the documents weren’t authentic, I would love to see this aired in open court.

In the suit, filed this afternoon in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, Mr. Rather charges that CBS and its executives made him “a scapegoat” in an attempt “to pacify the White House,” though the formal complaint presents virtually no direct evidence to that effect. To buttress this claim, Mr. Rather quotes the executive who oversaw his regular segment on CBS Radio, telling Mr. Rather in November 2004 that he was losing that slot, effective immediately, because of “pressure from ‘the right wing.’ ”

He also continues to take vehement issue with the appointment by CBS of Richard Thornburgh, an attorney general in the administration of the elder President Bush, as one of the two outside panelists given the job of reviewing how the disputed broadcast had been prepared.

Frankly, let me say right now that I am not shedding any tears over the outcome of the suit no matter how it is resolved – unless there is a quick, sealed settlement that sweeps the whole thing under the rug. (If that happens, I might have a stroke. Fair warning.)

I am glad to see this lawsuit, because anything that brings attention to the fact that it is at least possible that the incumbent president is Absent With Out Leave from military service in the Air National Guard to this very day is a big freakin’ deal, and I want answers.

It was just too convenient, you know? If the idiot and his minions could manage to organize a two-car parade I would almost think that Rather was set up – but c’mon…the idiot and the cast of evil clowns are a pathetic fucking joke. If brains were dynamite, they couldn’t blow their collective nose. There is no way they could pull off something like that. (Excuse me while I wipe a tear from my eye - I am laughing so hard I nearly embarrassed myself...)

And because they are not very bright, I have a glimmer of hope one of ‘em will slip up and step on the incumbent president’s genitals. I never pretended to like the smarmy little prick, and I hope daily that he gets a heaping helping of comeuppance.

If this makes that happen, hell, I am liable to get religion.