BillHobbs.com is a frequently updated blog of original reporting and commentary by Bill Hobbs, a longtime Nashville journalist and media relations adviser. I am currently serving as communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, a job I began on Oct. 29, 2007.
A columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, not exactly a bastion of conservative media, slams CBS over memogate, and notes the Rather unhinged comments of Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAulliffe.
Retired Maj. Gen. Bobby W. Hodges -- whom CBS cited as the "trump card" in verifying its story - told the Dallas Morning News that he never saw the memos. Now that he had seen them, Hodges said, ''I don't think Killian wrote them - official or unofficial."
CBS announced it still stood by its story. A spokeswoman told reporters, "We believed Gen. Hodges the first time we spoke to him." That is, CBS believed Hodges when he knew less than he knows now.
Killian's family announced it thought the documents were fake. His widow told reporters her husband didn't keep notes. Worse, the Dallas Morning News also reported, while Killian complained in a 1973 memo cited by CBS that Col. Buck Staudt was applying pressure on him to go easy on Bush, Staudt had retired 18 months earlier.
The CBS spokesperson told the Washington Post that Staudt was a "mythic figure" who wielded influence after retirement.
Mythic indeed.
Even as the CBS charges wilted, DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe wallowed in the National Guard story, telling the Los Angeles Times, ''This is about character, this is about credibility, the character and credibility of the president.''
Then McAuliffe said Bush guru Karl Rove may have been behind the questionable documents.
See the signs of hysteria here?
McAuliffe was a stalwart Clintonista who had no problem with the former president's failure to serve in either Vietnam or the National Guard. Now, McAuliffe is indignant that Bush might have missed some service before receiving his honorable discharge.
How ironic that Moveon.org has bankrolled Texans for Truth, which aired ads attacking Bush's military record. Moveon.org began in 1998 with an online petition to ''Censure President Clinton and Move On to Pressing Issues Facing the Nation,'' to protest wasted time investigating Clinton for "lies about his sex life" so that Washington could pay attention to important issues of the day.
Now Moveon.org is bankrolling 30-year-old personal attacks on Bush. It's sad when people become what they once hated.
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