Bush Gloats Over Dan Rather's Ouster (& Putin Calls Him OUT On It!) -By Robert Parry

[kpete]

Bush Gloats Over Dan Rather's Ouster

By Robert Parry
November 23, 2010

George W. Bush, in his memoir Decision Points, says he was shown a copy of a purported memo about his shirking of his National Guard duty before a story citing the document appeared on CBS’ “60 Minutes-2,” and the former president gloats over the resulting controversy that cost the jobs of anchor Dan Rather and his star producer Mary Mapes.
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Bush’s account also suggests that the White House may have had a larger role in discrediting the memo than generally understood.

According to Bush, he was shown the purported memo by White House aide Dan Bartlett after stepping off Marine One late one night in September 2004.

“Dan told me CBS newsman Dan Rather was going to run a bombshell report on 60 Minutes based on the document,” Bush wrote. “Bartlett asked if I remembered the memo. I told him I had no recollection of it and asked him to check it out.

.......................

The dust-up over the memos also left many Americans with the impression that Bush was innocent of the charges that he had skipped out on his National Guard duty. However, the evidence against Bush had been accumulating for years, although rarely getting much media attention.

...................

Putin’s Complaint

Curiously, one world leader who dared confront George W. Bush with the issue of his (and America’s) hypocrisy on the news media was Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In Decision Points, Bush recounts a meeting at which he called Putin on the carpet for a “crackdown on the free press” in Russia.

According to Bush, Putin responded by saying, “Don’t lecture me about the free press, not after you fired that reporter.”

Bush wrote, “It dawned on me what he was referring to. ‘Vladimir, are you talking about Dan Rather?’ I asked. He said he was. I said, ‘I strongly suggest you not say that in public. The American people will think you don’t understand our system.’”

............................

more:
http://consortiumnews.com/2010/112310.html

[sakabatou]

1. Bush is still an asshole

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

39. And he still didn't fulfill his duty

AWOL coward.

[Barack_America]

2. On the contrary, it seems Putin understands our "system" quite well. nt

[kpete]

3. my oh my

does he ever!
peace to you, kpete

[DemoTex]

5. Our "system"; their "system."

Same "system."

[molly77]

29. DemoTex

The whole world has a freer press than the US. With the possible exception of China. Rupert Murdoch has a house there complete with Chinese wife. That is a "tell".

[pgodbold]

25. Well said. Very well indeed. nt

[JDPriestly]

36. I hope that Putin comments on this now. I'd love to hear his views

on our "system."

It would be interesting to know what Putin knows about the Dan Rather firing. He probably knows a lot more than we do or even that Dan Rather does.

[Canuckistanian]

4. So

Bush never DENIED that he had Rather fired - he just didn't want Pooty-Poot to mention it.

[molly77]

30. Notice that anyone the bushes don't like do not fare too well in Amerika

Black people in the Super Dome...Barbara

NYTimes they aren't doing well at all. george the first . They must have written an unfavorable article.

Freedom..all of FDR's policies have been dismantled with a little help from their friends. Bill Clinton in repealing Glass-Stegall. There are lots of pictures of them arm in arm..smiling into each other's eyes.

All the people on death row when george the younger was gov of Texas. Only exception being a particularly violent serial killer. Guess george could relate.

Any country which has oil in the ground. All of them.

Even republicans can't stomach them any more. We are all one.

[xxqqqzme]

32. Well, brace yourself for the

third b*sh installment. Jebster is coming to complete the dismantling.

[pacalo]

6. The boy king *adopted* that system from Putin's country! What a smirky, arrogant jerk.

[Kali]

7. “It dawned on me ..."

:rofl: nothing's ever "dawned" on that pinhead except maybe the sun itself during an all-night coke binge

[BlancheSplanchnik]

35. Haaaaaa!

If the Duziez were still around.....


:spray:

[Old and In the Way]

8. That trap was most likely set by Rove.

I remember reading threads here about the way that went down and Rove helped derail the truth about Bush's missing time in TANG.

[tanyev]

13. With some help from Roger Stone.

[laughingliberal]

9. K & R nt

[Octafish]

10. 'It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.'

-- Josef Paul Göbbels, NAZI Minister of Propanda, Third Reich.

[ixion]

12. And Plato (paraphrased) from The Republic

:argh:

[ixion]

11. why is that putrid little ass clown not in jail?

That's what I want to know.

[MissDeeds]

15. I want to know, too

It is a disgrace, and one that this administration will bear throughout history. Hopefully a future administration will bring the fetid little twerp to justice.

[UTUSN]

14. I knew that without being told specifics, from all the other vengeance hits he carried out

And I wouldn't even pretend to know ALL of the people he has gotten even with. Poppy's enemies who called him a wimp, Saddam, GORE, scores of Congress critters, we don't even know them all.

And I bet he plays with Saddam's sword, plus the "Mission Accomplished" banner as a cape.

[kpete]

16. lol

[WinkyDink]

17. Why would Bush, if he were "innocent", use the term "bombshell" and ask that it be "checked out"?

BECAUSE HE KNEW IT WAS TRUE.

[BlueIris]

18. What a nasty piece of work * is. (Oh, and my love for Putin continues.)

Yes, I realize he has his own authoritarians tendencies...but he's also the only reason we haven't gone into Iran (at least publicly.) And calling Bush out on Rathergate is priceless.

[DemoTex]

19. Putin and the vapid little drunk (my favorite Bush-Putin photo)

"Sit!, you slack-jawed, shit-faced SOB!"

[BlueIris]

20. Look at *'s face. Makes me think he should be singing showtunes. nt

[gordianot]

21. Very correct, Bush was not really a dry drunk. Russians understand alcoholic leaders.

[peekaloo]

27. Dinner theater production of 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'

complete with Bu$h pissing his pants a la Steve Martin at the dinner table yet he refused the request to wear the cork eye patch. :rofl:

[molly77]

37. Too funny

[Rex]

22. No Simple George, the American people understand all to well

what Putin would mean. God, is that man really THAT fucking stupid or did he make that stuff all up? Sounds too stupid to be true imo.

[SpiralHawk]

23. "Smirk." - xCommander AWOL

[swilton]

24. Deliberate ignorance/stupidity

in this country never ceases to amaze. Other countries' populations know more about us than we do. And this isn't a matter of technology and math and science skills. Nor is it a problem that gutting our public education system can fix.

[RZM]

26. To equate Putin and Bush in a discussion of the press is wrong

The Russian government is authoritarian and the system is not a real democracy. The government has created a media climate where Russians hear very little criticism of the Kremlin or its policies on television. The government owns large shares of some networks and others have gotten the message and refrain from real criticism. The lack of a free press in Russia has enabled the United Russia crowd to solidify their grip on power. They probably aren't going anywhere for a long, long time.

I can understand why Putin would use the Dan Rather flap when Bush put him on the spot - after all, it was an argument and he's not about to admit that what he's done is wrong. But to hear DUers defending him and equating our system with Russia's . . . It's really very sad. Unfortunately it's not uncommon, as plenty of people here seem to buy what RT, the Kremlin's English-language outlet, sells them as well.

[guruoo]

28. I've always wondered how they were able to come up with the typset rebuttal just minutes

after the story broke.

http://www.freerepublic (dot com) /focus/f-news/1214382/posts

[Gaedel]

34. Blame Rather (and his staff)

for being just a bit too eager to grab the fake document and run with it.

Thirty seconds of rational thought would have told them that the document could not possibly be true. Documents like that are not kept in the unit files, but are kept in the rater's "desk drawer" file and are destroyed a year after the subject has departed the unit. No way in hell would that document have survived for thirty years.

Did such a document exist at some time? It might well have existed given Bush's casual performance of Air Natl Guard duties. Would it have survived the general clean out of the originator's and the recipient's personal desk files? No.

The document was either created by the rather shady character in Texas to discredit GWB or it was created by a Rovian dirty tricks team. In either case, Dan Rather and his staff should have been a lot more wary than to grab it and run it. They should have been prudently skeptical.

[guruoo]

41. The typeset rebuttal's magically quick appearance led me to believe that it

was put together before Rather broke the story.

If so, that means the whole thing was a setup from the get-go.

[Gaedel]

42. and.....

Rather should have vetted the document instead of treating it like "manna from heaven".

[guruoo]

43. It was an elaborate ruse specifically designed to fool the traditional vetting process,

eliminate an old thorn in the RW's side, and produce a chilling effect upon
investigative reporting of Bush, and his administration.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2400623#2400644

[Gaedel]

45. Elaborate?

It was only "elaborate" if you didn't apply the logic as I laid out in my previous post. It should immediately have been looked at with a great deal of skepticism as falling into the "too good to be true" category.

Even if purposely designed to take down Dan Rather, it shouldn't have worked if Rather's staff hadn't been so eager and had read it twice.

Can I interest you in purchasing a "sliver of the True Cross"? Your wariness should instantly increase.

[KansDem]

40. And how quick and professional the RatherGate website came online...

DU thread: rathergate.com!

[molly77]

31. I trust Putin , formerly in the KGB, more than any bush.

[47of74]

33. I trust just about anyone more than that smirky little turd Bush.

[boomerbust]

38. Being an AWOL coward

Has its perks.

[Yeahyeah]

44. And Rather was replaced with the brother of a Bush coconspirator/ambassador.

Who of course has to be one himself.

[Major Hogwash]

46. Bush should have called his book, "How I Broke the Watch"

Because the book he had ghostwritten for him in 1999 was called "A Watch to Keep".