POLITICS: Ex-Guardsman: I Contacted Kerry Campaign

A new twist has emerged in the controversial national guard memos. A former Texas National Guard member, who has been identified as a possible source for the memos. has indicated that he passed information to the Kerry campaign. The official, Bill Burkett, has indicated that he spoke directly with former Georgia Senator Max Cleland, a member of the Kerry campaign staff. The conversation according to Burkett, involved the discloser of information that he said could counter the criticism of the Kerry war record. The Associated Press who attained a copy of the email communication published this statement from Burkett:

"I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. (Cleland) said counterattack. So I gave them the information to do it with," Burkett wrote. Burkett did go on to indicate that no one from the Kerry campaign ever called him back.



A spokesman for the Republican National Committee has suggested that there may be a link between the Kerry campaign and Burkett. That charge was denied by a Kerry campaign spokesman. Furthermore, members of the Texas Democratic party have indicated that the Burkett memos never reached any of the officials. Burkett who is a Democrat has also indicated that he overhead a conversation between Adjutant Gen. Daniel James of the Texas Air National Guard and then Governor Bush's chief of staff discussing the removal of records that could cause embarrassment.

In other news, the White House has indicated that the President has reviewed the disputed documents and can not recall ever having seen them before. When asked if the Bush campaign had evidence linking the documents to the Kerry campaign, he replied "I don't know"

[edit on 18-9-2004 by FredT]

[edit on 18-9-2004 by FredT]

[edit on 9-19-2004 by Valhall]

I'm hooked.

Not exactly buying this though and think Dyke is playing a very dangerous game here... :shk:

Republican National Committee spokesman Jim Dyke suggested collaboration between Burkett and the Kerry campaign. "The trail of connections is becoming increasingly clear," he said.

I'd say the trail is muddier than ever!

The e-mail was distributed to a Yahoo list of Texas Democrats. The site, which had about 570 members Saturday, is not affiliated with the state party.

Leading operatives for the Texas Democratic Party did not receive Burkett's August e-mail, said Kelly Fero, one of the state party's strategists.

"The Democrats who run the party and are sort of the main strategists in Texas never saw it," Fero said. "We have lots of groups of Democrats who communicate among themselves constantly by e-mail."

Though alot of other people obviously did get the e-mail and someone leaked it to the press. Unless chain mail distrubution is vetted these days by political party and I missed it. Speaking of which is "Buckhead" on the mailing list, or one his powerful "friends."

Just playing a bit. I don't think it was Bush or Kerry and will never be proven linked to anyone short of a full blown confession. Fall guys do abound, but the Kerry/Edwards campaign isn't one of them.

This sounds about right to right to me...

"The Kerry campaign had absolutely nothing to do with these documents, no ifs, ands or buts," spokesman David Wade said. "Jim Dyke inhabits the fantasy world of spin where George Bush pretends we haven't lost millions of jobs and everything in Iraq is coming up roses. He'd be better served getting answers from the president, not hurling baseless attacks."

Burkett said somewhere something about GOP 'dirty tricks' - yet he's possibly the source of the forged documents.

This is putting the Kerry campaign awfully close to this scandal.

What the hell are the editors doing? Can we get this place cleaned up? The fine line between amature reporting and professional news service is drawn by less than 2 typos per piece, at least. Among other things...

Originally posted by RANT
I'm hooked.

I'd say the trail is muddier than ever!

The e-mail was distributed to a Yahoo list of Texas Democrats. The site, which had about 570 members Saturday, is not affiliated with the state party.

This is much like the West Virgina Republican group sending mailers that Kerry will ban the bible. It seems that both sides are plauged by rouge groups withing the overall orgs.

That being said, I agree Rant, that none of this will be traced back to the Kerry team. Burkett himself has admitted that they did not call him back. Not that he is crediable, but the Kerry campaign would not have used this directly in any case. Its much better to let Dan hang out on a limb.

The Bush service issue as well as the Kerry service issue are both making us all look like a bunch of fools. It seems understood that people of priviledged upbringings tend to get preferential treatment throughout the course of their lives. Bush's service record seems obvious and Kerry's seems extremely questionable to me. Bush took the easy way out, and Kerry... refuses to release all of his military records. We're acting shocked and amazed to discover that the "upper-crust" of our society usually behave in this manner.

The most amusing aspect of all of this is the fact that these issues have already been run into the ground long ago. Kerry put his actions in the spotlight decades ago, and Bush already played this game with Ann Richards during the 1994 Texas Gubernatorial race. To the outside world we must look like we have 5 second attention spans or we're just really really bored lol.

Here's a refreshing alternative, and might I add colorfully maritime, view of this whole thing.

lol...

Avast Ye Scalliwags, Thar Blows Dan Rather!

Even though this is written very much on the humorous side, it has a plethora of valid and credible links to research.