He Said, She Said...

Today, we get a lovely little case of he-said, she-said, courtesy of everyone’s favorite two parties, the Dems and Repubs. The subject of dispute? Which party actually distributed the documents that CBS used to build a 60 Minutes segment on President Bush’s National Guard Service. CBS itself has released a statement which states that it was, upon further review, unable to authenticate the documents. Was that a journalistic mistake? Yup, a pretty big one. But both parties are using it as an excuse to accuse the other of nefarious deeds.

The Republicans are suggesting that Bill Burkett, the source of the documents, collaborated with various Democrats. Now, it certainly wouldn’t astound me, but since as of yet the veracity of the documents has yet to be determined, I’m not sure RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie should be saying that they were “faked forged memos.” Besides being unnecessarily redundant, that’s a fairly serious accusation to make without any sort of evidence. Oh, and so is saying that CBS should immediately identify their sources. Not that this is a new tactic for the RNC, they’ve been demanding that ever since the story broke.

The Democrats, on the other hand, are alleging that those with “a known history of dirty tricks, such as Karl Rove or Ralph Reed,” as well as Roger Stone, may have been involved because they refused to deny involvement. So, Roger Stone refuses to deny that he was the source of the documents, and Karl Rove has a history of this stuff, so they’re both already guilty? Hey, why not.

Meanwhile, back in the world of things that actually matter, President Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly today, looking for support in the War on Terror. Pointing to recent terrorist activities in Russia and Istanbul, along with Baghdad, he stated that “all civilized nations are in this struggle together, and all must fight the murderers.”

Additionally, he pointed to various U.S. humanitarian acts, from funding the fight against AIDS to efforts to ban cloning. However, on the AIDS front, Bush has gone from pledging $15 billion in early 2003 that included funds for generic drugs and condoms to a new stance that strongly emphasizes abstinence and marital fidelity. I’m not sure that the fight against a disease that had infected 42 million people by 2002, supporting specific religious beliefs is the greatest idea.

Lastly, in brief environmental news, the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy, a presidential commission, revised their report on offshore drilling. The report is the first comprehensive review of federal oceanic policy in 35 years. The commission proposed $5 billion annually for a variety of programs, included doubling the budget for oceanic research. The money would be drawn from offshore oil and drilling royalties. The President now has 90 days to respond to the recommendations. The changes were made at the behest of several governors concerned about potential increases in offshore drilling.