ABC News finally located retired National Guard colonel Walter Staudt and interviewed him this afternoon. Andrew Heyward will wish that Dan Rather and the CBS News crew had taken the time to do the same before running with the Killian forgeries:

The man cited in media reports as having allegedly pressured others in the Texas Air National Guard to help George W. Bush is speaking out, telling ABC News in an exclusive interview that he never sought special treatment for Bush.

Retired Col. Walter Staudt, who was brigadier general of Bush's unit in Texas, interviewed Bush for the Guard position and retired in March 1972. He was mentioned in one of the memos allegedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian as having pressured Killian to assist Bush, though Bush supposedly was not meeting Guard standards.

"I never pressured anybody about George Bush because I had no reason to," Staudt told ABC News in his first interview since the documents were made public.

Staudt denies ever having any contact with politicians or anyone else before swearing George Bush into the TANG. He insists that George Bush got into the National Guard the same way everyone else did. Nor was Staudt ever contacted after his retirement about Bush or his performance in the TANG; Staudt had no involvement in TANG operations at all, once retired.

So Dan Rather, Andrew Hayward, Terry McAuliffe, and a host of other Democrats want George Bush to answer the content of these forgeries -- and yet they never bothered to check if the content was even accurate. All they have for sources are an eighty-six-year-old Bush-hating secretary talking about her boss' state of mind from thirty years ago, and a serial hoaxer with a huge axe to grind against both the Guard and George Bush. Every one of their experts have backpedaled on authenticating the documents, and even one of their two sources they have left has called them fakes.

I'm Captain Ed, and this is was CBS. (Hat tip to readers Michael and Denis)

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» Shut Up and Read This from infidel cowboy
For context on the title, read this. I know this isn't as authoritative of a source as the Daily "screw them" Kos website, but consider this answer to the bogus charges backed by bogus documents about Bush's TANG service. How... [Read More]

Tracked on September 17, 2004 4:54 PM

» Bloggers Beat CBS from The Key Monk
GAME OVER. Now it's time for Dan Rather, Mary Mapes and Andrew Heyward to get the sack. Period. [Read More]

Tracked on September 17, 2004 6:53 PM

» Strike Three for Dan from Secure Liberty
His memos were fakes - strike one. Then his witnesses all backed off or contradicted him - strike two. Now a new witness, one who should have been the first witness contacted, refutes the entire story - strike three. Dan, your'e out. In an interv... [Read More]

Tracked on September 17, 2004 7:43 PM

» Strike Three for Dan from Secure Liberty
His memos were fakes - strike one. Then his witnesses all backed off or contradicted him - strike two. Now a new witness, one who should have been the first witness contacted, refutes the entire story - strike three. Dan, your'e out. In an interv... [Read More]

Tracked on September 17, 2004 7:54 PM