The CBS Shoe Drops

CBS has released its final report on the matter of the Bush documents.  It’s 224 pages, and I’m sorry, but I do not have the time nor the patience to peruse the entire thing.  I am interested, very interested in the story.  I’m particularly interested in which of the principals can be shown to have lied to the investigators.  One candidate is Mary Mapes.  I looked briefly at page 64, at a section discussing the contacts between Ms. Mapes and the Kerry campaign.

Per Lieutenant Colonel Burkett’s demands, Mapes called Howard and asked him whether she could pass along the number of her confidential source to the Kerry campaign…Both Mapes and Howard recall the conversation, but they agree on little else about it.

Howard emphatically denies having given permission to Mapes to make the call.  Specifically, he told the Panel that the call with Mapes was short…and he told Mapes clearly that she could not make such a contact with the Kerry campaign. Mapes’ recollection, however, is that Howard gave her permission to call the campaign.

Well, that’s interesting.  This is a clear disagreement, and one of the two is lying.  And just who was that “confidential source” to the Kerry campaign?  Let’s read on a little further to find out.

Mapes told the Panel that…she called Chad Clanton, who was a Kerry campaign communications official. Mapes’ phone records reflect a 13-minutecall with Clanton on August 27. Mapes told the Panel that she did not know anyone from the Kerry presidential campaign and obtained Clanton’s name and number from her husband, a newspaper reporter in Dallas who had quoted Clanton in a recent article. Mapes described this call to Clanton as a “one time contact.”… According to Mapes, she told Clanton that Lieutenant Colonel Burkett said he had strategic advice for the Kerry presidential campaign as to how to respond to the attacks on Senator Kerry’s Vietnam service by the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.”

I’d say that has the appearance coordination with the Kerry campaign.  Recall that immediately after the report was aired the Kerry people came out with an ad and interview blitz, but pulled it back when the questions about the documents surfaced.  Was Clanton a "confidential source" when Howard was contacted, or a random contact, just someone her husband knew?  Who is Chad Clanton?  I’m not sure I can answer that question definitively, but Beldar thought he was funny.  By the way, Mapes says they spoke once, Clanton says three times.

There’s lots more on this, especially from Power Line, the ‘ground zero’ of the controversy, where Hindrocket apparently has read the entire CBS report.  And the Big Trunk thinks Ms. Mapes post-report statement is at variance with the truth.  Instapundit has the usual excellent roundup, with plenty of links.  For additional material, and lots of it, see rathergate.com.

UPDATE: One of the Instapundit links is to the blog formerly known as Kerry Spot (now TKS), by Jim Geraghty.  Excellent, keep scrolling, and read it all.