BURKETT? THEY GOT THEM FROM BURKETT?

On MSNBC: CBS "cannot vouch for the authenticity of documents used to support a "60 Minutes" story about President Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard service after several experts denounced them as fakes."

So who is Bill Burkett?

From Smash:

MEET BILL BURKETT:

Bill Burkett, who has emerged as a possible CBS source for disputed memos about President Bush's Guard service, has a long history of making charges against Bush and the Texas National Guard. (Houston Chronicle)

What kind of charges? Here's something Burkett himself wrote on March 19, 2003:

In January of 1998 and what seems like a full lifetime ago, I was stricken by a deadly case of meningoencephalitis. I was returning from a short duty trip to Panama as a team chief to inspect the hand over of Ft. Clayton to the Panamanians. I had been 'loaned' from the senior staff and state planning officer of the Texas National Guard to the Department of the Army for a series of these special projects after angering George W. Bush by refusing to falsify readiness information and reports; confronting a fraudulent funding scheme which kept 'ghost' soldiers on the books for additional funding, and refusing to alter official personnel records [of George W. Bush].

Got that? He blames Bush for his illness. But wait, it gets better:

George W. Bush and his lieutenants were mad. They ordered that I not be accessed to emergency medical care services, healthcare benefits I earned by my official duty; and I was withheld from medical care for 154 days before I was withdrawn from Texas responsibility by the Department of the Army, by order of the White House.

I was a pawn then caught in a struggle for right and wrong, but also caught within a political struggle between a man who would do anything to be 'king' of America and an institution of laws that we knew as America.Bush conspired to deny him medical treatment?

That's quite a story. But apparently, it wasn't even up to Dan Rather's standards, as it never made it past the "Veterans for Peace" website.

So how does Burkett really feel about President Bush?

We must now revert to the history of Europe to discern what to do. We must study the nemesis of France and how Napoleon was felled before understanding the damage a tyrant does to a nation and society. We must examine the ruthless and dictatorial rise of yet another of the three small men—one whose name is not spoken out of fear of reprisal, but his name was Adolf. We must examine history, in order to not repeat it, and to understand the mesmerism of a public to a murderous scheme. Three small men who wanted to conquer . . . and vanquish. Each created a need for a balancing throng; history then recorded the damage from a far better perspective.

To quote a somewhat less famous blogger (moi):

"You relied on Burkett????? You put the reputation of CBS News and its 60 Minutes flagship at risk based on Burkett's say so? How stupid can you get?"

Apparently mindblogglingly stupid.