Nick's right that Dan Rather's "crime" eerily parallels certain mistakes made by a certain commander in chief. CBS screwed up by not making more of an effort to verify the documents, but let's remember that part of the reason they screwed up was because the White House gave their implied seal of approval when they were contacted. Doesn't take away from the screwup, but it does make it more interesting.
I'm not yet ready to accuse Rove of a masterful 5 cushion bank shot, but if I were, say, writing a political thriller about one President Smush who had an advisor name Snarl Stove who had a history of doing exactly that kind of thing, I would pat myself on the head for thinking of such a brilliant plot device.
Though as far as this non-lawyer can tell there's no definite slam dunk forgery law which would make this an easy case, there would appear to be enough on the books to warrant either a state or federal investigation. So, if Ashcroft's JD or the state of Texas wish to use the power of the state to make an effort to figure out who Burkett's source was, they probably can... And, my guess is we'll be able to tell a lot by how loud the leading conservative lights scream for such a thing...
