Go, Terry, go!

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe today said neither his organization nor John Kerry´s campaign leaked to CBS documents questioning President Bush's service record, which may have been forged.

He suggested White House adviser Karl Rove could be behind the documents.

"I can unequivocally say that no one involved here at the Democratic National Committee had anything at all to do with any of those documents. If I were an aspiring young journalist, I think I would ask Karl Rove that question," Mr. McAuliffe said.

Asked later if he believed Mr. Rove or Republican operatives were involved, he said: "I am telling you that nobody -- Democratic National Committee or groups associate with us -- were involved in any way with these documents. I am just saying I would ask Karl Rove the same question." ...

--The Washington Times

Yes!

*****

Of course, the WashTimes also notes the following:

The Prowler, an Internet political column, is reporting that the documents attributed to Col. Killian were given to a DNC staffer "more than six weeks ago." It says the documents were handed over to the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

"The Prowler, an Internet political column," is, to be specific, The Prowler, an Internet political column in The American Spectator, which, alas, still exists and is trying to be as much of a pustule on the American body politic as it was in the '90s. Here's the article (if you can get it to load -- the Spec's server is about as reliable as its reporting was in the "real Anita Hill" days). The story quotes an (unnamed) DNCer who says the Kerry campaign didn't think the Killian documents were smoking guns ("Those documents were not something anyone was talking about or trying to generate buzz on") and people at the DNC doubted that they were genuine ("When there was discussion here, there were doubts raised about their authenticity") -- yet the story still suggests that Dems are responsible for the fact that CBS went public with them ("There is a school of thought here that the Kerry people dumped this in our laps," says a CBS producer in the story, unnamed of course).

The Spec server overload and the many citations of the Spec story in the right-wing blog world suggest that "Dems did it" is now the meme of choice and will be the official GOP line on this story by this weekend, Terry McAuliffe's valiant efforts notwithstanding.

All I want is for someone at CBS to get angry enough to make destroying Karl Rove his or her life's work.
 
UPDATE: Power Line notes that, in an interview with Ted Koppel, Chris Lehane of the Kerry campaign blamed the Bush campaign.