'Bitch Set Me Up' - Hinchey sees hand of Karl Rove in Rathergate
Friday, February 25, 2005 at 05:00PM Hurley – Democrat Maurice Hinchey
has turned an army of right-wing bloggers into a quivering mass of
indignation.Hinchey suggested that presidential political mastermind
Karl Rove is behind the fake documents that brought down several top
executives at CBS. The controversy led to the early retirement of
longtime anchor Dan Rather, many believe. The remarks came at a session
on Social Security in Ithaca on Sunday, but the comments didn't stay in
Ithaca very long. An operative with the littlegreenfootballs.com Web
site had recorded Hinchey's comments. Within hours, a transcript of his
comments about Rove and a copy of the audiotape were on the Web site.
By yesterday afternoon, the site had more than 1,400 responses to his
comments. At the speech Sunday, Hinchey said the media has been
attacked and manipulated. "Probably the most flagrant example of that
is the way they set up Dan Rather," he can be heard saying in the audio
clip. "Now, I mean, I have my own beliefs about how that happened: It
originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House ... . Once
they did that, then it undermined everything else about Bush's draft
dodging. … That had the effect of taking the whole issue away." The
documents in question addressed Bush's military service in Alabama in
1972 while on leave from the Texas National Guard. Ultimately, CBS
could not prove that the memos were authentic. [more]