George Will hammers the Bush administration, again, this time on Iran. There is no more effective critic of the president. If John Kerry spoke this clearly, Bush would be down 5 points. When will Democrats learn that you don’t have to hyperventilate about “quagmires” and “lies” to be persuasive?

In the race for Senate in Colorado, it seems the Republicans are struggling to replace Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who is retiring, with the candidate they tapped, beer magnate Pete Coors. Although the battle has been brewing for months, polls consistently show Democrat Ken Salazar ahead. Some analysts are now buzzing about the image problem of Coors, who might not be as well known for his conservative credentials as for those truly obnoxious commercials and those screeching words: “AND I LOVE YOU TOO! HERE’S TO FOOTBALL!!!” (Have you ever been to a tailgate like that?) Coors could also use a little more help from the president. Perhaps he ought to draft the Bush twins to help him out. If not, Salazar may just pull away, bringing another Democrat to the U.S. Senate, while leaving Coors flat.

Patterico notices a funny timeline on CBS’s website.

The good news: Columbia Journalism Review‘s Campaign Desk has finally engaged on the CBS story in a meaningful way. Good for them.

The bad news: CJR concludes, “There’s nothing complicated about any of this. The real story here isn’t political bias on the part of CBS or Rather. It’s that of big news organizations still in the thrall of a scoop mentality that dates back to the 1920’s and Ben Hecht — and still reluctant to come clean even when a story unravels.”

Umm, how do they know this? Remember, on September 14, 2004, CJR explained that the reason they weren’t covering the CBS story was because “it’s not clear whether CBS has been had by some undercover operative intent on smearing the president, or whether the network itself is the victim of a smear campaign.” In other words, they were too scrupulous to go rushing to judgment, even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Fair enough.

Now, CJR has decided that they absolutely, positively, totally understand the true nature of CBS’s ethical failings even though they know next to nothing about how the CBS story came to pass. What proof does CJR have that there “isn’t political bias” from CBS or Rather? None.

And on the other side of the ledger, there’s troubling evidence which suggests that CBS’s ethical failings might well be rooted in political bias. Take Mary Mapes and the revelation that she reached out to the Kerry campaign to pass on information she had unearthed during her reporting. What does CJR have to say about this? Nothing.

The latest Quinnipiac poll shows Bush leading John Kerry by one percentage point among likely voters, 47 percent to 46 percent in a three-way race with Ralph Nader (who garners 2 percent). In a two-way race, Kerry just barely beats Bush, 49 percent to 48 percent. Another poll by WABC in New York actually shows the president ahead by four points. Democrats say they’re not worried. The Bush campaign, which earlier expressed reluctance to make a play here, recently dispatched Laura Bush to rally supporters in the Garden State. If the president took the time for just one visit, he could turn the tide on this increasingly left-leaning state–and earning its coveted 15 electoral votes (more than in Wisconsin or Iowa or Missouri). Then again, if Kerry stumped here alongside the ever-popular governor James McGreevey, Bush may win it in a landslide.

CBS’s disavowal of Mary Mapes continues in the New York Times: “Several people at the news division, who insisted on anonymity because they had been told not to talk to reporters, said one important line of inquiry in the internal inquiry would be whether Ms. Mapes’s zeal clouded her judgment. Some colleagues and associates questioned whether her politics could have interfered.”

The most important tidbit in the Times story: “Mapes is accomplished enough that producers for the 60 Minutes Wednesday edition, which is based in New York, let her work from home in Dallas . . .”

See? How could they have known what her partisan zeal was doing to them? I mean, she was down in Dallas–Dan Rather couldn’t possibly know what she was doing from 2,000 miles away. Right?

Do the following quotes from this AP report make it sound like CBS is selling Mary Mapes down the river? We report, you decide:

“Mapes, 48, was described by colleagues on Tuesday as a dogged and talented journalist who made no secret of her liberal political beliefs. . . .

“In the 60 Minutes tradition, producers like Mapes wield tremendous influence on the stories and operate with a great deal of independence–a status earned after many years of proving themselves, [60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager] said. . . .

“‘It is obviously against CBS News standards and those of every other reputable news organization to be associated with any political agenda,’ [CBS spokeswoman Kelli Edwards] said. . . .

“‘She’s done many, many solid stories in her career,’ Fager said. ‘How this went so horribly wrong is a mystery to many of us and I look forward to hearing the details.'”

Is this enough to save Rather’s career?

USA Today has done what CBS should do–detail exactly how they got the fake documents. It’s an admirable piece of work on the part of the USA Today editors. Good for them.

What USA Today does is: (1) Tell us everything about how they got the documents from Burkett; (2) Tell us about every other time in the past when they’ve used Burkett as a source; and (3) Tell us everything they know about where the story stands now.

Along the way, they manage to further damn CBS. Remember that CBS called Burkett an “unimpeachable” source. We now know:

*Burkett does not appear stable: “Burkett’s emotions varied widely in the interviews. One session ended when Burkett suffered a violent seizure and collapsed in his chair.”

*Burkett’s account of how he received the documents does not appear solid: “Burkett said he arranged to get the documents during a trip to Houston for a livestock show in March. But instead of being met at the show by [Lucy] Ramirez, he was approached by a man who asked for Burkett, handed him an envelope and quickly left, Burkett recounted. . . . After he received the documents in Houston, Burkett said, he drove home, stopping on the way at a Kinko’s shop in Waco to copy the six memos. In the parking lot outside, he said, he burned the ones he had been given and the envelope they were in.”

So even if CBS was acting in good faith when they were taken in by Burkett, it’s clear that they were consciously misrepresenting Burkett when they defended their story by describing him as “unimpeachable.”

Oh, and don’t forget that the biggest scandal in all of this isn’t even the fake documents–it’s Mary Mapes passing oppo research to the Kerry campaign.