It’s a pretty gruesome image — wanting to cut out a man’s heart and feed his liver to the dogs. Who would accuse a person’s opponents of something so grotesque … especially where the intended target is a sitting president of the United States? The answer is an individual so filled with loathing for a former president that he indulged his own basest instincts, concocting a vile smear campaign that backfired, ultimately costing him his career.
That man is former CBS News anchor and pseudo-historian Dan Rather, who went after not only the heart and liver of President George W. Bush but the jugular during the latter’s re-election campaign. On Sept. 8, 2004, Rather reported on “60 Minutes Wednesday” that he had come into possession of a series of memos critical of Bush’s Texas Air National Guard service record. The memos, purportedly typed on an IBM Selectric, were exposed as fakes and Rather was forced into retirement.
Although Rather has laughably continues to claim that that the documents were authentic, you’d think he’d at least show some restraint when reacting to criticism of a president he admires and supports. No such luck. Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters reports that Rather appeared on Sunday’s “Chris Matthews Show,” where he said:
All of these things we’ve said about what the president could do, should do, might have, could have, but the central thing to keep in mind is his opponents — you talk about taking them out to dinner, making nice with them — these people politically want to cut his heart out and throw his liver to the dogs. That does make it very, very difficult to come on nice to them. [Emphasis added]
Sheppard reminds readers that Rather made the same comment on the “Chris Matthews Show” in prime time back in November 2010. Irony aside, Rather conveniently ignores Obama’s own disdain for his opponents, which was on display as early as his 2008 campaign.
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