Bill Burkett, Joe Lockhart, and Old Dan

Today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram's story about Bill Burkett is highlighted at Drudge because Burkett claims that Joe Lockhart asked him for the documents. You'll recall that Lockhart told the AP earlier this week that he didn't recall discussing the TANG documents with Burkett, a tale that seemed unbelievable at the time since they were put in contact with one another by discredited (and scapegoated) CBS producer Mary Mapes as she produced the "60 Minutes" episode on -- what else -- TANG documents. Of course, as Polipundit notes, Lockhart could release his phone records to let us see whether or not that call really lasted only four minutes.

According to the Star-Telegram: "Burkett, a West Texas rancher and known critic of Bush, denied that his work with CBS was done at the behest of Democrat John Kerry's presidential campaign.

"He said, however, that during the meeting in which he gave the documents to CBS, he was also told by a producer that his phone number would be passed on to Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart.

"'I was absolutely and clearly told that that was as far as anyone could go without crossing the line of [journalistic] ethics,' Burkett said.

"During a single phone conversation with Lockhart, Burkett said he suggested a 'couple of concepts on what I thought [Kerry] had to do' to beat Bush. In return, he said, Lockhart tried to 'convince me as to why I should give them the documents [emphasis added].'

"According to the Associated Press, Lockhart said he listened to some campaign advice from Burkett for a few minutes and does not recall talking about Bush's National Guard records."

This helps explain Joe Lockhart's decision to admit his contact with Mary Mapes, something I addressed this past Tuesday. Lockhart was attempting, Clinton-style -- to get in front of the story, frame it, and create a situation in which his word would be put up against that of the discredited Burkett.

But CBS's willingness to use Burkett, who has a history of mental illness, didn't end with their outing him as a source, something Burkett says they promised never to do.

Earlier in today's Star-Telegram story, Burkett joins the chorus of critics charging CBS, and Dan Rather, with slanting the story -- this time against their "unimpeachable" source: "Burkett said he agreed to a taped interview with Rather on Monday as suspicion about the documents mounted. Key portions of the interview were never aired, he said.

"'He snipped it apart to cover them,' he said. 'That's all that that evening news was -- to find a fall guy. And it was me.

"'By his action and inaction, Dan Rather ruined my reputation in front of 70 million people.'"

The important point here isn't that Burkett had no reputation to ruin -- his own mad web postings had seen to that. It's that CBS, and Rather, allowed a troubled man to provide them with a story damaging to Bush, ran with the story while turning a blind eye to its obvious weaknesses, and then hung him out to dry as soon as the tale imploded.

It's richly ironic, then, that Mary Mapes, who was so eager to use Burkett to harm the President, joins him in the land of discredited scapegoats. And since Burkett is already retired, she gets to face the firing squad all alone.