Clueless Rather's Bad Day in Court

This stooge should be thankful he lives in a country where he can have his day in court. In other places he'd probably have been thrown in jail, or worse, for trying to help sway a presidential election.

As it is, all he'll get is more public humiliation in a courthouse. He should stop whining and take it like a man.

Dan Rather's $70 million lawsuit against CBS is getting whittled down like a redwood at an Alabama beaver party.

A Manhattan judge yesterday threw out two more of Rather's claims against the network, including his charge that his former bosses committed fraud by falsely promising to help restore his reputation after he became a "scapegoat" for a discredited story about President Bush's military career.

"We are extremely gratified that the court has now dismissed the vast majority of Mr. Rather's claims," CBS said in a statement.

Rather's lawyer, Martin Gold, said that despite Judicial Hearing Officer Ira Gammerman's ruling striking down two of their remaining four claims, their suit is still alive.

"The whole story is coming out," he said, predicting that Rather will prove claims that he was railroaded by his longtime bosses so they could curry favor with the Bush administration.

Sure, as if a network actually wanted to suck up to Bush. As if the administration has received glowing coverage ever since then.

Geez, do these people realize how clueless they sound?

Rather filed suit against CBS last year, charging they hung him out to dry after the uproar over a flawed story on the president's days in the Texas Air National Guard.

The report, which aired during the 2004 presidential race, said Bush avoided Vietnam by pulling strings to get into the Guard, and then shirked his duties once he was in.

The story came under fire when some of the documents the report relied on were revealed to be forgeries.