Like a tiger (corrected)

The RNC has advanced our study of Hurricane Dan with a thought-provoking timeline: “Chronology of character assassination.” At NRO’s Kerry Spot Jim Geraghty comments: “Why was Terry using terms from the CBS memo 9 hours before broadcast?”
If you’ve ever seen the 1969 film “Z,” think “lithe and fierce, like a tiger.”
HINDROCKET adds: I suppose the simplest explanation is that Bill Burkett was being truthful when he wrote in an email on August 21:

I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this [the Swift Boat Vets’ ads] to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. [Cleland] said counterattack. So I gave them the information to do it with.

Occam’s razor would suggest that “the information to do it with” was the forged documents, and that the forgeries were shared between the Kerry campaign and the DNC, for use in the DNC’s “Fortunate Son” ad campaign.
UPDATE and CORRECTION: Jim Geraghty has found the RNC timeline to be erroneous:

The RNC timeline that the posting referred to was wrong, and I dropped the ball for not checking this out. Terry McAuliffe had several press events about President Bush’s military record, but he did not – repeat, did NOT – refer to “sugarcoated” the way the memo did.
His first use of the term was in an e-mailed statement that was distributed to reporters as the “60 Minutes II” report was being broadcast. It was based on seeing the memo on CBS News web site.

I join Jim in extending our apologies here. Thanks to the many readers who wrote to advise us of Geraghty’s correction.

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