We have noted several times that the most glaring error in the forged documents is not the fonts, etc., but the suggestion that in August 1973, "Staudt" was pressuring "Hodges" to "sugarcoat" Lt. Bush's evaluation. "Staudt" is Brigadier General Walter "Buck" Staudt, and the reason why the forged memo is obviously inaccurate is that Gen. Staudt retired from the Texas Air National Guard in March 1972.

One omission from the news coverage of the CBS scandal has been the reticence of Gen. Staudt, who, unlike the memos' purported author, Jerry Killian, is alive and well. General Staudt has now given an interview to ABC News, which apparently will air tonight. Here are the General's comments as reported by ABC today:

"He didn't use political influence to get into the Air National Guard. I don't know how they would know that, because I was the one who did it and I was the one who was there and I didn't talk to any of them."

"He was highly qualified. He passed all the scrutiny and tests he was given."

"No one called me about taking George Bush into the Air National Guard. It was my decision. I swore him in. I never heard anything from anybody."

"He was a well-educated, bright-eyed young man, just the kind of guy we were looking for. He presented himself well. I'd say he was in the upper 10 percent or 5 percent or whatever we ever talked to about going to pilot training. We were pretty particular because when he came back [from training], we had to fly with him." [Ed.: That's a heck of a good point, if you think about it.]

Staudt retired from the Guard in March of that year and said he was never contacted about Bush's performance.

"There was no contact between me and George Bush … he certainly never asked for help," Staudt said. "He didn't need any help as far as I knew."

He added that after retiring he was not involved in Air National Guard affairs. "I didn't check in with anybody — I had no reason to," he said. "I was busy with my civilian endeavors, and they were busy with their military options. I had no reason to talk to them, and I didn't."

There you have it. If CBS had carried out a competent investigation into the documents' authenticity, they would have contacted General Staudt to get his reaction to the statement about him in the August 1973 memo. Had they done so, they would have learned that he had retired well before that date, and would have had to take into account his denial of the allegation in the memo, and of the whole thrust of their report.

Of course, if Dan Rather already knew that the documents were forged, it would explain why he didn't bother to have someone on that crack CBS staff, with all of the "checks and balances" he tells us about, pick up the phone and call General Staudt.