Bush committed fraud during the debates. Lindorff ran this story in Salon, but what I want to know is: why isn’t this STILL a story?
I can appreciate the broader factors weighing on the paper’s top editors, particularly that close to the election. But personally, I think that Nelson’s assertions did rise above the level of garden-variety speculation, mainly because of who he is. Here was a veteran government scientist, whose decades-long career revolves around interpreting imagery like features of Mars, who decided to say very publicly that, without reservation, he was convinced there was something under a president’s jacket when the White House said there was nothing. He essentially put his hard-won reputation utterly on the line (not to mention his job) in doing so and certainly with little prospect that he might gain something as a result—except, as he put it, his preserved integrity…
If a major university had given this guy a degree and later found that he had an earpiece on during his oral exams, they’d rescind his diploma. We, as this man’s employers, deserve at least an explanation. Very dispiriting to think there are Republicans covering this up even now.