a Rather insanity defense?

From the Hollywood Reporter:

"And then there was this: 'Ed Murrow's ghost is here. I've seen him and talked to him on the third floor of this building many times late at night. And I can tell you that he's watching over us.'

If Rather has been spending too much time of late yakking with the ghost of Murrow and too little confirming the veracity of his sources, maybe we need to cut the dude a little slack."

With the cBS investigative report still not out but rumored to be very critical of Rather, why not try to get a little sympathy with an insanity (or perhaps senility) defense? You couldn't have a better set up than this.

"But as Rather prepares his final hurrah as the face of CBS News in March, we need to remember that this guy is a towering figure in the TV news pantheon and a man who's earned far more respect than he's getting."

If Rather has indeed "lost it", then the management of cBS needs to get rid of him before he does even more damage (although one can't do much worse than being #3 in a 3-way race). But the fact is that the bogus Bush national guard story was not some minor accident but was tailored and timed to damage the president's re-election hopes.

Rather has been an interesting character to observe but he has become less and less able to control his liberal leanings and his crude attempt to bring down the president and cover up the facts when caught will cause his actions to be linked forever with those of Richard Nixon, a fate he richly deserves.