Kerry Spot    [ jim geraghty reporting ]
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Marion Carr Knox, the secretary to Col. Jerry Killian, President Bush's National Guard commander, this evening, during her interview with Dan Rather:

"And there are words in there that belong in the Army, not to the Air Guard. We never used those terms."

From the Veterans for Peace web site:

Lt. Col. Bill Burkett completed 28 years of decorated service and was medically retired from the US Army National Guard in 1998.

UPDATE: I must have the best readers in the world. Kerry Spot reader Roger points out another unusual similarity.

One phrase that struck me on reading the CYA memo that "Killian" wrote referred to him "having trouble running interference and doing my job". "Run interference" struck me as an unusual turn of phrase. So, I google "run interference" and "Burkett" and get two hits: He's used "run interference" in an interview with Kevin Drum (where someone ran interference for him), and described another officer as running interference for Bush, Rove, Albaugh etc. It seems to be a verbal tic with him and it's interesting that it shows up in a memo that "Killian" wrote.

This isn't proof, but it is odd that this particular phrase would show up like this. By the way, note that Rather and Mapes say they spent five years working on this story, and the blogosphere is picking this apart like piranha on a cow within a matter of hours.

[Posted 09/15 11:25 PM]