The Dead Man Statute prohibits testimony from the grave

Don Surber:

If true, Bob Woodward’s piece “Ford Disagreed With Bush About Invading Iraq.” By running it after Ford died, Woodward just reminds people of his fake-but-accurate interview with Bob Casey.

Jules Crittenden of the Boston Herald put it succinctly: “Woodward chants up a Ford zombie.”

Woodward has it on tape? Play it on Fox News then.

UPDATE: Thomas DeFrank of the New York Daily News recalled his final lunch with Ford this year:
Ford was a few weeks shy of his 93rd birthday as we chatted for about 45 minutes. He'd been visited by President Bush three weeks earlier and said he'd told Bush he supported the war in Iraq but that the 43rd President had erred by staking the invasion on weapons of mass destruction.

"Saddam Hussein was an evil person and there was justification to get rid of him," he observed, "but we shouldn't have put the basis on weapons of mass destruction. That was a bad mistake. Where does [Bush] get his advice?"
Woodward tarnished his reputation even more.

...
DeFrank's story sounds more credible. The Dead Man Statute prohibits hearsay evidence of a conversation with someone who is not alive to refute. Woodward had a similar "conversation" with a comatose Bill Casey for one of his books. I just do not trust Bob Woodward with this story. What Ford told DeFranks is not only credible, but sound advice. I do think the source of the WMD strategy was probably Tony Blair, to answer Ford's question.

Comments

  1. "Woodward has it on tape? Play it on Fox News then."

    I don't think he'll do that just to satisfy a handful of conspiracy theory crackpots.

    You're missing the boat on the dead man statute. Woodward and Ford aren't adverse parties.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The story makes them sound adverse to the war.

    ReplyDelete

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