As Drudge Might Say ...

... "Developing."

Here's the story as it seems to be unfolding.

President Bush gave a speech here in Orlando, and it was videotaped. Nothing unusual so far. But in the background (which admin officials always like to stock with a racially-balanced group of campaign contributors' kids ... oops, I mean Real Americans), one young lad (the son of the local county chairman, whaddaya know?) repeatedly fidgeted, yawned, checked his watch (kids still wear watches? I thought they knew what time it was because they looked at their cell phones) and generally did all the things a 12-year-old asked to stand at attention while the Liar-In-Chief murders the English language for 42 minutes would normally do. Could have happened to any president, really.

Again, this really isn't all that unusual so far. Not news at all.

David Letterman, no fan of the President-Select, has for quite some time now aired videos in which Bush trips over his own tongue or tells a ridiculous whopper or some other foolish thing (it's not hard to find this footage, to put it mildly -- Letterman airs this stuff probably three times a week!). Well, they found this tape and cut it down to highlight the boy's boredom, and aired on Monday night. It's very funny, and again I stress this could have happened (probably did) to Clinton, to Reagan, to any President.

Typical Letterman, hilarious stuff, everyone's having a good time imagining Karl Rove with steam coming out of his ears when he sees it. Still not news in any way, shape or form.

Here's where it starts to get interesting.

CNN anchor Daryn Kagan ran the clip and then informed viewers that, and I quote, "we're being informed by the White House that the kid, funny as he was, was edited into that video." (emphasis mine)

Later in the day, a completely different anchor mentioned the story again, but changed the "facts": according to the White House, we were told, the boy was actually there at the rally -- but not where the video showed him to be. (again, emphasis mine).

Someone forgot to tell Letterman not to watch CNN that day. On Tuesday's show he was visibly livid. He told CNN, and the audience, in no uncertain terms that their claim (by way of the White House) was "an out and out 100 percent lie." Repeatedly.

Almost immediately, CNN changed their story. The anchor "misspoke" and the White House did not tell CNN those things, CNN spokesmonkeys said. So why did not one but two CNN anchors say that they had? Er, nevermind. Oh, look! Shiny thing! Catch it! (whew!)

Letterman on Wednesday was more apologetic, but still angry. He expressed remorse that he had called the White House liars when, apparently, it was CNN that were the liars.

But Dave's a crafty guy.

Guess what happened on Thursday night's show.

Letterman told the audience, and all of us, that he now had a source "very high up" at CNN that confirms that the White House did, in fact, make false claims about the tape to CNN, who duly (as lackeys of the administration) reported it without fact-checking (they didn't even bother to call Letterman's staff, who could have easily confirmed that the tape was real).

He also mentioned that he was having the boy in question (now 13) on as his special guest Friday night.

The boy the White House told CNN wasn't there, oh wait he was there but not standing near the President. The boy who's father (our beloved Orange County Chairman Rich Crotty) has started giving interviews to the media in which we learn:

ï Surprise, surprise, he's a Bush "Pioneer" fundraiser.
ï He confirms that everything shown in the Letterman tape actually happened, and that the boy was right where the tape showed him to be.

Don't believe me? Think I'm biased? Have a look for yourself (the original sketch, and then Dave's reaction to CNN's report that the White House said he made it up).

Conclusions, class? Here's mine:
1. Bushies will lie about anything. Absolutely anything.
2. So will CNN, if the White House says to. Liberal media my ass!
3. They picked the wrong guy to mess with. Again.
4. They are losing their touch. Indeed, they're just losing it in general.
5. Millions of people -- tens of millions, actually -- are discovering, some for the first time, that the current administration is made up of ethics-free, blatant liars who will even go so far as to tar the reputation of a 12-year-old child to "protect" Bush.
6. I cannot wait to see what Jon Stewart and the Daily Show are going to make of this, assuming that their heads haven't exploded by now.
7. You see, America? Orlando does rock!