Mapes was on a gigantic fishing expedition. She was trying to bag a president. She did so with the consent and support of her superiors.

With that aim in mind, she partnered up with one Michael Smith, a Texas journalist. Smith told her he had a "tasty brisket of information" to share with her about Bush, and basically he wanted to be hired.

Mapes e—mailed Smith in July, using capital letters with great urgency: "I am DEADLY serious about it. I have two other people working with me, looking at various aspects of the story, trying to find an opening . . . The piece (if I get it) will run in early September. I need all the help I can get. Just tell me what you've got."

And she offered him more capital letters later in the month: "I desperately want to talk to you. . . . Do NOT underestimate how much I want this story."

Where did Smith and Mapes find the supposedly incriminating documents supposedly written by Bush's superior officer — a man conveniently dead for 20 years? Through a Web site called onlinejournal.com, edited by a man named Paul Lukasiak.

Ideologically, Paul Lukasiak makes Michael Moore seem like William F. Buckley Jr.

Lukasiak put them in touch with Lt. Col. Bill Burkett, who was coy and cagey with them about the smoking—gun documents he possesses.

Pardon our chest—thumping, but Steve Gilbert uncovered the crucial  , leading Mapes to Burkett, via Paul Lukasiak, back in September, within hours of the document story surfacing. Here is the article he publihed on AT.