Kevin Drum takes Captain’s Quarters (and me) to task for floating the idea that the Downing Street memos are fakes. I don’t see why I should apologize for linking to CQ. Nor do I think I was particularly feverish when I linked to him. But whatever.

I would also say that if I had to bet, I’d bet Drum is right and the memos are real. But I’m legitimately flummoxed as to why a reporter would destroy the originals. Maybe it’s a British thing as press freedoms are more circumscribed over there.

I haven’t invested much time or energy in the Downing Street Memo brouhaha as I’ve had more important personal stuff to deal with. But, it does seem funny to me that a couple of readers have accused me of buying into conspiracy theories by telling readers to read Capt. Quarters’ analysis. First of all, I think some of what he has to say is worthwhile on the merits, regardless if the memos are real. But the funny part is that the reason these memos are so exciting to certain crowds on the left in the first place is that they put just a bit of meat on the fairly dessicated bones of countless conspiracy theories they’ve been peddling for years. If Kevin Drum thinks it’s a sign of “wingnut” desperation stemming from Rathergate nostalgia to raise this possibility he might at least ponder that Rathergate really happened and whatever nostalgia there is for it, is based on actual facts. Meanwhile, the folks in John Conyers’ orbit are still recycling all of the fictional “Bush lied,” “Haliburton!” and “we did it for Israel” nonsense they’ve been peddling to no avail for several years now.

Update: A reader writes:

Kevin Drum, in the piece you linked to, says the reporter returned the originals. The accounts I’ve seen says the reporter destroyed them. Seems like a huge difference between the 2 descriptions there.