Dan Rather, who was the stooge in a plot to tilt a presidential election with phony documents, is suing CBS for $70 million, and still insisting the documents weren’t proven to be fake.

Dan Rather, whose career at CBS News ground to an inglorious end 15 months ago over his role in an unsubstantiated report questioning President Bush’s Vietnam-era National Guard service, filed a $70 million lawsuit this afternoon against the network, its corporate parent and three of his former superiors.

Mr. Rather, 75, asserts that the network violated his contract by giving him insufficient airtime on “60 Minutes” after forcing him to step down as anchor of the “CBS Evening News” in March 2005.

He also contends that the network committed fraud by commissioning a “biased” and incomplete investigation of the flawed Guard broadcast and, in the process, “seriously damaged his reputation.” As plaintiffs, the suit names CBS and its chief executive, Leslie Moonves; Viacom and its chief executive, Sumner Redstone; and Andrew Heyward, the former president of CBS News.

It wasn’t the investigation that damaged Rather’s reputation. It was his own actions ... and this:

UPDATE at 9/19/07 1:23:28 pm:

Bummerdietz looks forward to discovery.