Slate’s Tim Noah “I can say with confidence that I never would have relied on the documents that 60 Minutes relied on, based on how they were described in its broadcast, had they landed in my lap. But before you pat me on the back and say "well done," you should know that I did make the error of racing to comment on the documents before actually reading the 60 Minutes transcript. (I missed the broadcast itself.) The fact that the White House had sent the documents to me and to thousands of other reporters seemed to eliminate any possibility that they were fakes. (It turned out the White House was just passing along docs that it had received from ... 60 Minutes.) The only statement I can make in my defense is that the White House didn't seem to doubt their authenticity, either.” 

Noah seems to think that the reason the White House did not question the documents authenticity was that they were already framing a guilty man.  In other words, they had no reason to doubt their authenticity.  This strikes me as very unlikely.  The Bushies have never been one to let the truth stand in the way of anything and they certainly would not send out copies to thousands of reporters if they knew they thought they were legit.  It seems to me that the White House did know that they were cheap forgeries and so gladly “sent the documents to me and to thousands of other reporters.”  This leaves one of two possibilities open: either the Republicans got lucky or they are the source of the documents.