We should have expected this.

The money quote:

Les Moonves, the co-president of CBS parent company Viacom, told an analyst meeting that the review of the CBS “60 Minutes II” report being done by former Attorney General Dick Thornburgh and retired Associated Press chief Louis Boccardi had no timetable for completion. But he said he did not want it to interfere with the Nov. 2 election.

“Obviously, it should be done probably after the election is over so that it doesn’t affect what’s going on,” he told a Goldman Sachs media conference in New York.

Here is a good question: why would the results of the investigation affect the election? Is this a passive admission that there was collusion between one of the candidates for President and they don’t want that to hurt that candidate before the election?

Had Moonves said something else, I think this would be speculation. From my standpoint, it might as well be an admission that the Kerry campaign coordinated the hit piece with CBS producers (and likely higher) and they don’t want their candidate to take the hit. Is there any other way to read this?