We come not to praise Dan Rather, but to bury him!

Poor Dan, as he follows that final sunset from his perch at CBS News the final days aren't filled with stories of journalistic excellence, great moments of history or end of an era like tributes.

Rather, for Rather it's more of a here's your hat sorry you can't stay so long Dan! The network anchor who seems to be the poster boy for controversy will be going out on his sword, with more than one blade protruding from a back as he fades to Black from Black Rock.

The latest to give a less than rousing farewell to Rather is none other than the Godfather of CBS News Walter Cronkite, who managed to commemorate and eviscerate Rather's career in one blast. Cronkite took time to suggest that it was about time that Rather abandoned his chair and that Bob Schieffer is a long delayed suitable replacement for the post that Walter held for so many years.

And while Dan wonders just what he has to do to gain a little respect, he can take a bit of consolation from a review from the Washington Post and with an article in Slate . The Slate article is particularly informative, explaining that the decline of CBS News and the network news itself had more than one father and that Rather should not be made to shoulder the blame for a change in the media seas. The report paints a rather dis-interested management team that cut resources, letting a much respected new organization drift into near irrelevance, a blasphemy for the network that once brought us Murrow and Cronkite.

And while he probably will print out those articles and keep them close to his retirement wishes book, no doubt he might feel a little short changed by his masters and compatriots in the CBS family. While he's stumbled in the last few years, he's still the guy that was there when President Kennedy was shot, was roughed up by Mayor Daley's thugs in Chicago as a near civil war was waged on the Windy city streets, he stood up to a guy named Nixon and snuck into Afghanistan back when the language of the day was Russian.

For his many faults (and lets face it at times watching a Rather newscast is like waiting for a car wreck) he still in his day was a pretty darn good journalist. Long before he was urging America to have "courage" and was trying to sink a president with less than reliable research Rather had a love for a good story.

Perhaps Cronkite was right, Rather held on too long! And like many who do the same, the glow of ones achievements is dulled by the length of time you spend going through the motions. Timing is everything, Rather unfortunately bows out stage left with questions to answer for about shoddy fact checking and questionable reporting.

It doesn't detract from a pretty remarkable career but it certainly doesn't send him out on a high note.

Everyone and his dog seems to want to pile onto to the good riddance Rather file, for some reason even Donald Trump was asked for his opinion on the CBS newsman and had less than flattering words for him. When we start taking the utterings of a person such as Trump seriously, then perhaps it's time to reassess our disdain for Dan. Cause if Trump don't like him, can he be all that bad?

Wednesday night is his last night to tell America the story of their day, you can't help but hope he knocks one final ball out of the park before he heads for the showers.