JaBbA's Hut

Well, Bush started it. In the 1988 campaign, one of George H.W. Bush's top aides, his son George W. Bush, was the point man on a campaign to discredit Lloyd Bentsen for getting his son into the Texas Air National Guard. GWB knew that strings had been pulled to get young Mr. Bentsen into the TANG...because he was in the same unit.

Bush's top political advisor Karl Rove used similar tactics in 2000 against John McCain, starting a whispering campaign that McCain's time as a POW had made him dangerously unstable. (Don't forget the "McCain has a black baby campaign, too). He then used it again in 2002 against GA Senator Max Cleland, a decorated Vietnam veteran who lost 3 limbs in the war, implying that Cleland was somehow in cahoots with Osama Bin Laden.

Then, of course, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, clearly working with at least the tacit approval of the Republicans, if not the direct involvement, have been trying to call into question John Kerry's military service.

People in glass houses...

Someone finally got through the Feb 13th document dump about Bush's TANG service. At the same time, new documents were discovered and broadcast by 60 Minutes. And it looks bad for mr. "Patriotic, Honest and Moral". Basically, he had strings pulled and never fulfilled his duty, and pressure was applied to falsify the records.

In retrospect, it's doubtful that even White House aides understood all the information embedded in the records, specifically the payroll documents. It's also unlikely they realized how damaging the information could be when read in the proper context. Seven months later, the document dump is coming back to haunt the White House, thanks to researcher Paul Lukasiak, who has spent that time closely examining the paperwork, and more important, analyzing U.S. statutory law, Department of Defense regulations, and Air Force policies and procedures of the 1960s and 1970s. As a result, Lukasiak arrived at the overwhelming conclusion that not only did Bush walk away from his final two years of military obligation, coming dangerously close to desertion, but he attempted to cover up his absenteeism through swindle and fraud.

Salon.Com has all the details.