This isn't getting enough coverage

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Apparently the former Lt. Governer of Texas admits to aiding junior Bush secure a spot in the Texas Air National Guard. This was pretty big news, but it just doesn't seem to be getting much coverage.

By Michael Dobbs, San Jose Mercury News

WASHINGTON - A senior Texas politician has told close friends that he recommended George W. Bush for a pilot's slot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War because he was eager to "collect chits" from an influential political family.

The reported comments by former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes add fuel to a long-running controversy over how Bush got a slot in an outfit known as the "Champagne Unit" because it included so many sons of prominent Texans. Friends said Barnes had recorded an interview for the CBS program "60 Minutes" that will address the question of whether Bush pulled strings to evade being sent to Vietnam.

Barnes, a longtime Democrat who works as a lobbyist and political consultant in Austin, has said that he is "very ashamed" of helping "a lot of people who had family names of importance get in the National Guard." He made the statement during a meeting with John Kerry supporters in Austin on May 27, a video of which is now circulating on the Internet.


Friends said Barnes will expand on these remarks in his interview with "60 Minutes," while taking care not to contradict sworn testimony from 1999, in which he said that no member of the Bush family had directly asked him for help. Barnes was unavailable for comment Friday.

The White House, which has been anticipating a Democratic counterattack on Bush's military record since a flurry of attacks on Kerry by former Vietnam veterans funded by prominent Republican contributors, dismissed Barnes as a "partisan Democrat." In a CBS News interview last week, former President George H.W. Bush described charges that he used his influence to get his son into the National Guard as "a total lie."

According to a friend who has spoken with Barnes in recent days, Barnes is willing to go public with a charge that he first made behind closed doors in September 1999, when he testified in a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit brought by a former associate. In a sworn affidavit, Barnes testified that he had been approached by a longtime Bush family friend, Houston businessman Sidney Adger, for help in getting George W. Bush into the National Guard.

Barnes is now telling friends that he understood that Adger was making his request on behalf of the Bush family, even though he has no memory of Adger explicitly saying he was. He based his understanding on the knowledge that Adger was extremely close to the Bush family and his feeling that Adger would not have acted without their consent.

At the time, Barnes was speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, and in close touch with the head of the Texas Air National Guard, Brig. Gen. James Rose. Adger and Rose are dead.

In addition to Bush, who was accepted for pilot training in May 1968, other recruits to the Texas National Guard during the late 1960s included the son of former Texas Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and members of the Dallas Cowboys football team.

Reprinted from The San Jose Mercury News:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/
news/world/9581016.htm


Here's the full article

Discuss!

[ September 08, 2004, 12:04: Message edited by: Rednik ]

 

Yarr! it be requiring of registration...
Best ye quotate it on thar olde BoM, else nary a soul will respond to it.

 

Damn, looks like in the last two days they changed it so you need registration.

Sorry about the failed topic guys.

Edit: Got the article.

 

It's probably not getting much coverage because it means piss all. So what if some guy 'tried' to get Bush a spot in the air-force? It wasn't Bush's fault for being born the son of a prodominant political family. Everybody wants to be friends with the Bush family - they're rich and influencial.

Bringing this information up has nothing to do with the current political situation and it would only matter to the Bush haters out there.

 

**checks to make sure that the Earth is still firm**

I feel a little squeamish all over because I think that I've never been able to express hearty aggreement with Abomination before.

This is a little scary.

New territory.

But Abomination is completely right!

Gather around folks and I'll let you all in on a big secret...lock that door, Chandos...thanks, bro...here we go...ready?

Wealth and influence bring privilege!

And it brings privilege whether you live in a Democracy, Monarchy, Socialist Republic, Marxist enclave or some sort of odd Theocracy where we all worship a 12 breasted Vishnuite Godess who banishes all forms of erectile disfunction.

Wealth and influence bring privilege.

Tuck this away in your brain in the same place you keep your concept of gravity, time and the certainty that fast food fries can never be eaten if allowed to cool.

Abomination...you rock!

At least for the moment...

 

I would have been a little more aggressive but I'm not American.

But welcome to the dark side anyway... Muaaahahaha!

I see this as important as a certain candidate's 3 purple hearts. Hell, if anything they could also show that the guy is impetuous or actually enjoys getting shot.

Even if you're not a Bush supporter you would be lieing to yourself if you said that you didn't want to get on his family's good side - everybody want's in on that good side.

 

Oh, yes. Kinda like being on the "good side" of the Mafia. Maybe I won't get shot at.

 

Everyone interested in this story, on either side, should watch 60 Minutes II tonight.

Not only will this specific issue be brought up - which I agree is neither surprising nor terribly relevant - but apparantly concrete, complete evidence has surfaced that proves that Dubya did indeed ditch out on his guard duty during war time while receiving millions worth of fighter-pilot training to defend America at taxpayer's expense. It also catches Bush in a few blatant lies: that he fulfilled his duty, and that he's released ALL of his records.

For anyone who's counting...how many times have they released Bush's entire record now, anyway? 3, 4 times? Mr. McClellan? "No really, folks...THIS is everything you need to know about his guard record, nothing else to see. We promise, this is it this time. I know we've said that before, but...this time itz fo shizzle, nizzle. What's that?...the very portion of the records that would shed light on the specific time in question aren't included in this 'release' either? Absurd. Absurd I say! I just told you we've released everyting. Why can't you support your President? Guards!"