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Digging an Even Deeper Hole

February 12th, 2004

Well, it’s late and I should be going to bed, but I really do want to comment on this.

You may or may not have been following this, but it is wholly possible that President Bush is in deep doo-doo. It has to do with his National Guard records. You see, it has long been known that there is something funny about his service; he was asked about it in 1994, when he ran for Governor of Texas, and in 2000 during the presidential campaign. I guess the Texas election was not important enough to bring enough scrutiny about it, and in 2000 the press and media in general were too busy adoring Bush to pay attention to little things, like did he lie to everyone and act generally like a lout in the past.

But now the atmosphere has changed. With the WMD brouhaha starting to bubble, with the FBI crawling up on several Cheney staffers on the Valerie Plame affair, with the massive spending and staggering deficits, with Bush acting the pro-military hawk and sending our people into Iraq to die and to kill, and with John Kerry being a Vietnam War hero and all–Bush seems more vulnerable in general, but more importantly, his gung-ho pro-war swagger and his new opposition make Bush’s National Guard “service” much more relevant.

Bush is trying to bury the National Guard question, but he’s not doing too good a job of it. For some bizarre reason, he agreed to be interviewed by Tim Russert. I thought that he and his people had a plan, but apparently they were just stupid. Bush always screws up when facing an unscripted interview, and he did it in that one. He lied several times (such as when he claimed that discretionary spending under his watch is down compared to Clinton, or that he had released “all” of his records about the National Guard in prior campaigns), and came across so badly that even staunch Republicans like Peggy Noonan and Bill O’Reilly are critical of him.

And that statement that he would release “everything” that could show what he was doing during ’72 and ’73 is what has gotten him into trouble. Apparently he choked and forgot to evade that question, and now an embarrassed administration is trying to backpedal on that after releasing practically illegible documents out of Colorado that see to say that Bush was paid for part of his time there but not all–and the documents still do not show where he served. Nor do they even prove that he served at all–they just show that he was paid for some days of service, but there are large gaps, months long. Not to mention that the records contradict each other in some parts (showing Bush serving during a month on one record, and not on another), and contradict past records in other parts (showing Bush attending drills while he was in Texas though past documents say he was not observed on base for the entire year).

The press has been going relatively easy on him so far, accepting the completely false claim that the records “prove” his service (they only prove that he got paid, and many were paid while dodging service). However, that may not last long: many reporters, smelling blood and fear, are rushing out to see if they can find anything else on the story. For example, while Kerry travels regularly with his “Band of Brothers,” not a single Alabama guardsman has stepped forward to say that he even saw Bush. And there may be something to give lie to the released records: Bush is recorded as attending drills just nine days before the election he had come to Alabama for, serving as deputy campaign manager for the Republican candidate. Did Bush really spend that critical weekend of the campaign attending drills? You can bet that reporters are going to check the records on that one.

And to top this all off, Bush still is refusing to sign the necessary documents to release all of his records as he so clearly promised.

So things just keeps getting more intense and mysterious, as Bush and his now-panicking company try vainly to claim that “we’ve answered the questions! We’ve dealt with that! Look over there! Pay attention to something else!”

Want to keep informed? Then be a regular visitor to Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo, and Kevin Drum’s CalPundit, where they keep up with the latest and don’t shy away from calling Bush out when he so blatantly lies.

This ride may just be beginning folks… Hang on!

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