BLOW MONKEY GOES AWOL
The
Boston Globe ran a Shrub-unfriendly story entitled
1-year gap in Bush's Guard duty on May 23 that's only
gained legs in the "liberal" media in the last couple of days.
On at least two separate occasions, the war hero (who valiantly saved
Texas from an invasion from Oklahoma during his National
Guard years) has claimed that he flew an F-102
fighter-interceptor airplane from the time he completed his
pilot training in June 1970 until he was discharged in October
1973.
According to the Globe:
But both accounts are contradicted by copies of
Bush's military records, obtained by the Globe. In his
final 18 months of military service in 1972 and 1973,
Bush did not fly at all. And for much of that time,
Bush was all but unaccounted for: For a full year,
there is no record that he showed up for the periodic
drills required of part-time guardsmen.
So what was the Shrub - who declined to be interviewed for
the article - doing at the time (other than attending Hunter
S. Thompson's Super Bowl drugfest)?
From May to November 1972, Bush was in Alabama
working in a US Senate campaign, and was required
to attend drills at an Air National Guard unit in
Montgomery. But there is no evidence in his record
that he did so. And William Turnipseed, the retired
general who commanded the Alabama unit back then,
said in an interview last week that Bush never
appeared for duty there.
After the election, Bush returned to Houston. But
seven months later, in May 1973, his two superior
officers at Ellington Air Force Base could not perform
his annual evaluation covering the year from May 1,
1972 to April 30, 1973 because, they wrote, ''Lt. Bush
has not been observed at this unit during the period of
this report.''
And what do the Shrubhandlers have to say?
Various things:
[Shrub] recalls coming back to Houston
and doing [Guard] duty, though he does not recall if it
was on a consistent basis.''
[Shrub] fulfilled all of his
requirements in the Guard. If he missed any drills,
he made them up later on.
While I'm sure he made something up, I doubt it was the drills.
If Shrub did skip the National Guard drills, then under the rules
in effect at the time he could be reported to the Selective Service
Board and inducted into the Army as a draftee.
The remainder of the article offers further details on the Shrub's
missing years. It should be noted that the period in question, i.e.
1972-1973, includes a period from late 1972 through early 1973
during which his autobiography says he held a "civilian job"
working for an inner-city, poverty program in Houston.
This is also the period during which J. H. Hatfield's
Fortunate Son claims Shrub got busted for at least cocaine
possession, with the "civilian job" being more accurately described
as community service.
So what is the sum total of what the witnesses (except for Shrub
whose spokestoady stated that "he does not recall if it [i.e. duty]
was on a consistent basis) and evidence
have to say?
From the Alabama National Guard unit, both retired General Turnipseed and Kenneth
Lott - his
administrative assistant at the time - have no recall of Bush
ever reporting in Alabama during that period.
And, from the Texas Air Guard unit from which Bush transferred
to Alabama, a retired official has stated, "We cannot find the
records to show he fulfilled the requirements in Alabama."
Also, while his discharge papers list his service and duty station
for each of his first four years in the Guard, there is not record
of any training listed after May 1972 and no mention of any
service in Alabama.
That is,
The records for that time are as blank as Bush's memory probably
is. (Remember, it was the Shrub who made the bold anti-drug
statement that he didn't use any illegal drugs "after 1974," an
odd statement if one was proudly clean and wanted everyone
to know about it.)
So what are the Shrub spinsters doing about this?
What else? Wrap him in flags and war heroes.
First, they set up a meeting with Colin Powell during which the
man who would have run against Clinton in 1996 if he'd have
had any political differences made the appropriate soothing
noises, i.e. he didn't punch Gov. Blow Monkey in the nose.
Then they got their (as
AMPOL put it) "recently purchased
War Hero" John McCain to state:
I have no reason to believe the story is true, and I honor the men who served in the
National Guard.
McCain didn't offer any reasons why the story of one man
who served in the Guard and left with strange blanks in his
official record should be believed over the story of two of his
superiors whose Guard records are spotless.
Nor did he offer any explanation for the blanks in the official
record. All he did was make solemn-sounding
noises that implicitly smeared Turnipseed and Lott.
Needless to say, if Clinton had been born with a silver spoon in his
mouth (i.e. had a daddy powerful enough to guarantee him
no-danger service stateside during Vietnam, i.e. plausible
deniability against the accusation of being a draft dodger) and had a similarly
incomplete record, it would be trumpeted as proof that he was on
the Kremlin's payroll and a crack pusher (i.e. pretty much the
same accusations his "dishonorable" avoidance method got him).
Why should the Shrub get any easier of a ride, especially given
his low- or zero-tolerance of anyone else who makes
mistakes of the "youthfully indiscreet" variety? If he wants to
put cocaine users in jail for 10 to 25 years for the same sort of
thing for which he got a slap on the wrist, then Mr. Compassionate
Conservative should at
least be made a little uncomfortable about it.
posted by Steven Baum
6/5/2000 04:20:20 PM |
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