The Press Corps has re-discovered its testicles

[sspadowsky]

They're really raking McClellan over the coals about Dubya's military service. McClellan, in the proud tradition of Ari Fleischer, is doing a very poor job of lying his ass off and trying to dance around the questions, and the Press Corps are not letting him off the hook.

I think the military service issue is going to come back and bite him in the ass big-time, especially with Kerry being the front-runner.

Whatever comes of it, it's reassuring to see the Press Corps asking real questions, rather than sitting there like bovine twits, as they have for the last two-and-a-half years.

[Buffalo Tom]

I lay down a five spot and say that some national tragedy will 'occur' that will make make the press compliant and sheep-like again. Maybe Janet Jackson will show her other boob.

Bring back R Lee Erney.

[theapportioner]

Is a transcript available yet?

[sspadowsky]

BT: I need Chojin to send me the link again.

Spinster: I haven't checked yet. It was still going on when I had to leave for work.

[mburbank]

Bush credited for Guard drills
But time frame leaves questions

By Walter V. Robinson, Globe Staff, 2/10/2004

President Bush received credit for attending Air National Guard drills in the fall of 1972 and spring of 1973 -- a period when his commanders have said he did not appear for duty at bases in Montgomery, Ala., and Houston -- according to two new documents obtained by the Globe.

The personnel records, covering Bush's Guard service between May 1972 and May 1973, constitute the first evidence that Bush appeared for any duty during the first 11 months of that 12-month period. Bush is recorded as having served the minimum number of days expected of Guard members in that 12 months of service time.

One of the documents lists nine service periods of 2 to 3 days each and records the points Bush earned toward his service retirement benefit. The other is a summary of his service in the 12 months beginning May 1972, and lists the same number of service points earned.
View document showing Bush's record
Read more Globe coverage of Bush's military record

Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, said last night that the listing of service dates, which the White House intends to make public today, documents Bush's longstanding assertion that he fulfilled his military obligation.

But the documents seem unlikely to resolve questions about whether Bush shirked his duty during his tour as a fighter-interceptor pilot for the Texas Air Guard during the Vietnam War. That is because some of the dates on the service list fell during a period in the fall of 1972 when Bush was reassigned to a guard unit in Alabama. The commander of the Alabama unit has said Bush did not appear for duty at his assigned unit there.

Bartlett said the Guard drills Bush is listed as attending in January and April 1973 were probably conducted at Bush's home base in Houston. But on May 2, 1973, Bush's two commanders at Ellington Air Force Base wrote that they could not evaluate his performance for the prior 12 months because he had not been there. Two other Bush superiors said in interviews four years ago that they do not believe Bush ever returned to his Houston base from Alabama.

The Globe obtained both of the documents from a political activist who says he acquired them in December 2000 from the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Colorado. The activist, Bob Fertig, is a cofounder of Democrats.com, a website that has no formal affiliation with the Democratic Party.

The document that Bartlett has and plans to release is a short list of retirement points earned by Bush for training days in October and November 1972 and in January, April, and May 1973.

A partial, torn copy of that document was made available to the news media by Bush aides in 2000, when questions about his Guard service were raised. The torn copy listed the number of training days, but showed neither service dates nor Bush's name -- both were in the torn-away portion. But Bush's Social Security number was visible on one copy obtained by the Globe.

No explanation has been offered for how the document was torn or why an undamaged copy was not available in 2000.

The second document, which Bartlett said the White House had not yet obtained, is Bush's personnel record card for the period of May 27, 1972, to May 26, 1973. As is the case with Guard members, Bush, the card shows, was generally given 2 points for each day of weekend training.

But this card, unlike those for the other years of Bush's service, does not itemize Bush's individual day of service; it gives only a total. The personnel record card also indicates that Bush was on flying status, even though he never flew for his unit after April 1972.

Bush, in an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," insisted that he had attended Guard drills during the 12 months beginning May 1972. The president also said that during the 2000 campaign, the Colorado record facility had been "scoured" to ensure that everything had been made public.

And Bush agreed to make public all of his military records. Asked last night whether the White House would authorize the Colorado records facility to make public all of Bush's records, Bartlett said any that are germane would be made public after being reviewed by the White House. On this issue, Bartlett said, the practice has been to release every document.

Bartlett said he could not explain why Fertig's group had access to more documents than the White House.

Fertig called for an independent investigation. Noting that the new documents are contradicted by other public documents, and statements by Bush's Guard superiors, Fertig said the public has a right to know whether Bush received credit for duty he did not perform.

Bush's Guard service began in earnest after he graduated from flight school in November 1969. He then returned to Ellington for six months of training in the F-102 fighter-interceptor, and then from June 1970 until April 1972, he flew frequently.

But the following month, he won permission to move to Alabama for several months to work on the US Senate campaign of Winton Blount, a Republican. In Montgomery, Bush was supposed to do periodic drills with another Guard unit. But its commander has said Bush never appeared. Bush has said he did, but does not recall what duties he performed.

In September 1972, Bush was removed from flight duty for failing to have his annual physical.

According to the two documents, Bush accumulated 41 service points by appearing for duty on 24 days between May 1972 and May 1973. He received 15 "gratuitous" points for being in the military, for a total of 56 points. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Albert. C. Lloyd Jr., a former personnel director for the Texas Air Guard, said in an interview last night that the minimum number of points required for any year was 50, although most Guardsmen logged substantially more.

"The document shows he satisfactorily completed his military obligation for that year," Lloyd said.

Bush's record of days served ran from May to May each year because he entered the Air National Guard in May 1968, just after graduating from Yale.

Other records, which were disclosed four years ago, show that Bush was ordered to appear for a flurry of duty days in May, June, and July 1973 -- orders that Lloyd said in 2000 may have been issued because Bush's commanders realized he had not been fulfilling his requirements. The records obtained yesterday indicate that Bush would not have made his minimum for that year but for seven days of duty in May 1973.

His final duty day was on July 30, 1973, even though he signed a commitment to fly for the unit until November 1974. Bush was granted an "early out" -- not uncommon as the Vietnam War was

[theapportioner]

The Times has a transcript of the Q&A. Yeah, this issue is far from settled...

http://www.nytimes.com

[mburbank]

Here's what I like about this.

The Very best spin you can put on the evidence is that W. fulfilled his service as minimally as possible during war time, avoided a physical for undsiclosed reasons and that no one he served with in Alabama REMEMBERED HIM AT ALL!

I'd have to go back and look at years, but even if his dad wasn't in the Senate at that point, we're still talking a very rich young man from a very famous family and if he's telling the truth he was so utterly bland that no one, not one single person he served with in Alabama can recall having met him even once.

And this is the service W. says he's PROUD of!

Either that or he's a lieing bag of crap who used family ties to keep himself out of a very dangerous war and even then couldn't be bothered to fulfill his duty.

Either way, it's not a pretty picture for commander in chief who's currently sending our soldiers into harms way.

[mburbank]

Here's the transcript I think folks are refering to:

QUESTION: I wasn't talking about that. I was talking about people, you know --

MCCLELLAN: Right.

QUESTION: -- comrades in arms?

MCCLELLAN: No, that's why I said everything that came to our attention that was available, we made available at that time during the 2000 campaign.

QUESTION: Well, you said you were looking for people. And I take it you didn't find any people?

MCCLELLAN: Yes, I mean, obviously we would have made people available [if we'd found any]. ...

QUESTION: Scott, can I follow on this because I do think this is important? You know, it might strike some as odd that there isn't anyone who can stand up and say, "I served with George W. Bush," in Alabama or in Houston in the Guard unit, particularly because there are people, his superiors, who have stepped forward in Alabama and in Houston who have said in the past several years that they have no recollection of him being there and serving. So isn't that odd that nobody -- you can't produce anyone to corroborate what these records. --

MCCLELLAN: We're talking about some 30 years ago. You're perfectly welcome to go back and talk to individuals from that time period.

QUESTION: I would have thought --

MCCLELLAN: But, but these --

QUESTION: -- you guys would have had a real --

MCCLELLAN: These documents -- these documents make it very clear that the president of the United States fulfilled his duties --

QUESTION: Well, that's subject to interpretation.

MCCLELLAN: When you serve, you are paid for that service. And these documents outline the days on which he was paid. That means he served. And these documents also show that he met his requirements. And it's just really a shame that people are continuing to bring this issue up when --

QUESTION: I understand that --

MCCLELLAN: No, no, no. People asked for records to be released that would demonstrate he met his requirements. The records have now been fully released.

QUESTION: (off mike)

MCCLELLAN: The fact -- the facts are clear. The facts are clear.

QUESTION: -- you can't read them. Have you looked at these? I mean, you can't -- how are we supposed to read these?

Here's my take. He never showed up in Alabama, but he did his ttoal hours for the guard, so they pid him and discharged him and didn't make waves becuase of who he was. That by itself is not a big deal. I'm sure a lot of folks sort of greased through at that point in time, and many of them did it becuase they were important people. The Vietnam war was a bad deal and however you kept from going is your own business. Carter pardoned the folks who went to Canada, I don't think W's sketchy performance is anything except kind of lame.

BUT.

He insists he served in Alabama. No one, not one single soul recalls this, and the administration has been looking since W. ran for governor of Texas.

AND

He lost is flight privilidges bcuase he failed to show up for a physical. You know who paid to train him to fly a fighter? Your parents and mine. Other families sacrificed thir kids. W. could have at least taken his service seriously enough not to let his flight certification lapse. It's disrespectful, and it sure as hell isn't anything he ought to be proud of, as McLellan keeps insisting.

That being said, it was 30 years ago, and a man can change a hell of a lot in 30 years. Like his DUI which he admitted in the last election, if Bush woould simply step up, as he had in other instances and say "I wasn't much of a person bck then. I regret that, and I've grown." I wouldn't care. I still wouldn't vote for him, but this wouldn't make an iota of difference to me. It's the sleezy finger pointing way he handles it that speaks to his character.

I'm going to copy this last part into other relevant threads.