Wednesday, September 08, 2004

60 Minutes Takes Bush to Task

CBS's 60 Minutes poses new questions about Bushs Guard duty which the Administration is not likely to be able to play down. Following the release of this segment, the White House quietly released a series of key memos related to Bush's Guard service which they had previously denied existed. The Administration lied about FOIA-covered documents, though they claim the files came from the file of the document's author and were not in Bush's file. The more likely explaination is the documents were in both files and were destroyed or removed in Bush's file, and overlooked in Killian's own file. This is a crime, and it is high time this Administration's long list of crimes came home to roost.

Keep your eyes on the ball. The issue is the Administration's witholding of key documents and the simple fact the Bush did not complete his Guard duty. In essence, Bush is AWOL. There is no statute of limitations on the violation and Bush's certainly aggravated by the length of time. He could be dishonorably discharged and jailed for up to a year. Ironically, should Bush be subject to court martial for his offense, he would come under the jurisdiction of the military courts, which are headed by the Commander in Chief, himself. Of course, such a conflict of interest would likely have to be remedied by his resignation from the Presidency or his impeachment.

The documents are the smoking gun. Unfortunately, Ben Barnes is gumming up the story. His claim that he used improper influence to secure a Gaurd posting for Bush is completely beside the point. But the GOP will try to focus the entire story on Barnes' testimony and try to assassinate his character as a shorthand for a denial of the underlying facts of Bush's unfinished Guard obligations. It is the only avenue open to them to defend the indefensable.

RNC Chairman Gillespie sent a letter out earlier, spinning wildly to contain the damage. He too hangs his hat squarely on the person and character of Barnes, ignoring the larger and more important issues, lying outrageously, and even going so far as to resurrect charges that Bush abused cocaine:


September 8, 2004
To: Bush-Cheney '04 Grassroots Team
From: Ed Gillespie, Republican National Committee Chairman
Subject: Brace Yourselves


In response to President Bush's Agenda for America's Future and a critique of his policies and Senate record, Senator Kerry's campaign is implementing a strategy of vicious personal attacks against the President and Vice President.

The campaign is bringing in a bevy of former Clinton henchmen, including CNN commentators James Carville and Paul Begala. In August alone, Begala called President Bush a "gutless wonder," said he has a "lack of intelligence," and called Vice President Cheney a "dirt bag." Carville said the President is "ignorant big time" and said "George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are a couple of nobodies."

It's not like Bob Shrum needed encouragement to engage in personal attacks. At a Kerry rally Friday morning in Ohio, campaign surrogate John Glenn compared the Republican Convention to a Nazi rally, and Kerry called the President unfit to lead our nation and once again sought to divide the country by who served and how 35 years ago.

Of course, the President was called a "cheap thug," a "killer" and a "liar" at a Kerry-Edwards campaign event in New York, Mrs. Kerry has called the President's policies "unpatriotic" and "immoral" and DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe falsely accused the President of being AWOL.

Democratic strategist Susan Estrich outlined the strategy last Wednesday in a column warning Republicans to "watch out." "I'm not promising pretty," she wrote before going on to call President Bush and Vice President Cheney alcoholics, then ask "is any alcoholic ever really cured?" ("I can see the ad now.") She deems the President's service as a National Guard fighter pilot "draft dodging," and says, "a forthcoming book by Kitty Kelly raises questions about whether the President has practiced what he preaches on the issue of abortion." (Interestingly, the New York Daily News reported back in February that the Kerry campaign intended to spread such a rumor in pro-life chat rooms late in the campaign.)

So the former Dukakis campaign manager has an advance copy of Democrat donor Kitty Kelly's book, which promises to throw unsubstantiated gossip at President Bush in the same way she falsely maligned the late President Reagan as a date rapist who paid for a girlfriend's abortion and wrongly castigated Nancy Reagan as an adulterer who had an affair with Frank Sinatra. A recent story says Kelly's book alleges President Bush used cocaine at Camp David while his father was President, which is as credible as her story that then Governor and Nancy Reagan smoked marijuana with Jack Benny and George and Gracie Burns.

And tonight on CBS, longtime Democratic operative Ben Barnes-a friend of, major contributor to and Nantucket neighbor of Senator Kerry's and vice chair of the Kerry Campaign--will repudiate his statement under oath that he had no contact with the Bush family concerning the President's National Guard service. [emphasis added - Ed.] (Anyone surprised that Barnes would contradict a statement he made under oath probably doesn't know his long history of political scandal and financial misdealings.)

So brace yourselves. Any mention of John Kerry's votes for higher taxes and against vital weapons programs will be met with the worst kind of personal attacks. Such desperation is unbecoming of American Presidential politics, and Senator Kerry will pay a price for it at the polls as we stay focused on policies to continue growing our economy and winning the War on Terror.


The Bush Administration is playing rope-a-dope in hopes of waiting out the clock and throwing the decision to the judges - and we know what happens then. It is up to you to keep the media on the right track. Hold them to the real story and prevent the Administration from distracting people from theie vulnerable points. This is it. This is the election. If people succeed in making the Bush's failure to complete his service stick, he loses. If we fail and allow them to slime out of this, Bush can win, or get close enough to winning to steal it. Simple as that.

Get on the phone. Better, get in the car. Talk to the editors of your local papers, the news director of your local television stations. Call the editors of the national media you consume, newpapers, television, cable, magazines, web. Let them know that you demand answers. Why were these memos withheld? Why didn't Bush finish his Guard service? That's all that matters. This is a gift from the gods intent on savings us from another disasterous Bush Presidency. Don't blow it.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home




Feeds:
RSS/Atom Feed Site Meter
Powered by Blogger