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On 10 Sep 2004 05:41:31 -0700, (Riddick) wrote:
Barnes in a 1999 article said he called Guard on Bush's behalf - no
debunking by daughter then?
Barnes says he called Guard on Bush's behalf
By Michael Holmes
Associated Press Writer
Story last updated at 12:10 p.m. on Tuesday, September 28, 1999
AUSTIN, Texas -- The former speaker of the Texas House of
Representatives acknowledged Monday that he called the head of the
Texas Air National Guard in 1968 to recommend George W. Bush for a
pilot slot during the Vietnam War.
But Ben Barnes, who later was lieutenant governor, said the request
for his help came from a Bush family friend -- not Bush or his father,
who then was a congressman.
Yeah, that story is not new. Bush appears to take great comfort in
the fact that it was a family friend and not his father who pulled the
strings with Ben Barnes. No surprise there, really. Bush Sr
obviously called the family friend who acted on his behalf. It is not
surprising that Bush Sr didn't want to directly call a Democratic
politician when he obviously had markers out with others. It all
depends on who owes who favors. I am sure that the family friend
didn't undertake this on his own initiative out of the goodness of his
heart. GWB obviously had "friends in high places" to get moved to the
front of the line, given his commission without any training and sent
directly to flight school. That is one thing, but to be excused from
meeting his minimal obligations to the Guard is another, particularly
when the alternative would have been to actually serve in Vietnam.
"NBC News uncovered footage of President Bush insulting thousands of
Vietnam veterans who were killed or injured in combat. Bush said in
1988 that the government "probably should have called the National
Guard up in those days -- maybe we'd have done better in Vietnam."
Yeah, maybe they should have called up the Champaign Squadron of GWB.
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