QandO

September 08, 2004

Where was George?
Posted by Dale Franks

Nicholas Kristoff decides it's time to look into George W. Bush's attendance record with the National Guard.

Mr. Bush insists that after moving to Alabama in 1972, he served out his obligation at Dannelly Air National Guard Base in Montgomery (although he says he doesn't remember what he did there). The only officer there who recalls Mr. Bush was produced by the White House - he remembers Mr. Bush vividly, but at times when even Mr. Bush acknowledges he wasn't there.

In contrast, Mr. Mintz is a compelling witness. Describing himself as "a very strong military man," he served in the military from 1959 to 1984. A commercial pilot, he is now a Democrat but was a Republican for most of his life, and he is not a Bush-hater. When I asked him whether the National Guard controversy raises questions about Mr. Bush's credibility, Mr. Mintz said only, "That's up to the American people to decide."

In his first interview with a national news organization, Mr. Mintz recalled why he remembered Mr. Bush as a no-show: "Young bachelors were kind of sparse. For that reason, I was looking for someone to haul around with." Why speak out now? He said, "After a lot of soul-searching, I just feel it's my duty to stand up and do the right thing."

Another particularly credible witness is Leonard Walls, a retired Air Force colonel who was then a full-time pilot instructor at the base. "I was there pretty much every day," he said, adding: "I never saw him, and I was there continually from July 1972 to July 1974." Mr. Walls, who describes himself as nonpolitical, added, "If he had been there more than once, I would have seen him."

The sheer volume of missing documents, and missing recollections, strongly suggests to me that Mr. Bush blew off his Guard obligations.

OK, that's fair enough. It does however, leave out a few other witnesses:

There is retired Lt. Col. John “Bill” Calhoun, unit's flight safety officer who told the Associated Press in February that he saw Bush “every drill period” ; Joe LeFevers, another member of the 187th, who told The Birmingham News that he remembered seeing Bush on base and remembered Bush because of his political job at the time on a U.S. Senate campaign; Joe Holcombe, who worked with Bush on the Blount campaign and told a local paper that he remembers Bush missing at least one campaign meeting because of his National Guard drills; James Anderson, who was a physician for the Montgomery-based 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group, who recalls performing a routine examination on Bush at Dannelly Air National Guard base in 1972; and Emily Marks Curtis, who dated Bush while he worked on the 1972 Senate campaign of Winton "Red" Blount, and who told a local paper that Bush had talked of going to Guard duty on the weekends.

Wow. A large group of people have differing recollections about events that happened 35 years ago. That must mean something!

But, there is some documentary evidence, too. Let's not forget the dental records, which indicate, at the very least, that his teeth were assigned to the base, and a dentist looked at them.

Oddly though, and rather conveniently, considering the Old Media coverage of the story today, the DoD now seems to have found more of Mr. Bush's service records.

Months after insisting it could find no more records of President Bush's Air National Guard service, the Defense Department has released more than two dozen pages of files, including Bush's report card for flight training and dates of his flights.

I question the timing.

In any event, Mr. Kristoff continues,

The sheer volume of missing documents, and missing recollections, strongly suggests to me that Mr. Bush blew off his Guard obligations. It's not fair to say Mr. Bush deserted. My sense is that he (like some others at the time) neglected his National Guard obligations, did the bare minimum to avoid serious trouble and was finally let off by commanders who considered him a headache but felt it wasn't worth the hassle to punish him.

Now, we get to what Mr. Kristoff has been saving for us. A detailed "analysis" of Mr. Bush's service record.

"The record clearly and convincingly proves he did not fulfill the obligations he incurred when he enlisted in the Air National Guard," writes Gerald Lechliter, a retired Army colonel who has made the most meticulous examination I've seen of Mr. Bush's records (I've posted the full 32-page analysis here). Mr. Lechliter adds that Mr. Bush received unauthorized or fraudulent payments that breached National Guard rules, according to the documents that the White House itself released.

Mr. Lechliter can assert anything he wishes, but, with so many documents missing, it's odd that he can be so sure in his conclusions. In every case in his "analysis" where he finds a missing document, Mr. Lechliter concludes it means that Mr. Bush failed to meet his obligations.

That's not an analysis. That's a brief for the prosecution. And even prosecutors know that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Unless, of course, it's politically convenient.

Does this disqualify Mr. Bush from being commander in chief? No. But it should disqualify the Bush campaign from sliming the military service of a rival who still carries shrapnel from Vietnam in his thigh.

Oh, please. Mr. Bush is not responsible for everything Mr. Kerry's detractors say. Pretending otherwise is disingenuous. Mr. Bush has never questioned Mr. Kerry's military service, nor, as far as I am aware, has anyone on the Bush Campaign. It is dishonest to pretend otherwise.

The people who have questioned Mr. Kerry's service record are his fellow veterans, all of whom, by the way, served full tours--or multiple tours--in Vietnam, unlike Mr. Kerry. They are seriously PO'd at Mr. Kerry, and they need no help from Mr. Bush. Indeed, I suspect they would reject any attempted hindrance by him.

Clearly, the Old Media insiders are tryng to run a Swiftvet hit against Mr. Bush. Visions of a bad September for Mr. Bush, to balance out Mr. Kerry's bad August are dancing in their heads.

It won't happen though. The voters have already looked at this stuff, and dismissed it as irrelevant. Bush isn't using his service in the Guard to bolster his qualifications as president. Apparently, he feels that comfortable running on the four years he's already spent as president. Moreover, whatever the truth was about his appearance at his scheduled UTAs, he has an Honorable Disharge in his hot little hand to show that the US Air Force didn't think it was a big deal.

But, please, Dems, spend all the time you want talking about this. Oh, and Cheney's ties to Halliburton. You should make a big stink about that. too. And while you're at it, more of the "Bush Lied, People Died" stuff would be good.

Don't worry about trying to provide any clarity about Mr. Kerry's position on Iraq, or the war on terror. Don't worry about giving us a vision of what a Kerry presidency would be like. No, stick with stuff like this. Pound away at it for the next 8 weeks.

Give me a call on 3 November, and let me know how that worked out for you.

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