So it turns out the forger of the CBS memos was a guy named Bill Burkett who’s had a longtime grudge against the Bush family; the proof is a leak from CBS and the fact that Burkett has hired a lawyer. It turns out that I went to college at the University of Texas at Austin with his lawyer, David Van Os, where we were classmates in the elite Plan II program that produced such luminaries as Kinky Friedman and Mike (“Godwin’s Law”) Godwin. Here’s his statement on the forgery:
CBS has refused to say how it obtained the documents. But one person at CBS, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed a report in Newsweek that Bill Burkett, a retired National Guard officer who has charged that senior aides to then-Governor Bush had ordered Guard officials to remove damaging information from Mr. Bush’s military personnel files, had been a source of the report. This person did not know the exact role he played.
Mr. Burkett declined to return telephone calls to his home near Abilene, Tex. His lawyer, David Van Os, on Tuesday repeatedly refused to say in a telephone interview whether the officer had played a part in supplying the disputed documents to CBS. Mr. Van Os said “the real story is and should be, where was George Bush?” and that Mr. Burkett “is not the proper object of attention.”
Mr. Van Os called Mr. Burkett “a man of impeccable honesty who would not permit himself to be a party to anything fake, fraudulent or phony.” He also said, in response to questions, and stressing that he was speaking only hypothetically, “If Bill Burkett were to later discover that something he was a party to were fake or phony, as a man of honor who lives by a code of honor of the military, he would not permit the falsity to continue.” But, the lawyer hastened to add, “This is not intended to be any kind of specific statement.”
Asked what role Mr. Burkett had in raising questions about Mr. Bush’s military service, Mr. Van Os said: “If, hypothetically, Bill Burkett or anyone else, any other individual, had prepared or had typed on a word processor as some of the journalists are presuming, without much evidence, if someone in the year 2004 had prepared on a word processor replicas of documents that they believed had existed in 1972 or 1973 – which Bill Burkett has absolutely not done” – then, he continued, “what difference would it make?”
David’s statement doesn’t strike me as terribly compelling, since the story is no longer about Bush’s National Guard service, which we all know was less than spectacular, as much as it’s about the measures that Dan Rather and CBS were willing to take to help John Kerry get elected.
David’s running for Supreme Court in Texas this year, and this exposure isn’t going to help him; it’s killed Rather’s ratings already. David, if you see this, drop me a note and let’s talk.
So…did Bush get suspended from flying for not showing up to a physical exam that was required by the military ?
It doesn’t matter, little dude. Bush has a record as Commander-in-Chief to run on, and nobody cares what he did when he was in kingergarten.
Now the fact that the Kerry campaign is so desperate that they’re willing to forge documents to get some attention on their petty issues is news, however.
so it’s the Kerry campaign who forged documents, goofy dude ? how’s that work again ?
the answer is: George did not show up for a physical examination that was required, by the military, so he could help some family friend lose an election.
p.s. this was also the same time Cheney had Other Important Things to Do(tm) than even come close to joining the military in a time of war.
the Reps can dish it, they just can’t take it. fuck the fonts and the typesetter bullshit, we’ll see what your man is made of come September 30. Kerry went into the debates with Weld at the bottom of the barrel, then proceeded to hand him his ass. I suspect the same will happen again this time around.
The documents are still phony.
Mike, if you think Kerry is going to pull this out with some dazzling display at the debates, well, you had better have a quiet retreat prepared for that next morning. It doesn’t matter if they put a hatrack up in Bush’s spot, all Kerry needs to do to sink his chances is show his face and bleat his bleats on national TV for a few minutes. His positions are completely contradictory on EVERYTHING. That is why he can’t stay on message. There is no message, just a 60 cycle hum. If you want to bet on that prediction, write me directly. Seriously.
contradictory ?
by that, do you mean something like saying:
“We will set Medicare on firm financial ground and make prescription drugs available and affordable for every senior who needs them.”
and then turning around and bringing on a new prescription drug law that covers less than a fourth of the total drug costs of the elderly and disabled, actually reducing drug benefits for millions currently covered by both Medicare and Medicaid, and prohibits Medicare from negotiating with drug companies for lower prices ?
you mean like that ?
In what parallel uiniverse do you live, Mike?
I live on Earth, where Kerry will make Bush stammer his way thru his seventh-grade grammer and second-grade social studies at the debates.
Playing the Bubba worked the first time around, but even Bubbas aren’t dumb enough to re-elect a Republican who made government *bigger* during his term, made healthcare more expensive during his term, and continues to send boys to fight a country who doesn’t want us there, doesn’t have any weapons to hit the US with, doesn’t have any links to Al Qaeda, and doesn’t have a plan to get out.
But that’s ok, go on ahead and live in your universe, where the whining continues about how great the school and business building is going in Iraq.
What part of “the US has zero control of Ramadi, Baquba, Samarra, and Fallujah” is so hard to understand ?
Bush’s may be “seventh-grade”, but I suspect he at least knows how to spell the word ‘grammar’. Mike writes as if he dropped out after repeating third and fourth grade. I particularly like the end of the second paragraph, where the 4th “doesn’t” has a completely different subject (Bush) from the first three (Iraq). Way to ruin a rhetorical climax, Mike! I could go on, but it would be too cruel.
Of course, I don’t normally criticize other commenters’ spelling and grammar, but when one writes so badly while sneering at someone else’s grammar, there is no reason to cut him any slack at all.
I stand corrected. I have no excuses for my grammar.
Here’s some excellent facts about Bush’s Guard history to make up for it:
(copied and pasted from a story today by Eric Boehlert)
# Bush flew for the last time on April 16, 1972. Upon entering the Guard, Bush agreed to fly for 60 months. After his training was complete, he owed 53 months of flying.
But he flew for only 22 of those 53 months.
# Upon being accepted for pilot training, Bush promised to serve with his parent (Texas) Guard unit for five years once he completed his pilot training.
But Bush served as a pilot with his parent unit for just two years.
# In May 1972 Bush left the Houston Guard base for Alabama. According to Air Force regulations, Bush was supposed to obtain prior authorization before leaving Texas to join a new Guard unit in Alabama.
But Bush failed to get the authorization.
# In requesting a permanent transfer to a nonflying unit in Alabama in 1972, Bush was supposed to sign an acknowledgment that he received relocation counseling.
But no such document exists.
# He was supposed to receive a certification of satisfactory participation from his unit.
But Bush did not.
# He was supposed to sign and give a letter of resignation to his Texas unit commander.
But Bush did not.
# He was supposed to receive discharge orders from the Texas Air National Guard adjutant general.
But Bush did not.
# He was supposed to receive new assignment orders for the Air Force Reserves.
But Bush did not.
# On his transfer request Bush was asked to list his “permanent address.”
But he wrote down a post office box number for the campaign he was working for on a temporary basis.
# On his transfer request Bush was asked to list his Air Force specialty code.
But Bush, an F-102 pilot, erroneously wrote the code for an F-89 or F-94 pilot. Both planes had been retired from service at the time. Bush, an officer, made this mistake more than once on the same form.
# On May 26, 1972, Lt. Col. Reese Bracken, commander of the 9921st Air Reserve Squadron at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, informed Bush that a transfer to his nonflying unit would be unsuitable for a fully trained pilot such as he was, and that Bush would not be able to fulfill any of his remaining two years of flight obligation.
But Bush pressed on with his transfer request nonetheless.
# Bush’s transfer request to the 9921st was eventually denied by the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver, which meant he was still obligated to attend training sessions one weekend a month with his Texas unit in Houston.
But Bush failed to attend weekend drills in May, June, July, August and September. He also failed to request permission to make up those days at the time.
# According to Air Force regulations, “[a] member whose attendance record is poor must be closely monitored. When the unexcused absences reach one less than the maximum permitted [sic] he must be counseled and a record made of the counseling. If the member is unavailable he must be advised by personal letter.”
But there is no record that Bush ever received such counseling, despite the fact that he missed drills for months on end.
# Bush’s unit was obligated to report in writing to the Personnel Center at Randolph Air Force Base whenever a monthly review of records showed unsatisfactory participation for an officer.
But his unit never reported Bush’s absenteeism to Randolph Air Force Base.
# In July 1972 Bush failed to take a mandatory Guard physical exam, which is a serious offense for a Guard pilot. The move should have prompted the formation of a Flying Evaluation Board to investigation the circumstances surrounding Bush’s failure.
But no such FEB was convened.
# Once Bush was grounded for failing to take a physical, his commanders could have filed a report on why the suspension should be lifted.
But Bush’s commanders made no such request.
# On Sept. 15, 1972, Bush was ordered to report to Lt. Col. William Turnipseed, the deputy commander of the 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group in Montgomery, Ala., to participate in training on the weekends of Oct. 7-8 and Nov. 4-5, 1972.
But there’s no evidence Bush ever showed up on those dates. In 2000, Turnipseed told the Boston Globe that Bush did not report for duty. (A self-professed Bush supporter, Turnipseed has since backed off from his categorical claim.)
# However, according to the White House-released pay records, which are unsigned, Bush was credited for serving in Montgomery on Oct. 28-29 and Nov. 11-14, 1972. Those makeup dates should have produced a paper trail, including Bush’s formal request as well as authorization and supervision documents.
But no such documents exist, and the dates he was credited for do not match the dates when the Montgomery unit assembled for drills.
# When Guardsmen miss monthly drills, or “unit training assemblies” (UTAs), they are allowed to make them up through substitute service and earn crucial points toward their service record. Drills are worth one point on a weekday and two points on each weekend day. For Bush’s substitute service on Nov. 13-14, 1972, he was awarded four points, two for each day.
But Nov. 13 and 14 were both weekdays. He should have been awarded two points.
# Bush earned six points for service on Jan. 4-6, 1973 — a Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
But he should have earned four points, one each for Thursday and Friday, two for Saturday.
# Weekday training was the exception in the Guard. For example, from May 1968 to May 1972, when Bush was in good standing, he was not credited with attending a single weekday UTA.
But after 1972, when Bush’s absenteeism accelerated, nearly half of his credited UTAs were for weekdays.
# To maintain unit cohesiveness, the parameters for substitute service are tightly controlled; drills must be made up within 15 days immediately before, or 30 days immediately after, the originally scheduled drill, according to Guard regulations at the time.
But more than half of the substitute service credits Bush received fell outside that clear time frame. In one case, he made up a drill nine weeks later.
# On Sept. 29, 1972, Bush was formally grounded for failing to take a flight physical. The letter, written by Maj. Gen. Francis Greenlief, chief of the National Guard Bureau, ordered Bush to acknowledge in writing that he had received word of his grounding.
But no such written acknowledgment exists. In 2000, Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett told the Boston Globe that Bush couldn’t remember if he’d ever been grounded.
# Bartlett also told the Boston Globe that Bush didn’t undergo a physical while in Alabama because his family doctor was in Houston.
But only Air Force flight surgeons can give flight physicals to pilots.
# Guard members are required to take a physical exam every 12 months.
But Bush’s last Guard physical was in May 1971. Bush was formally discharged from the service in November 1974, which means he went without a required physical for 42 months.
# Bush’s unsatisfactory participation in the fall of 1972 should have prompted the Texas Air National Guard to write to his local draft board and inform the board that Bush had become eligible for the draft. Guard units across the country contacted draft boards every Sept. 15 to update them on the status of local Guard members. Bush’s absenteeism should have prompted what’s known as a DD Form 44, “Record of Military Status of Registrant.”
But there is no record of any such document having been sent to Bush’s draft board in Houston.
# Records released by the White House note that Bush received a military dental exam in Alabama on Jan. 6, 1973.
But Bush’s request to serve in Alabama covered only September, October and November 1972. Why he would still be serving in Alabama months after that remains unclear.
# Each of Bush’s numerous substitute service requests should have formed a lengthy paper trail consisting of AF Form 40a’s, with the name of the officer who authorized the training in advance, the signature of the officer who supervised the training and Bush’s own signature.
But no such documents exist.
# During his last year with the Texas Air National Guard, Bush missed nearly two-thirds of his mandatory UTAs and made up some of them with substitute service. Guard regulations allowed substitute service only in circumstances that are “beyond the control” of the Guard member.
But neither Bush nor the Texas Air National Guard has ever explained what the uncontrollable circumstances were that forced him to miss the majority of his assigned drills in his last year.
# Bush supposedly returned to his Houston unit in April 1973 and served two days.
But at the end of April, when Bush’s Texas commanders had to rate him for their annual report, they wrote that they could not do so: “Lt. Bush has not been observed at this unit during the period of this report.”
# On June 29, 1973, the Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver instructed Bush’s commanders to get additional information from his Alabama unit, where he had supposedly been training, in order to better evaluate Bush’s duty. The ARPC gave Texas a deadline of Aug. 6 to get the information.
But Bush’s commanders ignored the request.
# Bush was credited for attending four days of UTAs with his Texas unit July 16-19, 1973. That was good for eight crucial points.
But that’s not possible. Guard units hold only two UTAs each month — one on a Saturday and one on a Sunday. Although Bush may well have made up four days, they should not all have been counted as UTAs, since they occur just twice a month. The other days are known as “Appropriate Duty,” or APDY.
# On July 30, 1973, Bush, preparing to attend Harvard Business School, signed a statement acknowledging it was his responsibility to find another unit in which to serve out the remaining nine months of his commitment.
But Bush never contacted another unit in Massachusetts in which to fulfill his obligation.
Despite the laundry list of Guard discrepancies, Bush, when asked about his service this weekend, insisted, “I did everything [my superiors] asked me to do.”
What kind of person pastes 1705 words into someone else’s comment section instead of just giving the link? Someone who has forgotten everything he ever learned in grade school — not only ‘grammer’ but playing well with others, being fair to them, and respecting their property. It looks like Mike spent his kindergarten years putting all the other kids’ crayons in the sun to watch them melt and stealing their lunches when they weren’t looking. Am I being rude? Not half so rude as Mike.
Mike, you’re going to have to behave yourself better or I’ll have to kick you out. Read and follow the directions in Dr. Weevil’s last comment.
There was a reason I didn’t post a URL. I didn’t give the link because it was under a Salon.com subscription, and I doubt that either Richard or Dr Weevil would be 1 – paying for a salon.com subscription, or 2 – willing to sit through the WallStreetJournal ultra-mercial and thereby giving salon.com the revenue. Maybe I’m wrong, and you would have sat through it.
But it’s Richard’s blog, so I apologize. It’s not like any opposing points are ever recognized as being valid here anyway. Sorry Richard, I’ll go hobbling back into my liberal hole where I assume you’d like me to stay.
That’s cool, Mike, just cite the source and explain. You don’t have to go away.