Modulator

awol's pass may be revoked this time around

Perhaps this time around bush's military record (or lack thereof) will see the light of day in complete detail.

It looks like the dems are going to keep active in the media:

Mr. McAuliffe criticized President Bush on his attendance for National Guard service during the Vietnam War. The comments delineated a line of attack that Senator John Kerry, the front-runner in the campaign and a decorated war veteran, may adopt should he be the party's nominee and face Mr. Bush in a one-on-one race.

Jack Balkin has some thoughts on this here:

Instead of cowering in the corner when the media said that the charge of desertion was false, Terry McAuliffe is raising the more plausible question whether the President was AWOL while in Alabama. Nevertheless, it is particularly strange to me that McAuliffe chose to break this story on Super Bowl Sunday, which is not a good time to cover a political event.

and quotes extensively from a 2000 NYT article that suggests bush should be cut some slack on this. However there is this:

Mr. Bush went to work for Winton M. Blount a few days after Mr. Blount won the Republican primary in Alabama on May 2, 1972.

From that time until after the election that November, Mr. Bush did not appear for duty, even after being told to report for training with an Alabama unit in October and November.

Mr. Bartlett said Mr. Bush had been too busy with the campaign to report in those months but made up the time later.

It seems to be that if you have been told to report for duty and you don't show up that is a pretty good description of AWOL. It certainly was when I was in the service.

It might be worth some journalistic time to look more closely at exactly how bush got into the Air National Guard. For instance how well did w match up with the requirements that everyone else had to meet?

As mentioned in the last post honesty is a good policy. And for governments and those wanting to play with other folk's lives honesty and complete transparency are mandatory.

Posted by Steve on February 1, 2004