posted on November 2, 2000 10:11:13 PM new
I don't think it will effect the election, but what else is he hiding?
Does anyone know anything about Bush being AWOL from the military after he enlisted? I'm sure it must only be a rumor because I think that would be a felony and he wouldn't be able to run for office.
posted on November 3, 2000 08:03:36 AM new
From the timing, sounds like Gore and the Gang are a tad nervous. It's hard to work up any outrage over an ancient DUI. After Clinton's antics, I've been immunized...
posted on November 3, 2000 08:14:26 AM new
Me too, toke. If that is all they can come up with------oh well.
I saw the reporter on tv last night who got the scoop. Sounds very suspicious to me. I don't think Ted Kopel gave it much credence. Anyone notice the look on his face and the tone in his voice after she answered how she got the information?
posted on November 3, 2000 08:20:44 AM newFrom the timing, sounds like Gore and the Gang are a tad nervous. It's hard to work up any outrage over an ancient DUI. After Clinton's antics, I've been immunized...
I agree. A DUI is a serious matter to be sure. But let's be realistic here. This was 20 some years ago. When we compare that to a sitting president who lies under oath, and a vice president who supported him until it became damaging to his own political aspirations, it's a no-brainer. Gotta go with Dubya.
posted on November 3, 2000 12:02:24 PM new
Moreover, GDB pleaded guilty, paid the penalty, and didn't rely on his parents' influence to weasel him out (I understand George and Bar actually thanked the arresting officer). There was no attempt at cover-up. And GDB's been dry for decades, so it sounds like he eventually learned his lesson.
This is a tad bit different from skirting the truth with semantic acrobatics - and frankly, if all they can come up with is a 20+ year-old DUI....hmm....
Anybody seen the "Maine Democrat activist" who unearthed the story? Creepy guy. I feel worse for the Gore team than for Bush in this matter. Gore et al. may not have leaked the story, but they sure smell a bit funny now.
posted on November 3, 2000 01:51:28 PM new
So sorry, krs. My coordination isn't what it should be today. Of course I meant GWB. I'm surprised you of all people were so baffled you couldn't figure that out from the context.
Okay, how about "for nearly a decade and a half"?
Now, since I've corrected my hideously glaring errors, perhaps you could address the substance of the issue...
posted on November 3, 2000 03:17:56 PM new
Personally, I would not put it past 'Bush the Younger' to have 'leaked' the story himself in hopes it would look as if Gores' camp did the deed.
noteye
A sad Texan once commented "I Wish it would rain, not so much for myself, I have seen rain before. But, for my 10 year old son."
posted on November 3, 2000 05:53:19 PM new
For my 2 cents - As a democrat, I switched my mind yesterday to vote for Bush because of the inappropriate timing of the DUI information. He had a DUI 24 years ago, he stopped drinking 14 years ago. If the Gore people wanted to start something on him, they should have done it months ago. Smacks of Clinton tactics to me.
posted on November 3, 2000 09:13:52 PM new
I don't know..anybody think there might be a connection between this leak and Bush calling that reporter an as*hole (while Bush was standing in front of a live microphone)?
posted on November 3, 2000 09:50:20 PM new
Geesh! He gets a DUI at thirty and then it takes him TEN more years to decide to quit drinking? Wonder how many more times he drove drunk in that time and didn't get caught?
I would not put it past the Bush camp to leak it themselves either.
Does anyone remember that it was Republicans that started the whole gun control issue after Regan almost got it? Why is it now a Democrat issue?
posted on November 3, 2000 11:00:30 PM new "Does anyone know anything about Bush being AWOL from the military after he enlisted? I'm sure it must only be a rumor because I think that would be a felony and he wouldn't be able to run for office."
The report I found (I think it was the MSNBC site) said that although he left the guard to return to college about six months shy of finishing his committment there, according to the National, it was as much a favor to the guard who needed to free spots to recruit F-101 pilots from the Air Force as it was for Bush who wanted to return to college. They also said that Bush's unit was changing airplanes at the time, from the single-seat F-102 to the dual-seat F-101 - that it made little sense to hold him there idle and that it was no at all unusual to make those kind of decisions.
I thought it was notable also that while he was with the guard Bush signed up to participate in a program called the Palace Alert, which eventually rotated nine pilots from his unit into duty in Southeast Asia from 1969 to 1970. He was never allowed to participate because he lacked the required flying hours. The reporter also said that the more experienced guard members thought that he was nuts for volunteering for something so risky that he didn't have to sign up for. I think there was a similar article on the Dallas Morning News Web site.
Back on topic, I wonder why it's difficult to believe that Bush simply didn't want his daughters to know this detail of his life. If I had a DUI I would be so embarassed that I'd probably move hell and high water to keep my kids from ever knowing about it.
posted on November 3, 2000 11:13:37 PM new
Not quite.
"Kerrey expressed disgust yesterday at evidence that George W. Bush sidestepped National Guard duty for months in 1972 and 1973, a
lapse that Kerrey said amounts to Bush being AWOL - absent without leave. [Kerry,] who won the nation's highest award for heroism as a Navy SEAL in a 1969 action that cost him part
of his right leg, said he is amazed that Bush's military service has escaped any real scrutiny....Referring to Bush's attacks on Gore's character, Kerrey said the Texas governor has a moral
obligation of his own to search his conscience and answer questions about where he was when he was supposed to be attending National Guard training. ''For someone who wants to be
commander in chief, this stinks,'' Kerrey declared. 'I can understand if he forgot a weekend. But 18 months?'...'It upsets me,' Kerrey said in an interview reported by the Boston Globe ,
'when someone says, `Vote for me, I was in the military,' when in fact he got into the military in order to avoid serving in the military, to avoid service that might have taken him into the war.
And then he didn't even show up for duty.''' --Politex, 11/2/00"
posted on November 3, 2000 11:15:12 PM new
and apparently:
"Sources told MSNBC.com’s Jeannette Walls that Bush associates had been worried for several years about his arrest record and had hoped that because it was in
Maine,
and not Texas, it wouldn’t surface. The sources said Bush took one step to keep it under wraps in March 1995, when his driver’s license number was changed.
Walls first reported this in
August 1999 in The Scoop, an MSNBC.com column. At the time, the sources told Walls that Bush got his license number changed because he was worried about
an arrest record surfacing.
“He has an arrest record that has to do with drinking,” a source said then. “He’s worried it will come out, but his handlers keep assuring him it won’t.”
The allegation was not disclosed by MSNBC.com at the time because the arrest could not be confirmed. Also in August 1999, the Texas Department of Motor
Vehicles told
MSNBC.com that changing one’s driver’s license number was “highly unusual” and that it is done only when the holder of the license can prove that someone is
using the license number
for illegal activities. Repeated calls to Bush’s camp back at the time were unanswered, until a spokeswoman for Bush said the motor vehicle agency would have an
additional comment. An
agency spokesman then called MSNBC and said Bush’s license number was changed for “security measures.” He declined to comment further. In light of Bush’s
admission of his arrest, a
second source said Friday: “Bush’s people didn’t want to comment [in August 1999] because they didn’t want to be on the record lying or misleading anyone about
this.”
. “A lot of people had heard about [Bush’s arrest record], but they were looking for documents or some sort of evidence in Texas,” the second source said. Bush’s
camp
“was keeping their fingers crossed that nothing would come out because the record was in Maine and Bush’s license number had been changed.” Neither of Walls’
sources is connected to
Gore’s campaign or to the Democratic Party. --MSNBC,11/3/00"
posted on November 3, 2000 11:27:30 PM new
And since W.C.Fields advised: "Never trust a man who doesn't drink", rest easy in the knowledge that Dick Cheney has been arrested twice for DWI, in 1960 and 1963.
posted on November 3, 2000 11:32:19 PM newKrs I've heard Kerrys story before but hasn't it been decided that he wasn't there - didn't have any way of knowing the details of Bush situation? Also, I read that he only left a few months (around 6 or 7) early and that was definitely from National Guard records.
I'm too sleepy - maybe I'll have time to search tomorrow. But, I'll bet ya a buck Kerry's take is wrong.
Going to tuck myself in now.
BTW, OF COURSE Bush tried to cover it up - that's the point of the hoopla.
Can someone post a link to the "W is for Wiener" site? I can't find it and it's run by the Connolly guy who leaked the story. I'm sure it's a beaut.
posted on November 4, 2000 12:53:31 AM new
Thanks krs that's what I was looking for about the AWOL and Bush. I had only heard a snippet and didn't know who brought it to light.
If it's true I think it really shows his charactor. I wish this stuff would have come out earlier and investigated more.
OK here's another one. What about something about him giving a girl money for an abortion when he was in college.
It seems as though everything he preaches against he has done. Do as I say not as I do?
posted on November 4, 2000 01:14:35 AM new
Evidently that won't be proven, but Larry (take it with a grain of saltpeter)Flynt's
investigations have resulted in his saying this about that on CNN Crossfire:
"In a half-hour show on CNN's Crossfire this evening, moderator Robert Novak waited until the very end of the show, which was devoted to filtering software on the internet, to say to magazine publisher Larry Flynt, "You said you wanted to talk about the election. Tell me what you wanted to say." Flynt answered, "For eight months we've been looking into George W. Bush's background. And we've found out in the early 1970s he was involved in an abortion in Texas, and I just think that it's sad that the mainstream media, who's aware of this story, won't ask him that question when they were able to ask him the drug question without any proof at all, and we've got all kinds of proof on this issue....You know, the guy admitted he was a drunk for 20 years, and if the abortion issue is true then that puts him lower on the morality scale than Bill Clinton." Novak replied at that point, "Mr. Flynt, you said if it's true and you have no proof of that. I gather you are a very strong..." Flynt, whose previous investigation of national-level politicians led to at least one resignation from Congress, loudly interrupted, "The hell we don't have proof!" The camera cut from Flynt in L.A. back to Bill Press and Robert Novak, sheepishly grinning in the studio. Novak
said, "Larry Flynt, thank you very,very much for joining us." Press added, "You never know. Live television." Yes, you never
know. --Politex, Friday Evening, 10/20/00
Transcribed in the CNN Chat room AFTER Flynt's appearance on the program---
CNN - Mr. Flynt, I would like to know how you plan to protect yourself from a law suit by claiming to have the goods on GWBush.
Flynt: Because we have them and the truth is an absolute defense.
CNN; When and where are you going to publish information about George W. Bush?
Flynt: When I said that we had the proof, I am referring to knowing who the girl was, knowing who the doctor was that pereformed the abortion, evidence from girlfriends of hers at the time, who knew about the romance and the subsequent abortion. The young lady does not want to go public, and without her willingness, we don't feel that we're on solid enough legal ground to go with the story, because should she say it never happened, then we've got a potential libel suit. But we know we have enough evidence that we believe completely. One of the
things that interested us was that this abortion took place before Roe Vs. Wade in 1970 [sic. 1973], which made it a crime at the time. I'd just like the national media to ask him if abortion is okay for him and his family, but not for the rest of America. We're not looking at it as a big issue, we're looking at it as a situation of people not being told the truth. I think the American people have a right to know everything there is to know about someone running for President."
posted on November 4, 2000 05:09:42 AM new
We all have to quit searching for the perfect man to be our president. There is no such thing. Everyone has had some type of "indiscretion" in their lives, especially by the time they are old enough to run. We knew Clinton messed up before he got elected, we gave him a chance and found out he doesn't learn from his mistakes and keeps making the same ones over and over. I don't think that is the case with George W. Bush. These things happened to him twenty years ago. A lot of people wouldn't want their job to depend on something they did twenty years ago. And it wouldn't be fair to them. I hear the people screaming already, but this is the man who will run our country. If he does a good job of running our country then I don't care if he got a DUI 20 years ago. That's my two cents.
posted on November 4, 2000 05:36:47 AM new Back on topic, I wonder why it's difficult to believe that Bush simply didn't want his daughters to know this detail of his life. If I had a DUI I would be so embarassed that I'd probably move hell and high water to keep my kids from ever knowing about it.
What better way to teach your kids than by using yourself, especially the embarrassing or not-so-rosy experiences, as an example?
"Do as I say, not as I do".
A parent should use their failures as teaching tools.
posted on November 4, 2000 05:43:59 AM new"Does anyone know anything about Bush being AWOL from the military after he enlisted? I'm sure it must only be a rumor because I think that would be a felony and he wouldn't be able to run for office."
If you're sure it must only be a rumor, why drag him through the mud by repeating it?
posted on November 4, 2000 05:47:31 AM newWe all have to quit searching for the perfect man
LOL! This from a woman?
This isn't a single DUI problem. George was, by his own statement, a heavy drinker who continued until he "heard a higher power".
This is an alcoholic, and those are recovery therapy and AA type statements.
Whoever is president of the United States operates full time under pressures that are unimaginably by most of us. The stakes are high, the scrutiny is continuous, and the pressure is neverending.
Do you want to knowingly take part in the placement into that position of a person who is a dependant personality with a penchant for seeking relief in substances which effect judgement? A person who remains in denial of the serious problem which he brings to the table?
