Fortunate Son: the skinny, please

[neebob]

I recently purchased this book from buzzflash.com. I was prompted to make this post by Octafish's thread about Bin Laden money leading back to Midland. I was going to say most of that information is in Fortunate Son, of which I've read four chapters. But I also have a question, and that's why I started this thread.

I know the basic story about the book's publication and the author's suicide. I've also read a bit about why the book was discredited - specifically, because it contained false information about Bush and cocaine that came from Karl Rove and because the author had been convicted of embezzlement.

I've been reading and thinking damn, this is beyond fair and balanced. Hatfield seems to admire or at least like his subject. If it weren't for the introductions by Greg Palast and Mark Crispin Miller and the reviews on the back cover, I'd send it to my wingnut mother and expect her to read it. Last night I read a sentence describing Bush as articulate and wondered what planet he was from. I'm not surprised someone like Rove was able to scam him - if that is indeed what happened. He strikes me as pretty idealistic. It doesn't sound like his conviction was entirely fair, either.

Can anybody tell me exactly what in this book is incorrect or point me to a single, reliable summary? I've searched the archives here but haven't found much, and I don't have the patience to wade through all the crap that comes up in googling.

[BurtWorm]

1. In my humble opinion

Hatfield set out to write a standard unofficial campaign biography, probably hoping to cash in on its appearing in an election year. He set out to be fair and just present the facts. But Bush's biography is more difficult than any straight rehashing of facts would allow, particularly because of the period between May 1972 and May 1973, when something happened to stop Bush from flying and disappear from the Guard. One piece of Bush's resume stood out during that time--a six-month stint at a Houston mentoring program for underprivileged boys. This was an unusual sign of boy George's social conscience. Let's be blunt: it has "community service" written all over it.

If you want to get right to the juicy parts, go to the chapter concerning Bush's Guard duty (which is completely circumspect, if I remember right), then read the Afterword, which tells the story of how Hatfield came to learn that his unvoiced suspicions were probably true. There's a frightening episode, reminiscent of the ferris wheel ride in Carol Reed's "The Third Man," in which Hatfield is taken on a boat to the middle of Lake Eufala in Oklahoma by an unnamed Bush lackey who confesses that Bush is a priveleged asshole who got busted for cocaine possession (or worse) and didn't have to suffer the consequences ordinary folks would have--and isn't that just too bad?

I wrote to Sander Hicks, the publisher of Soft Skull Press, to ask if that man in Eufala really was Karl Rove. Hicks said he believed so, and he shared a bunch of material with me, including copies of Hatfield's phone records. He also confessed that Hatfield had some personal problems that made defending the truth of his stories more difficult, but that as far as his journalism went, he was straight as an arrow.

An important and interesting supplement to this history is the appendix by Michael Binder, a Cold War historian, who devastates Bushist propaganda excusing their boy's suspension on the grounds that his plane was being "discontinued."

[NoKingGeorge]

2. Oklahoma again ?

What is with all the Oklahoma connections. I was led by a DU'er to look at the president of Oklahoma University (victr something) turns out he was a Senator that arranged sex parties during bUsh sr's one term. He gave up office under some unreported circumstances... Sex accusations involved sex-slave connection(UN reference by * ?).The Du'er who led me to that discovery had said there would be some news out of Oklahoma. Now boat rides, between guys, on a lake in Oklahoma? Is there a Mrs. Rove? Does Karl know the president of OK U?

[Unknown Known]

4. Or how about Lawrence Walsh's connection to Oklahoma City?

One of the three offices Lawrence Walsh conducted his Iran/Contra investigations was in Oklahoma City.

A Federal investigation...

would more than likely have offices in a Federal Building...

Judge Walsh established a three city operation (Washington, DC, New York City, and Oklahoma City), hired attorneys, and requested that staff be detailed from the Customs Service and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as the FBI. The staff divided its work among several teams: the White House/National Security Council/Department of Justice team; the Central Intelligence Agency/State Department Team; and the Flow-of-Funds/Department of Defense team. When Congressional leaders stated in early meetings between the Independent Counsel and the Congressional committees also investigating the Iran/Contra affair that Congress was likely to grant immunity to several central figures in the investigation, Judge Walsh doubled the size of his staff and took steps to focus the investigation on the gathering of as much evidence as possible before the grant of immunity tainted it. Congress granted immunity to Oliver North, John Poindexter, and Albert Hakim in May and June of 1987.

http://www.archives.gov/research_room/independent_counsel_records/independent_counsel_walsh.html

[BurtWorm]

5. Hatfield's phone log, showing he vetted drug arrest charge with Karl Rove

<This is from a post I made on Usenet under the name xofpi in April 2002>



The following is a summary of a phone log JH Hatfield gave St. Martin's Press and Sander Hicks of Soft Skull press to support his investigative reporting into the nature of George W. Bush's arrest for selling cocaine in 1972. Hicks graciously provided it to me and gave me permisssion to post it on Usenet when I asked for information on whether or not the "man in Eufala" (whom Hatfield does not name) who confirmed that Bush was busted was Karl Rove.





CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

AND DETAILS OF PHONE RECORDS

SEPTEMBER 2, 1999



Item 27 (Sprint long distance): 12:49 p.m. Hatfield called frequent source, Robert Grijalva with the Democratic Party in El Paso, Texas, to question him about the possibility that Bush had had been arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession and performed community service at Project P.U.L.L. in Houston. (Time elapsed: 12 minutes).



Item 28 (Sprint long distance): 2:55 p.m. Hatfield called directory assistance in Houston, Texas to obtain the phone number of the Martin Luther King Community Center. Salon online magazine reported that rumors were circulating that Bush did community service at the inner-city youth center for “illicit drug use” in the “late 60s or early 70s.” (Time elapsed: 1 minute)



Item 29 (Sprint long distance): 2:56 p.m. Hatfield spoke to Madge Bush, MLK director of 31 years, questioning her about Bush and the possibility that he performed community service at Project P.U.L.L., which at one time was located in the same Houston Third Ward neighborhood. Curt and short conversation. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)



Item 30 (Sprint long distance): 3:02 p.m. Hatfield called directory assistance in Houston, Texas in an effort to obtain telephone numbers of two (2) persons (quoted in earlier passages in the book) who had spoken with reporters years ago about Bush’s time spent at Project P.U.L.L. No listings for the two (2) persons. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)



Item 31 (Sprint long distance): 3:04 p.m. Hatfield called Madge Bush back with a another question as detailed in the Afterword of Fortunate Son. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)



Item 32 (Sprint long distance): 3:38 p.m. After spending approximately 30 minutes planning an investigative strategy and penning questions for confidential sources, Hatfield telephoned his editor, Barry Neville, at St. Martin’s Press and received his voice mail. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)



Item 33 (Sprint long distance): 3:40 p.m. Two minutes later, Hatfield called and left another message for Barry Neville. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)


Item 34 (Sprint long distance): 3:42 p.m. Two minutes later, Hatfield called and left another message for Barry Neville (Time elapsed: 1 minute)


Item 35 (Sprint long distance): 3:47 p.m. Five minutes later, an urgent Hatfield called and left yet another message on Neville’s voice mail at St. Martin’s Press. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)



Item 36 (Sprint long distance): 3:50 p.m. Hatfield called Madge Bush back again at MLK Community Center in Houston to ask if anyone working for her might have had one time been employed at project P.U.L.L. (when it was in existence). Negative results. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)

Item 37 (Sprint long distance): 3:56 p.m. Hatfield called directory assistance in Houston once again in an effort to obtain numbers of possible former P.U.L.L. workers. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)


Item 38 (Sprint long distance): 4:01 p.m. Follow-up question for Robert Grivjalva at the Democratic Party in El Paso, Texas, in an attempt to locate former Project P.U.L.L. workers. Hatfield received Grijalva’s voice mail. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)


Item 39 (Sprint long distance) 4:02 p.m. Hatfield called Austin, Texas directory assistance to obtain the telephone number for the Bush Presidential Exploratory Committee. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)


Item 40 (Sprint long distance) 4:03 p.m. Hatfield called the Bush Presidential Exploratory Committee to obtain names of spokespersons to question. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)


Item 41 (Sprint long distance) 4:04 p.m. Hatfield called and left another message on his editor’s voice mail. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)


Item 42 (Sprint long distance) 4:07 p.m. Hatfield finally reaches Barry Neville and the two discuss a quick strategy for confirming the Bush arrest/community service allegation. (Time elapsed: 2 minutes)


Item 43 (Sprint long distance) 4:42 p.m. After spending approximately 30 minutes composing questions, Hatfield telephoned his former co-author on six (6) previous books, George T. Burt, in Dallas (GrandPrairie suburb), to confer and ask if he believed he was “getting in way over his head.” (Time elapsed: 2 minutes)


Item 001 (Alltel cellular service) 4:45 p.m. Hatfield called Clay Johnson, Bush’s “chief executive” at the Governor’s office in Austin, Texas on his cell phone. (Neville asked Hatfield to keep his office line “free” because he was going to confer with his boss, publisher Thomas Dunne, and Celeste Phillips in California, the “outside” attorney who vetted the manuscript). Clay Johnson, the first confidential source called, attended Phillips Andover Aacademy and Yale with longtime friend, George W. Bush. Hatfield, who from 1979 to 1987, was a vice-president of a real estate management company based in downtown Dallas, was acquainted with Johnson, president of the Horchow catalog mail order business in the Texas city from 1983 to 1991. Because Hatfield’s employer was married into the Zales Jewelry family, Johnson and Hatfield attended many of the same Dallas
social functions. Their discussion regarding the 1972 Bush drug arrest/community service is detailed in the Afterword to Fortunate Son. (Time elapsed: 4 minutes)


Item 002 (Alltell cellular service) 4:56 p.m. Hatfield called Rev. Jim Mayfield, pastor of the Tarrytown United Methodist Church for the past ten (10) years in Austin, Texas. Bush had attended the church since January 1995, after he was inaugurated as governor. Rev. Mayfield had previously detailed to Hatfield Bush’s in-depth conversation with family friend and spiritual adviser, Billy
Graham, which led to his religious conversion (as described in Fortunate Son, pages 70-74). Rev. Mayfield had publicly chastised Bush for failing to support the proposed Hate Crimes Bill in the Texas legislature in 1999. Mayfield, who is described in the Afterword as a “longtime Bush friend and unofficial political adviser,” confirmed the drug arrest, telling the author that Bush had once “confessed” to him regarding the incident. Ironically, Rev. Mayfield cursed a couple of times in describing the incident, as detailed in the book’s Afterword. Mayfield had previously stated publicly that if Bush needed spiritual guidance, he talked to him. Hatfield referred to him as a “a political adviser” to protect his identity, when, in reality, “spiritual adviser” would have been more
appropriate. (Time elapsed: 6 minutes)


Item 003 (Alltel cellular service) 5:06 p.m. Hatfield telephoned the Bush Presidential Exploratory Committee and queried spokesman Scott McClellan in regards to the allegation that Bush had been arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession. His almost inaudible “Oh, shit” and then “no comment” is detailed in the Afterword. (Time elapsed: 1 minute)


Item 004 (Alltel cellular service) 5:08 p.m. After McClellan terminated the call, Hatfield once again telephoned the presidential exploratory committee. Megan Moran answered and informed the author that either Karen Hughes or Mindy Tucker, two other Bush campaign spokespersons, would return his call, which never occurred. (Time elapsed 1 minute)


Item 005 (Alltel cellular service) 5:10 p.m. Hatfield called Bush’s chief campaign strategist and longtime friend of the family, Karl Rove, on his private, unlisted telephone number (as previously supplied to Hatfield when they met on Lake Eufaula in Oklahoma a few months earlier). Rove cursed Hatfield for using a “goddamn cordless phone” and stated he would call the author back in thirty (30) minutes. (Time elapsed: 2 minutes)


Always punctual, Rove returned Hatfield’s call in approximately thirty minutes. Their conversation (Rove is referred to in the book as the “Eufaula connection”) is detailed on pages 308-311 of Fortunate Son It should be noted that Rove had been publicly rebuked by Bush for leaking information about his possible run for president just prior to Hatfield and Rove’s conversation and there was a tone of
anger and bitterness in the campaign strategist’s voice. Upon Celeste Phillips (St. Martin’s “outside” attorney) recommendation, Hatfield removed descriptive details from the manuscript that would have hinted to the confidential source’s true identity. In addition, Hatfield (as told to Slate online magazine) added the spitting “tobacco juice into the ever-present Styrofoam cup” reference in an effort to mislead readers searching for tips to the true identity of the “Eufaula connection.”


As explained on page 305 of the re-published edition of Fortunate Son by Soft Skull Press, Inc., Hatfield detailed in a new paragraph how he obtained the cooperation of his three (3) sources and the subsequent confirmation of the 1972 Bush drug arrest:



To confirm my suspicions regarding Bush’s community service, I chose three confidential sources whom had been extremely helpful with other sections of the book to follow up with in telephone inquiries. If I was going to get any one of them to talk about the governor’s youthful past, a poker game was certainly in order. With each of them I would have to claim that I had numerous sources who were confirming the allegations “on the record,” but I would be willing to give my confidential sources an opportunity to put a positive spin on the potentially damaging revelations before the book was published. Basically, I would tell them I was holding a royal flush, when in reality I would be sitting at the table with nothing at all.


Publicity Director for St. Martin’s Press.]

[neebob]

13. That's interesting

Makes it sound like Karl Rove was pissed off instead of planting disinformation to discredit the book. Makes ya wonder what else he knows that keeps him in the club. The Rev. Mayfield doesn't sound very loyal, either. You know a guy's a major creep when his minister won't keep his secret.

Thanks, I think I'll just keep reading until I get to the Afterword. I'm only on page 97. It's so full of details, I have trouble keeping track of all the names and where things are in time - I'm always flipping back and forth as it is.

[BurtWorm]

16. Prezackly.

;)

[RummyTheDummy]

11. The man in question is former U.S. Senator David Boren....

Who is a closet homosexual and yes, there have been many many rumors about him and his fraudulant/facade marriage.

Boren is a highly competent university president, but in the political spectrum he was more Repuke than Dem late in his senate career.

Personally, I have no issue with his sexuality. It's irrelevant. Unfortunately we're in the bible belt and most others here don't feel the samy way.

[neebob]

3. Thanks, BurtWorm

That's very helpful. I hadn't looked ahead in the book - just started reading from the beginning. At first I was going, oh shit, I'm going to end up questioning whether Dubya is truly evil. But I've read enough now to feel confident I'm right. I had the same thought about the thing with underprivileged boys - like Smirk would really do that voluntarily. My version doesn't seem to have the appendix you mentioned, but I'll check it out.

[BurtWorm]

6. If you're interested in the background, check out my second post above

about Hatfield's phone records.

[Stephanie]

9. Fascinating. There is no beginning and no end to the Bush Lies

It just goes on and on.

[neebob]

7. Thanks everyone who has posted so far

I have to go to work, but I'll check back this evening and tend my thread.

[VermontDem2004]

8. Best book I ever read

Very fair and balanced, the only unbiased political book I read. Plus there are over 10 pages of sources and if you check them out they are accurate, he never makes a claim without citing a source. But on the cocaine addiction, he didn't add it in Bush's biography he put his search for the truth in the extra chapter and he leaves you uncertain of whether he was arrested for cocaine or not.

[Scott Lee]

10. One of the best "burned" books the US ever had

I owne a copy and would agree, it's one of the best books I have ever read. They can fume and spew all they want at J.H. Hatfield (Gods rest his soul) but no one can refute that this guy did his homework and covered the bases.

For me, the real power of the book is the story that surrounded it's first and second publication. The first time it was published the reaction from the Bush crew was of their traditionally vindictivist revenge bent. They managed to get it pulled and yes, even persuaded the publishing company to incinerate a lot of copies (you can't BUY that sort of publicity!). The second release, at the benevolent salvation of SoftSkull Press, brought the core issues back into the public mind but they got squelched quickly with the *ahem* untimely death of Mr. Hatfield.

The subtext of this whole sordid tale is that one does not cross the Bush Crime Clan and expect to go about life unscathed.

[BurtWorm]

12. kick

[neebob]

14. I agree it's pretty good

but being a writer - one who writes a lot professionally and on the side has spent the last three and a half years writing, rewriting, editing, proofreading, rewriting, editing, proofreading, and attempting to publish a book - I find the typos irritating. Fortunate Son is full of them. And I have a hard time resisting the urge to critique the author. Hatfield does this thing where he announces something and I go, "Huh? What'd I miss?" Then he backs up and supports it. It took me a while to get used to that. I haven't decided if my difficulty in tracking the details is my fault or his.

In any case, I'd like to get my hands on an edition without all the front matter and back cover copy that would dissuade my fright-wing mother from reading this book.

[BurtWorm]

15. Are you reading the St. Martin's edition?

Where and how did you get it? The Soft Skull edition is definitely worth getting.

[neebob]

17. No, the third Soft Skull edition. nt

[BurtWorm]

18. Sorry, I misread your post.

[Scott Lee]

20. It's the substance and timeliness of the subject

I cannot argue Hatfield's writing merits, as I'm not the professional writer that you are. All I can say is that his book was a groundbreaker for the timeliness of the subject and the research he had conducted on the Warchimp. It was the most brazen and balsy expose on this criminal yet written, even for today.

Oh sure, I've seen the cute books on "Bushisms" etc., but they can't hold a candle to the gravitas of "Fortunate Son".

[Beaker]

19. I've got an AUTOGRAPHED copy of the book.

I was at a book-signing about a month before Hatfield's..."suicide".