Has the AWOL story gone AWOL?

[abcdan]

Has Rove quashed this story by his Friday document dump?

[chiburb]

1. Nah, here's the latest...

"Another former member of the unit, Wayne Rambo, also has some questions about the 15 "gratuitous" points that Bush supposedly got credited with on his retirement summary. Those 15 points were indeed routine, he says, but only if you otherwise met the normal requirements for a year:

“The 50-point minimum has always been taken very seriously, especially for pilots,” says Rambo. “The reason is that it takes a lot of taxpayer money to train a pilot, and you don’t want to see it wasted.”

For whatever reason, the elusive Lt. George W. Bush was awarded 41 actual points for his service in both Texas and Alabama during 1972 – though he apparently was given 15 “gratuitous” points -- presumably by his original Texas command -- enough to bring him up from substandard. That would have been a decided violation of the norm, according to Rambo, who stresses that the awarding of gratuitous points was clearly meant only as a reward to reservists for meeting their bottom line

“You had to get to 50 to get the gratuitous points, which applied toward your retirement benefits,” the former chief administrative officer recalls. “If you were 49, you stayed at 49; if you were 50, you got up to 65.”

If Rambo is right, Bush didn't meet the 50 point minimum — i.e., "fulfull his obligation" — in either of his final two years. He only made it by adding in his gratuitous points, and Rambo says that shouldn't have happened unless special favors were being done.

But then, it wouldn't have been the first time, would it?"

Right below this post is a recap of what we know for sure:
http://www.calpundit.com/

[trumad]

2. What did you expect?

It was bound to peter out... BUT! Did it leave the phony SOB scarred for election 2004... YOU BET!

We lobbed cannon balls at rove and gang with the clear note that they better not try the patriotisim game with J. Kerry!

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. Probably

Today's news is Enron, Scott Peterson, and the football rape scandal.

[Nashyra]

9. This article should be brought to Helen Thomas's

attention. She could get some distance for it, or is there a way to e-mail it to the WH press corp?

[wicket]

14. email it to Helen

Email it to Helen! I'd do it, but I don't have access to my email right now at work. I emailed her over the weekend thanking for asking the questions about Bush's community service and she wrote right back :) :) :)

[onehandle]

4. No. It'll be out there as long as Kerry is around...

This week's Newsweek:



Story. Be sure to vote in the poll:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4271520/

[NWHarkness]

5. It's not front page, but it continues to percolate

Look at it this way, was "Gore claims he invented Internet" ever a front page story?

No, the GOP managed to make it a subtext that ran through the entire campaign, constantly eating away at Gore's credibility and keeping his message from getting though to many voters.

That's how I see the AWOL story working for us.

[Beetwasher]

10. Bingo!

Exactly...

[Bandit]

6. This story has been bubbling for three years and it ain't done yet

It will come up again before the people vote. It is still early. We want people to start to become aware and use a steady drip drip drip. By October it will be in full bloom again. So will Enron and WMDs.

[meti57b]

7. it sort of looks that way. Stories about the bush administration have ...

about a two-day news cycle.

[Beetwasher]

8. The Damage Has Been Done, and More Importantly

the admin. failed to address it properly. So now, the charge of AWOL can be brought up again and again because the admin. failed to settle the issue. Everyone knows about the charges now and everyone knows the admin. failed to settle it. That's damn good IMO.

[SpiralHawk]

11. Your toKen koZmiQue iNteRpreTer sees that...

this is indeed substantial undercurrent, and hE prEdiCts that much more bumfodder will be flushed up from the cesspool of Chimpy's sheltered life, and the also from the dark and dank and skully and boney dungeon of the BFEE.

By June and July.

I would bet a maple-glazed, whole-wheat, organic non-GMO canola-oil fried, blueberry-filled doughnut on it.

[Lucille]

15. a book is coming out that will detail all...

by James Moore, who wrote a bio of Karl Rove entitled "Bush's Brain." Supposedly, he has interviewed witnesses to Burket's story, though I think some of them have changed their story a bit with the latest publicity, which Moore has responded to, on Salon, I think.

Amazon doesn't have a release date up yet, IIRC it's due mid-spring. Wouldn't be surpised if that was pushed back at least a little to accommodate latest news and last friday's doc dump. Maybe Amazon will offer a special twofer with Larry Flynt's latest?


Here's the cover:





It's going to get reviews, cause controversy and debate, and Moore will hit the talk shows. aWol won't be AWOL for long. Should be fun!

[Brotherjohn]

12. On the contrary. It's proceeding in the best way possible.

After repeated attepmts at quashing it, and several belated releases of "all documents", the conevtional wisdom after last Friday's document dump was that Bush STILL had not accounted for his whereabouts during the alleged AWOL time period. In fact, more questions have come up about just what else he might have been doing during that time (murmurings of a cocaine arrest and community service to expunge it from his record?).

The consensus among the people and the press is now that Bush not only got out of military service in Viet Nam because he was a child of priviledge (enough, and more than we ever got in 2000), but that he did not even fulfill the duties of that cushy assignment. The CV is also that Bush is simply no longer considered a "straight shooter". This was the "two" in the "one-two" body blow to his credibility that started with the WMD issue.

The damage is done, and it may kill him. If Kerry and other Dems were to continue to harp on it, it would begin to backfire, as they would increasingly be seen as beating a dead horse.

Unless someone has rock-solid evidence (unlikely) that Bush intentionally disobeyed orders and/or avoided his physical for drug reasons, then this should stop here.

Regarding this issue, the people have all the information they need to contribute to their decisions in the voting booth in November.

[Beetwasher]

16. Great Analysis

I agree, Kerry and the Dems shouldn't touch this anymore, however, the press should continue to bring it up whenever appropriate, and it seems they will.

Your points about conventional wisdom are spot on. It has now become a part of the mainstream that Bush went AWOL or at least can't explain his whereabouts for a year of his NG service. Bush=AWOL is now mainstream.

[DinahMoeHum]

17. Ah yes, the proverbial calm. . .

before the shit-storm.


:kick:

[Warren Stuart]

13. Gone but not Forgotten

You can expect this issue to resurface from time to time. It ain't going nowhere. The damage has been done. Bush's credibility is going the way of the Surplus he inherited.

[diamond14]

18. NO !....laura bush is keeping it alive (link)

February 19, 2004

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Out on the campaign trail raising re-election cash and promoting reading, Laura Bush is staunchly defending her husband's credibility and taking a shot at Democrats who claim he skipped out on his National Guard duty.


"I think it's a political, you know, WITCH HUNT, actually, on the part of Democrats," the first lady said in an interview with The Associated Press. (emphasis added)


The president served in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War and did report for duty in Alabama where he was briefly assigned, Mrs. Bush said.


"He knows that he served honorably," she said. "He knows that he showed up the whole time."

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=544&u=/ap/20040219/ap_on_go...




thanks to Betty Bowers, counselor to mrs. bush
http://www.bettybowers.com