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Posted on 02/03/2004 10:27:43 AM PST by fight_truth_decay
Moore's wish became ABC's command as both ABC on Sunday, following DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe on This Week maintaining that he's looking forward to a debate in which "John Kerry, a war hero with a chest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a man who was AWOL in the Alabama National Guard," and CNN on Monday, looked into the charge and found it baseless.
To his credit, given his personal involvement in Bill Clinton obfuscation in 1992, on This Week George Stephanopoulos challenged McAuliffe: "So how do you answer then people who would say, wait a second, Democrats all defended Bill Clinton back in 1992 despite the questions about his draft record? Isn't this hypocrisy here?"
On Sunday's World News Tonight, Geoff Morrell undermined the criminal claims made by Moore and McAuliffe about Bush supposedly not showing up for Guard duty for a few months in 1972/73, four years into a six year hitch: "In the 2000 campaign, Democrats tried to make an issue of George W. Bush's service in the National Guard, but their nominee never went so far as to accuse him of being absent without leave, a serious charge subject to court-martial. Reporters investigating Mr. Bush's military career found that, while he missed some weekends of training, he later made up for them and was eventually honorably discharged."
CNN reporter Jennifer Coggiola, on Monday's Wolf Blitzer Reports, noted that "according to military code, President Bush can't technically be labeled AWOL or a deserter. Only active-duty soldiers in the U.S. military who don't appear for 30 days qualify for that."
In the meantime, Moore isn't exactly apologetic. A letter posted last week on his Web site begins: "I would like to apologize for referring to George W. Bush as a 'deserter.' What I meant to say is that George W. Bush is a deserter, an election thief, a drunk driver, a WMD liar and a functional illiterate. And he poops his pants. In fact, he shot a man in Tucson 'just to watch him die.'" For the rest of his screed: http://www.michaelmoore.com/
I guess that's humor in the same vein as seeing Janet Jackson's Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" as edgy entertainment.
Moore appeared on Bill Maher's January 30 HBO show, via satellite from Lansing, and as taken down by MRC analyst Jessica Anderson, Maher got Moore to repeat his unsubstantiated charges:
Maher: "So, you are here once again in the role of a newsmaker, which is what you seem to be, because you, I guess a couple of weeks ago, you were introducing Wesley Clark, and I know this was a joke, you were saying if he ran against Bush it would be 'the General against the Deserter.' Okay, so the media went ape shit, saying this was a reckless charge. I have been having a hard time finding whether this is a reckless charge or not. Why don't you tell me what you know are the facts. What are the facts? Because a lot of publications have come out against you and said these are not facts. What do you know is a fact about Bush's war record?"
Moore: "The facts, as reported by the Boston Globe, are that when Bush was in the Texas Air National Guard, he took a year off and went to Alabama to work on the campaign of a Republican senator that his dad wanted him to work on."
Maher: "Now, is that normal for a soldier to be able to leave his duty to work on a campaign? Is there a requisition form that any soldier can get for that?"
Moore: "I'll tell ya, if there were, I know a lot of guys in the National Guard who are over in Iraq right now, who were told that it was a six-month rotation and they've been there for over a year."
Maher: "Right."
Moore: "I wonder if any of them– [stops and chuckles as audience begins applauding]"
Maher: "So I've heard the same stories, and I have to tell you, I've referred to him as a draft dodger, which is different than a deserter -- that's a little harsher."
Moore: "Yeah, or he was AWOL."
Maher: "There is a difference, there is a big difference."
Moore: "There is a difference, yes."
Maher: "But why is it so murky to find the facts on this? This isn't something that happened in the 16th century. I mean, my God, the gospels were written 40 to 70 years after Jesus died and we got the 4-1-1 on him!"
Moore: "Exactly."
Maher: "Why can't we get a definitive version of this?"
Moore: "Because I think, with a lot of things, the press just doesn't want to do their work. I don't think it's an ideological reason. I just think that, for the most part, a lot of the media are just lazy and this would take a lot of work. Now fortunately, the Boston Globe did the investigation, they presented a lot of the facts. They found the head of the, his commander in the Air National Guard in Alabama, who said, 'I have no recollection of ever seeing him report for the entire year.' And you know, it's there, it's all there, and the press just chooses to ignore it. For Peter Jennings to say that it was 'a reckless charge,' it's reckless for Peter Jennings and ABC not to investigate this [audience applauds and cheers]."
In Monday's CNN story, Coggiola summarized what those Boston Globe stories, cited by Moore, reported: "Here's what's known about President Bush's military service. After George W. Bush graduated from Yale in 1968, he joined the Texas National Guard as a fighter pilot and, over the next four years, based in Houston, served the equivalent of 21 months on active duty. Then, in 1972, Bush moved to Alabama to work on a Senate campaign, where he says he continued to fulfill his Guard service on the weekends.
"There have been conflicting reports about a period of time, May 1972 to April 1973. Military records obtained by The Boston Globe and other media in 2000 indicated that there was a one-year gap in his military service, that Bush did not fly at all during that time and that there are no records that he showed up for his drills required to maintain his obligation.
"Other reports went to say that, though his service days were irregular, he did accrue enough service days required for his ultimate honorable discharge. At the time, Bush's spokesperson said he made up for his missed service by performing non-flying duties."
The May 23, 2000 story by Boston Globe reporter Walter Robinson put the events in contemporaneous event context:
"The records and former Guard officials suggest that Bush's unit was lackadaisical in holding him to his commitment. Many states, Texas among them, had a record during the Vietnam War of providing a haven in the Guard for the sons of the well-connected, and a tendency to excuse shirking by those with political connections.
"Those who trained and flew with Bush, until he gave up flying in April 1972, said he was among the best pilots in the 111th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron. In the 22-month period between the end of his flight training and his move to Alabama, Bush logged numerous hours of duty, well above the minimum requirements for so-called 'weekend warriors.'
"Indeed, in the first four years of his six-year commitment, Bush spent the equivalent of 21 months on active duty, including 18 months in flight school. His Democratic opponent, Vice President Al Gore, who enlisted in the Army for two years and spent five months in Vietnam, logged only about a month more active service, since he won an early release from service."
Neither this May 23 story, or a follow-up October 31 story, is online, but those are the dates if you have access to Nexis or want to pay to see them via the Globe's archive.
The stories do not paint a flattering picture of Bush's commitment to the Guard after four years of service, but they also show how he fulfilled his commitment about a year later and was honorably discharged -- and the stories make clear that the terms "AWOL" or "deserter" to not belong in any sentence with George W. Bush.
Conason also calls for relevance to the evidence touted by Michael Moore even though in another breath, he states Moore insists he was joking.
When Jennings in N.H. questioned Clark on his backer Michael Moore's statement the President is a "deserter" and called it "a reckless charge not supported by the facts"; Conason can only claim Jennings had fallen under the press "Bush management" where cheeks are pinched, nicknames used and journalists are treated like vassals.
But then GWB would be accused by environmentalists of being responsible for a toxic waste dump.
John Kerry does not have a "chest full of medals". He threw them away in protest of the Vietnam War, President Nixon, and America in general. His activities were used by the Vietnamese for propaganda purposes and his subversion undermined the war effort.
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