Posted on 02/08/2004 10:06:51 AM PST by jmstein7
"Meet the Press" host Tim Russert repeatedly grilled President Bush in an interview broadcast on Sunday about allegations he went AWOL from the Alabama National Guard - but never once mentioned that the key witness behind the charge had recanted his story.
Sounding like a surrogate for Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe, Russert echoed the DNC chief's words last week on ABC's "This Week."
"I look forward to that debate," Russert told Bush, "when 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. He didn't show up when he should have showed up."
But the NBC newsman never mentioned his network's own scoop, garnered just last week by White House correspondent David Gregory, who interviewed the ex-Alabama Guard commander who first claimed that Bush had gone AWOL from his unit in 2000.
Back then retired Brig. Gen. William Turnipseed told the Boston Globe that Bush had never appeared for Guard drills. But on Wednesday Gen. Turnipseed withdrew the allegation, telling NBC, "I don't know if [Bush] showed up, I don't know if he didn't. I don't remember how often I was even at the base."
While failing to note the exculpatory account, Russert continued in an accusatory tone, bearing down on the issue of Bush's Guard service:
"You were allowed to leave eight months before your term expired. Was there a reason?" he demanded to know. "When allegations were made about John McCain or Wesley Clark on their military records, they opened up their entire files. Would you agree to do that? . . . . Would you allow pay stubs, tax records, anything to show that you were serving during that period? . . . Would you authorize the release of everything to settle this?
Bush responded, "Yes, absolutely," then noted, "We did so in 2000, by the way." But Russert didn't explain why he hadn't taken the time to review the long available evidence.
Instead, the NBC Washington Bureau chief shifted gears, asking why Bush didn't volunteer to go to Vietnam since he was in favor of the war.
For his part Bush remained firmly on the defensive, saying he was proud of his Guard service, but never challenging Russert about why he had decided to carry the DNC's water by raising questions that had long ago been answered.
In several interviews in recent months with Sen. Kerry, the "Meet the Press" host never questioned the top Democrat's controversial activities with the radical anti-American group, "Vietnam Veterans Against the War," including Kerry's testimony before the Senate in 1971, where he painted soldiers serving honorable in Vietnam as war criminals.
Kerry told the Senate that his fellow GI's had "personally raped [Vietnamese civilians], cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephone to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan."
Though the Democratic presidential front-runner later admitted he hadn't personally witnessed any of the atrocities he claimed his fellow soldiers had committed, he has yet to be challenged on the issue by mainstream journalists.
Check out Terry McAwfulls official bio and see what is missing.
I also did a search on Michael Moore's bio and could not find anyting that he served in the military either
[Russert explains charge]Now, he didn't say exactly the itmes you stated, he answered the questions. The only "doubt" about whether his service was on the "up-and-up" is that which the demoCREEPs and their willing accomplices in the media keep talking about.
Russert: How do you respond?
President Bush: Political season is here. I was I served in the National Guard. I flew F 102 aircraft. I got an honorable discharge. I've heard this I've heard this ever since I started running for office. I I put in my time, proudly so.
I would be careful to not denigrate the Guard. It's fine to go after me, which I expect the other side will do. I wouldn't denigrate service to the Guard, though, and the reason I wouldn't, is because there are a lot of really fine people who served in the National Guard and who are serving in the National Guard today in Iraq.
Russert: The Boston Globe and the Associated Press have gone through some of their records and said there’s no evidence that you reported to duty in Alabama during the summer and fall of 1972.
President Bush: Yeah, they re they're just wrong. There may be no evidence, but I did report; otherwise, I wouldn't have been honorably discharged. In other words, you don't just say "I did something" without there being verification. Military doesn't work that way. I got an honorable discharge, and I did show up in Alabama.
Russert: You did were allowed to leave eight months before your term expired. Was there a reason?
President Bush: Right. Well, I was going to Harvard Business School and worked it out with the military.
Russert: When allegations were made about John McCain or Wesley Clark on their military records, they opened up their entire files. Would you agree to do that?
President Bush: Yeah. Listen, these files I mean, people have been looking for these files for a long period of time, trust me, and starting in the 1994 campaign for governor. And I can assure you in the year 2000 people were looking for those files as well. Probably you were. And absolutely. I mean, I
Russert: But would you allow pay stubs, tax records, anything to show that you were serving during that period?
President Bush: Yeah. If we still have them, but I you know, the records are kept in Colorado, as I understand, and they scoured the records.
And I'm just telling you, I did my duty, and it's politics, you know, to kind of ascribe all kinds of motives to me. But I have been through it before. I'm used to it. What I don't like is when people say serving in the Guard is is may not be a true service.
(Emphasis Added).
All I need to know is the 2000 Election during which Major Elite Media attempted to derail the election. They and folks like Russert have put our country at risk and continue to do so.
They wish to render the psyche of America a basket case.
Asking the President for that matter anyone ......why they didn't volunteer to go to Vietnam......is out of bound for someone(Russert) who it seems didn't even serve in the Guard while the Vietnam War was raging.
Russert was in his late teens to early twenties when the war was going on.
Ever since Ari left it seems it's been going down hill.
That's exactly what Russert is. I couldn't believe that President Bush would be so foolish to give that whiny a**ed Liberal bedwetter an interview.
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THIS is disingenuous and inaccurate on Newsmax's part - Bush was above all calm and REASONABLE during the questioning and during his answers.
No squirming, no sweating, no loss of eye contact with potato-boy ...
I notice Timmy Boy (D-NBC) forgot to mention George Magazine and The New York Times. Their articles differ with Mr. Kerry's hometown newspaper; you know the paper, the one who has been sitting on Kerry's philandering for years.
We need a come-back of that Kennedy tune Rush used to play titled: "The Philanderer" -
- BUT include a new verse/a re-write with Kerry in there ...
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