More Records on Bush Guard Service Under Review (TAKE THAT DEMOCREEPS!)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Friday it has received additional documents on President Bush (news - web sites)'s service in the Air National Guard during the Vietnam War and was reviewing them for possible release.

The White House has been trying this week to answer election-year charges by Democrats that the Republican president shirked Vietnam War-era military duties and released records of a 1973 dental exam to show he was on duty in Alabama.

"I think we just very recently received some additional documents, but I'm not sure if any of those documents are new. We're going to take a look at those," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

"And if there's new information relevant to the issue, then we will certainly provide you with that information."

Trying to nullify Democratic charges that Bush was AWOL during part of his Air National Guard service, the White House on Wednesday put out a copy of a Jan. 6, 1973, dental exam complete with a chart of Bush's teeth that was performed when Bush was at the Dannelly Air National Guard base in Alabama.

Bush said on Sunday he would provide records on his service as a jet pilot for the Texas Air National Guard.

The dental exam was the second release of documents by the White House, which has been put on the defensive by the Democrats. The Bush team on Monday had released pay and service records and hoped that would quell the controversy by showing that Bush had met his duties.

Those records showed long absences during Bush's final two years of service -- a period in which he worked on a political campaign in Alabama. Democrats and other critics said the records were inadequate.

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Friday said that Bush is at a low point in public approval, his popularity depressed by questions about the Iraq (news - web sites) war, continued economic frustration and public interest in his leading Democratic rival.

It said Bush's overall job approval rating had fallen to 50 percent and his rating for honesty and trustworthiness had fallen to 52 percent, down 7 points from late October.

Bush was the son of a U.S. congressman at a time when National Guard service was seen as a way for the privileged to avoid being drafted for Vietnam War duty. Questions over his record resurfaced this year as Bush seeks to cast himself as a "war president" for his effort to win re-election in November.

Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) of Massachusetts, a decorated Vietnam veteran who volunteered for service and has emerged as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has said Bush must answer questions about his service.

Bush was suspended from flying in 1972 because he did not take a physical and was honorably discharged eight months early, in October 1973, to attend Harvard Business school.

It is Kerry's Silver Star that is the real unanswered question. Vets are suspicious. Very few Silver Stars were awarded and they require a CO's authentication, usually by direct observation. The suspicion is that Kerry authenticated himself and put his crew in for Bronze Stars as a bribe.

I have heard a lot of stories about PHs in Vietnam. There were lots of them. One career officer pilot in the Navy told me in 1972 that his was awarded because something he did made his CO look better than he was. The flier had no wound and did not even come under fire on the mission for which it was awarded.

Every vet I have spoken with about this thinks Kerry is a phony.

I watched the Press Briefing by Scott McClellan on 2/10 when he released records on the National Guard service. The damned press just wouldn't accept it. Here are some nauseating excepts from the press briefing. All of these are questions from the reporters. There's a link to the transcript at the bottom.

"..why did he not fulfill the medical requirements to remain on active flight duty status?"

"Where was he in December of '72, February and March of '73?"

"Has the White House been able to find, like Senator Kerry, "a band of brothers" or others who can testify about the President's service?"

"So isn't that odd that nobody -- you can't produce anyone to corroborate what these records purport to show?"

"To corroborate these records, will the President do two things -- one, will he authorize the relevant defense agency in Colorado to release actual pay stubs for the President? And if those don't exist, will the President file a form, as he can do at the IRS, to at least look for a '72 or '73 tax return that would corroborate what you claim are payroll summaries that he actually got paid for this duty?"

"But he didn't want to go to Vietnam."

"But, again, -- I know you're going to bat this down, but there are people who --"

"And the fact that some of his officers don't recall ever seeing him, are you suggesting that they just don't remember after 30 years?"

"You keep saying the word, "serve." Define 'serve.'"

"I'm not interested in what he recalls. I'm interested in whether these documents specifically show that he was in Alabama and served on the days during the latter part of 1972 -- "

"But just because he's paid doesn't mean that he served and worked there, does it?........Come on."

"Scott, we all know people who tomorrow may not show up for work and will be paid. And their payrolls will show they were paid."

"We can't see facts. We can't see -- these facts are very messed up, they're blurred."

"You keep saying this is a shame, and you're talking partisan politics, but don't you think the American public, as well, particularly the U.S. military, who has been tested right now with the fact that they went to war on faulty intelligence, possibly, and now finding out that their Commander-in-Chief possibly tried to avoid going to the Vietnam War -- don't you think that the American public is owed a little bit more than photo copies that we can't see things of? Don't you think the military is owed a little bit more than just, "he served"?"

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/02/20040210-3.html

They are despicable....acting like a bunch of snapping, snarling alligators. There is no requirement to have regular briefings. Perhaps it's time to drain the swamp and hold pressers with 20 minutes notice whenever they feel like it.

I agree. Also, McClellan appears to get a bit rattled and nervous in my opinion. He needs some training from Rummy. Couldn't you just see Scott McClellan coming out one morning and saying something Rummy style?
"Did I hear you right? Did you - a newspaper boy - just insinuate, without any proof I might add, that our President - the leader of the free world - is a liar!?"

***The Hard & Fast Facts The Democrats & Media STILL Don't Understand***

1. Americans are glad Saddam is gone and his rotten kids are dead.

We're glad GWB had the balls Clinton didn't have, and we're glad that GWB gave us the reason, or even just the cover, to go kick his ass out of power...3000 Americans were killed by these bastards and Saddam was happy about it and WOULD have helped if he didn't.

This bastard was paying suicide bombers...Americans don't give a damn whether we ever find those WMD, we wanted his head and we got it.

That's why Libya came across and the others will too....they know that GWB means what he says and if they don't we're coming after them, next. You betcha.

The UN and the rest of the world knows GWB and America means what it says, this ain't the clinton's any more....

2. Kerry will never be elected President.

Americans have a deep sense of fairness, and even those of us who didn't go to Viet Nam, knew that our friends that did, didn't want to go, and those of us MEN, who were subjected to the draft, (and you women can just stay out of this...it's like having a baby....that's yours, the draft is ours) felt deep inside for the friends we lost, and that POS Kerry joining Hanoi Jane, (a woman not subjected to the draft, and a traitor) was a betrayal, and we are never going to forgive him for his testmony against the soldiers who were fighting....we protesetd the war, not those who were FORCED, OFTEN against their will, to go fight it.......

So you liberals in the press and the PC democrats can whistle any tune or tell any lie you want.....We're with GWB and that's the way it is.

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