Posted on 08/29/2004 8:09:29 PM PDT by GOPcapitalist
According to today's New York Times, disgraced Democrat politician Ben Barnes is once again claiming that he assisted a young George W. Bush in obtaining a slot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war. According to the story,
Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes said he is ``more ashamed at myself than I've ever been'' because he helped President Bush and the sons of other wealthy families get into the Texas National Guard so they could avoid serving in Vietnam.``I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard ... and I'm not necessarily proud of that, but I did it,'' Barnes, a Democrat, said in a video clip recorded May 27 before a group of John Kerry supporters in Austin.
Barnes, who was House speaker when Bush entered the Guard, later became lieutenant governor.
Curiously, the story omits a key portion of the Barnes quote, possibly because it demonstrates a glaring inconsistency in Barnes' story. A video of Barnes' speech shows the full quote as follows, the omitted portion in bold:
I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard when I was Lieutenant Governor of Texas and I'm not necessarily proud of that, but I did it.
The problem with Barnes' story: Bush entered the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 at which time Barnes was Speaker of the House. Barnes did not take office as Lieutenant Governor until 1969 and thus could not have done what he claimed. Some readers may best remember Barnes as a central unindicted co-conspirator in the Sharpstown Stock Scandal that rocked the Texas legislature in 1971.
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/SS/mqs1.html
Barnes was one of two central unindicted co-conspirators in a major scandal that swept the Texas government in 1971 (the other being the Governor). He got booted out of office over it and probably should have been indicted.
Interestingly enough one of the State Reps. who was responsible for blowing the whistle on Barnes & Co. was Republican Tom Craddick - our current Speaker of the House.
Does any dem have any type of relationship with the truth at all?
It's SOP Demo'rat Fantasy. Remember all the church burnings in Arkansas? Clinton did, tho' they never happened.
Seems like alot of democrats dont know what they were doing in '68 & '69... I think its drug related...
Not likely. The legislature was out of session in 1968 and Barnes may have even been out of the country on his other job. Virtually all state reps and state senators including the speaker, who is chosen among the reps. ranks, have other jobs for the year and a half between sessions. The Lieutenant Governor, by contrast, is elected state wide and typically does that as his full time job. Their similarities are only present over a few months every two years when the legislature is in session. The rest of the time, including off years like 1968, they are two VERY different jobs.
The funny thing about the original one that the Times published is that the central figure at the middle of the chart and conspiracy is a man named Tex Lezar. Mr. Lezar passed away over a year and a half ago.
Sorry about that! It's most assuredly Ben Barnes - the discredited and disgraced former Lieutenant Governor of Texas who was at the center of the "scandal of the century" in our state government.
Sharpstown was great in 1971, but now it is 'da HOOD'.
I can say that as I grew up there. :-)
I have seen the lie replaced with "..." is the LASlimes and AP stories also. Pretty unbelievable that the media gets away with this sort of stuff.
Sadly I must concur. That area's been changing fast, plus you got the Harwin phenomenon going on a few miles away.
Seared...Seared into his memory...
Ben Barnes isn't fit to shine G.W's shoes! He's a corrupt, dyed in-the-wool Demonrat and doesn't deserve any hint of legitimacy!
It's downright sloppy. First off, the media should have NEVER reported such a shoddy and suspect story. Second, the guys who picked up the original article should've done a better job checking the quote source. Instead they chose to be willing accomplices. Third, every single paper that ran this piece needs to run a correction. Most will not, but they should. Freepers should contact their local papers about this.
Quoth Robin Williams: If you remember the 60's , you weren't really there.
Why would a partisan Democrat give the son of a failed Republican Congressional candidate a break anyway, this is a joke.
Now we are supposed to not believe 254 vietnam vets, many of them career military. Admirals, commanders, lt colonels, etc. But a formerly disgraced house speaker that is not mentioned in the article we are supposed to believe.
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