Ad Campaign To Question Bush's Time In Guard

Los Angeles Times ^ | September 8, 2004 | Ronald Brownstein

[Former Military Chick]

WASHINGTON — Escalating the campaign warfare over the Vietnam era, a new group founded by a veteran Texas Democratic operative will announce today a television ad campaign reprising charges that President Bush failed to perform his service in the Texas Air National Guard while on temporary assignment in Alabama.

The ad, funded by Texans for Truth, features Robert Mintz, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Alabama Air National Guard, who said he never saw Bush while serving in the same unit in 1972.

"It would be impossible to be unseen in a unit of that size," Mintz charged in the ad, which the Texans for Truth group posted on its website Tuesday.

One source familiar with the group's plan said it raised more than $100,000 on Tuesday to air the ad after sending an e-mail solicitation to members of MoveOn.org, a liberal online advocacy group that has been among Bush's staunchest opponents, and DriveDemocracy.org, a spin-off group in Texas.

***

The new ad drive appears in the wake of the advertising assaults on Democratic nominee John F. Kerry from Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a conservative group with strong Republican ties. The group has accused the Democratic nominee of misrepresenting his actions in Vietnam and betraying fellow servicemen by pursuing antiwar activities after leaving the Navy.

The source familiar with Texans for Truth's plans said it was considering running the ad in some of the same markets where the Swift boat group aired, nearly all of them in swing states.

But the source added that the group might also seek to run the ad in states that have suffered disproportionately high levels of casualties in the Iraq war. The group will announce its ad buy at a news conference this morning.

***

[Former Military Chick]

In a preemptive memo to GOP leaders Tuesday night, Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie sought to portray Barnes as an unreliable witness and charged that Democrats were "implementing a strategy of vicious personal attacks against the president and vice president."

I have no doubt that we can combat these groups.

[FesterUSMC]

Bush made his Guard service the centerpiece of his campaign when?

[LibLieSlayer]

LA TIMES failed to mention their 1999 INVESTIGATIVE REPORT, which found NO EVIDENCE of any of these accusations. This will play a day, then will fade away!

LLS

[Izzy Dunne]

Yeah, it was wrong of Bush to claim National Guard service as the centerpiece of his life, and brag about his heroic acts there.

What?

He didn't?

Not ever?

Never mind.

[Former Military Chick]

I did not say that, but, he didn't. Kerry did. Now the Swiftee's in an interview said if groups on the other side have similar assertions then they should pursue them. I guess they are pursuing now?

[Jim Noble]

Ad Campaign To Question Bush's Time In Guard

Very good.

So now we know Kerry does not want to talk about the 36 years since 1968, the present, OR the future.

[backhoe]

I have no doubt that we can combat these groups.

Let me see what I can find quickly:

New Bush records show he logged more than 300 flight hours in National Guard -- you just have to laugh at these pathetic Kerrytistas, desperately digging the dirt --

 Bush fell short on duty at Guard Records show pledges unmet

 'Texans for Truth' ad challenges Bush on Guard service

 The facts about the President's service. Bush and the National Guard: Case Closed 
RECAP: NRO - The facts about the President's service. Bush and the National Guard: Case Closed

 President Bush has been Commander and Chief for 3+ years. What has Kerry done?

---

Extracted from links here, click the pic:

http://pages.sbcglobal.net/bommer/apoxoflibs.JPG

[MEG33]

http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=9259

Bush Guard Service...The True Story

[MEG33]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1209878/posts

Rebuttal

[angkor]

From Dec 1969 to Dec 1971 Kerry was officially a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy Ready Reserve.

From Dec 1971 to Feb 1978 Kerry was officially a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy Standby Reserve.

Where is Kerry's documentation from the Reserve Manpower Center, Naval Training Center, Bainbridge, Maryland to which he was attached beginning Dec 1969? It is not on his Web site.

Why was a commissioned U.S. Navy Ready Reserve officer meeting with North Vietnamese government officials in Paris in 1970 and 1971?

[pittsburgh gop guy]

" This will play a day, then will fade away! "

No - this is how Joe Lockhart and the other Clinton alums think they will beat Bush. SO - they will keep bringing this up, even though there is nothing there.

LET US NOT FORGET that the whole "Bush was AWOL" argument was created by Michael Moore when he came out for Wes Clark. Hollywood is going to spend the next 2 months going full guns after W and in favor of Kerry. So is the AP and "main-stream media."

We must fight them and not let them win.

[southland]

None dare call it Treason.. Except Barry Goldwater.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

This is so wrong-headed as to be laughable. Bush has been a strong Commander in Chief for almost four years now. Kerry was the unknown quantity and waved his medals around. The Swiftboat attacks on Kerry had to do with defining an unknown who was trying to hide in the shadows of a re-manufactured history. Bush's record as president is well known.

These Democrats are really desperate. If this is all they have, they are absolutely stupid. We aren't living in the 60's and 70's though the left remembers those days fondly and longs to relive them.

[shrinkermd]

The MSM including Imus is in full throated cry over this issue. I wonder if they believe that everyone who received a college or child deferment ( VP Cheney) or served in the National Guard (President Bush)were cowards, traitors or well heeled manipulators.

Seemingly, a signficant number of those reaching maturity from '66 to '73 did their best to avoid the draft. If you ask me the natural remedy for this poisonous attack is to ask this question: did serving in the National Guard or obtaining college deferments make you a coward?"

[Steely Tom]

This is going to make the media really mad at Kerry. For 20 years they've been telling me that "negative campaigning" turns off voters, and that people "are tired of negative campaigning."

(steely)

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

PING to self so I will have a rebuttal when my dimwitted Dem friends start talking about this after 60 minutes aires.

[OpusatFR]

This is so dumb I can't believe it.

Here Kerry is desperately trying to move the discussion from his Vietnam days and with this continuing smear, Vietnam will just stay right on the front burner and there is no where Kerry can go.

[cyborg]

Wow this is getting nasty!

[aardvark1]

I believe this "strategy," such as it is, will fall flat. It will come off simply as vindictive. The MSM may portray the Swifties as "mean-spirited" but that's different than retaliation.