Posted on 09/09/2004 7:15:12 PM PDT by wagglebee
NEW YORK (Talon News) -- The Wednesday evening broadcast of CBS's 60 Minutes featured an interview by news anchor Dan Rather of former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes, now a fundraiser for the Kerry campaign, on the role Barnes claims he played in getting a young George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard.
"Just how did he land that coveted spot in the Guard in the first place," Rather asked. "Tell me the truth, the whole truth."
Claiming "I'm not here to bring any harm to George Bush's political career," former Texas House Speaker and former Lt. Gov. Barnes told Rather that he regrets what he calls the "life or death" decision he made to help President Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard.
Instead, he told Rather on the Wednesday evening broadcast, "I ... not eagerly, but readily, was willing to call and get those young men into the National Guard that were friends of mine and supporters of mine."
"Reflecting back, I'm very sorry about it, but you know, it happened and it was because of my ambition, my youth (Barnes was 29) and my lack of understanding. But it happened and it's not ... something I'm necessarily proud of," Barnes continued.
"I don't think that I had any right to have the power that I had to choose who was going to Vietnam and who was not going to Vietnam. That's power. In some instances, when I looked at those names, I was maybe determining life or death and that's not a power that I want to have," Barnes said.
Saying he did this for "hundreds of men," Barnes continued, "I would describe it as preferential treatment."
Barnes has previously stated under oath that he "had no contact with anyone in the Bush family" to get their son in the National Guard and now says that he was asked by Houston businessman Sid Adger, now deceased, to recommend the young Bush as the businessman requested help for his own son.
As reported by the Associated Press in July of 1999, Barnes at the time said, "I never spoke to Congressman Bush about his son. The story is false."
Barnes offered no proof, other than his own word, that anyone ever asked him to help Bush obtain a pilot's slot in the National Guard.
Rather did quote from documents found in the files of deceased Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian and interviewed Robert Strong, friend and colleague of Killian then, and college professor now, in an attempt to establish the documents are valid.
Strong said the documents were "compatible with the way business was done at that time and compatible with the way things were done at that time."
Strong also said he saw many well connected young men pull strings to get into the National Guard, but he did not make any charge that George Bush did so.
In 1971, Barnes was connected to a banking scandal that brought his own political career to a close. The scandal involved stock sales from a Texas bank. Some Texas politicians were convicted and sentenced. Many others were voted out of office according to reports in the Dallas Morning News in 1999.
Lt. Gov. Barnes who was expected to be elected governor and perhaps someday to challenge for the White House was caught in the fallout.
In 1998, Barnes was accused of funneling $500,000 to an official of the Texas Lottery. Barnes did not deny giving the official the money but claimed it was for work not connected to the lottery, again reported in the Dallas Morning News at the time.
The lottery official was eventually sentenced to federal prison, but Barnes was never charged.
Rather acknowledged at the beginning of the segment that Barnes is a Democrat actively raising money for John Kerry.
Today Barnes is a lobbyist, a Kerry campaign adviser, and is one of eleven "super-bundlers" from Texas. A "super-bundler" is a fundraiser who raises copious sums of money for Democratic candidates.
Barnes is also a big money fundraiser for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, holding a cocktail party for donors as recently as opening night of the Democratic convention in Boston last month.
Barnes has donated to Democratic candidates, as can be established through public information, much of which is available on the Internet. He has donated over $380,000 to a long list of campaigns such as John Kerry for President; the Kerry Committee; Kerry-Edwards 2004 Inc.; Bob Graham for President; Gore2000 Inc.; the Democratic National Committee; the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee; and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
In addition, Barnes is on record as contributing to Democratic congressional candidates Tom Daschle, Maria Cantwell, Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Patrick Kennedy, Carl Levin, Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman, Ted Kennedy, Patty Murray, Joe Biden, and other well known Democrats.
In the same 60 Minutes segment, Dan Bartlett, White House Communications Director, told CBS reporter John Roberts, in response to documents shown to him by the reporter, "[E]very time President Bush gets near another election, all the innuendo and rumors about President Bush's service in the National Guard come to the forefront."
"And the fact that it's coming up now at a time when President Bush has taken a lead in the polls -- it's not surprising that people like Ben Barnes, long-time activist, Democrat activist, who is a vice chairman of John Kerry, would be making these recycled charges of President Bush," Bartlett continued.
"[T]he surfacing of these charges by many people who have partisan purposes behind it, the ads that are coming that denounce President Bush -- Ben Barnes, who has spoken to your program about his alleged involvement in President Bush's entry into the National Guard -- all of these things are coming out now, as they do every year when President Bush goes through an election," Bartlett said.
Referring to documents found in Killian's files and shown to him by Roberts, Bartlett said, "[T]hese documents state exactly what we said, and that is President Bush didn't take the flight exam because he was going to a unit that didn't fly his plane. And in that very document you're showing it says that he was working out with the staff to find a unit that he could train with, but it was going to be in a non-flying capacity."
"[T]he other memorandum in your possession shows that he spoke to the commander who made that order to talk about his personal situation in the fact that he was going to Alabama. So at every step of the way, President Bush was meeting his requirements, granted permission to meet his requirements. And that's why President Bush received an honorable discharge," Bartlett explained.
The Barnes interview was the most recent in a series of negative programs about Bush or his administration conducted by CBS and 60 Minutes.
According to Brent Bozell of Media Research Center (web site), the Barnes interview was at least the fourth prime-time anti-Bush piece to be shown on CBS 60 Minutes in recent months.
CBS promoted anti-Bush books by Paul O'Neill, Dick Clarke, and Bob Woodward, an interview of the Kerry/Edwards families by Leslie Stahl, an extended promotional clip of the Michael Moore movie, "Farhenheit 911," and multiple stories on prison abuse at Abu Ghraib.
CBS 60 Minutes has yet to interview a member of the Swift Boat Veterans who have aired ads against John Kerry's claims concerning his Vietnam Service according to the MRC website.
The president also came under fire on the same day as the 60 Minutes interview by a liberal newspaper and a new TV ad paid for by "Texans for Truth," a group which according to USA Today receives funding from MoveOn.org, a 527 group supporting John Kerry.
The TV ad features a former lieutenant colonel in the Alabama Air National Guard who says he never saw Lt. George W. Bush at his unit and he is sure he would have seen him if he had been there.
Texans for Truth is spending up to a quarter of a million dollars to run the ad in battleground states this week.
Although Democrats often deny collusion with 527 groups and mainstream media, Democratic National Chairman Terry McAuliffe was quoted Wednesday saying, "This is a very big issue. This is a very big issue for the American public."
"The president has been caught in direct contradiction -- lies -- and all I can tell you is that the president's credibility is issue No. 1," McAuliffe continued.
Taking it one step further, McAuliffe told a UPI reporter, "George Bush's allies have made an issue of John Kerry's service. And we are going to make issue of the president's credibility. ... All of this is on the table. And it's going to be on the table between now and November 2nd."
Republican sources attribute the revival of the issue of the president's National Guard service to John Kerry's recent drop in the polls.
What I really wish someone would explain is why can all of these 'Rats go on TV and admit to serious crimes and then get APPLAUDED by the leftists for slamming Bush?
After the forged documents scandal escalates CBS should pull Producer Don Hewitt out of retirement to give Dan a good spanking for discrediting the series Don spent decades building.
Finally Rather is exposed. A little more egg Please!
I once posted that I would love to see Dan Blather being dragged off by men in white coats, kicking a screaming. Could this be it?
kicking and screaming
I wanna see Rather dragged off in HANDCUFFS!!
There is just too much good news today. Too much to keep track of!!
After being found with an underage prostitute!! . . . In BJ Klintoon's basement!!
Even better: I want these forgeries to be found on Dan's computer hard drive.
"No soup for you!"
In an e-mail from John sKerry.
John F'n Kerry is making the issue of his military service, all 4+ months of it, since he has NO record of being in the Senate for 19 years.......
"I'm not here to bring any harm to George Bush's political career,"
Ben Barnes has donated almost $50000.00 to the 'Rats in the last year!
http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=TX&last=barnes&first=ben
Rather can't handle the truth!!!
What a beginning statement. That's like saying "I'm not going to kill you, as you raise the butcher knife above their head and sink it into their heart" Dan Rather needs to be removed from CBS and slither back to his hole.
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