Doubts raised on Bush accuser (Burkett)

Boston Globe ^ | 2/14/04

[ambrose]

Doubts raised on Bush accuser

Key witness disputes charge by Guard retiree that files were purged

By Michael Rezendes, Globe Staff, 2/13/2004

For at least six years, a retired Texas National Guard officer has maintained that President Bush's record as a member of the Guard was purged of potentially embarrassing material at the behest of high-ranking Bush aides laying the groundwork for Bush's 2000 run for the presidency.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett, who has been pressing his charges in the national news media this week, says he even heard one high-ranking officer issue a 1997 order to sanitize the Bush file, and later saw another officer poring over the records and discovered that some had been discarded.

But a key witness to some of the events described by Burkett has told the Globe that the central elements of his story are false.

George O. Conn, a former chief warrant officer with the Guard and a friend of Burkett's, is the person whom Burkett says led him to the room where the Bush records were being vetted. But Conn says he never saw anyone combing through the Bush file or discarding records.

"I have no recall of that," Conn said. "I have no recall of that whatsoever. None. Zip. Nada."

Conn's recollection also undercuts another of Burkett's central allegations: that he overheard Bush's onetime chief of staff, Joe M. Allbaugh, telling a Texas Guard general to make sure there were no embarrassments in the Bush record.

[ClancyJ]

Gosh - I'm impressed. You are so right. And, it is such a simple logical answer.

Wonder what is going on with the comment that the White House might release more military records? (Could THEY be forgeries? Just kidding - couldn't resist throwing that in. But, let's see what Dan has to say about those records - it will be very telling about what he was up to.)

[Southack]

Your kind are a dime a dozen. *Everybody* tries to think of things that can go wrong. Some of those people even take it one step further and *always* find things wrong with every possible action. This group call itself "realists" whenever it is correctly labeled as "pessimists."

On the other hand, the *few* people who make it to the top, do so because they looked for ways to make the world work regardless of what is in front of them. These people are forever labeled as "dreamers" until they become successful, at which time they are labeled as lucky.

Being contrarian, seeing the glass always half empty, doesn't win; not in court, not in business, not in love, not in life.

On the other hand, finding ways to say "Yes" has a very high success ratio.

When I go into business meetings with new players, one of the many things that I observe is who in the group is looking for ways to say "No" to a business deal, and who is trying to find a way to make it work.

The ones who say "No" must be dispatched with (subtley, of course). They argue, cause dissent, and will actively sabotage progress.

In this saga, Burkett is that type of player. He calls himself a "rule follower", but what that really means is that he wants things to go his way (i.e. without much if any change), and anyone who threatens that way will be retaliated against. Rest assured that Burkett argued with superiors who dared suggest change.

The AWB Has Expired - Gun Owners Have Won Again For All Americans!

[ClancyJ]

..I want to go to sleep on election night nice and early.
...

Yeah, sure. It will be an edge-of-the-seat, finger-nail chomping, up and down night even more tense than last time.

[Exigence]

I do believe that if we had had the Internet in the 60's, the lies would have been stopped in their tracks as we are trying now.

Hear, hear. Long live the Internet and Talk Radio.

[Hank All-American]

First of all, being a contrarian doesn't make one a pessimist. If others see the glass half empty, I often see it half full.

Second of all, I make one hell of a lot of money. My clients pay me because I take care of things for them. I don't do it by quoting Norman Vincent Peale. And I certainly don't do it by saying "no." You have the nerve to accuse me of being someone who doesn't try to figure out how to get something done? That's all I do.

Third of all, I never said anything remotely resembling the kinds of things you seem to think. I don't like all the coverage this is getting because it is giving democrats the opportunity to press their talking points. It may not work. It may be hurting them. I just don't like it. It's a distraction. Kerry needs a distraction more than Bush does. I hope I'm wrong.

And I don't have any idea how your business philosophy has anything to do with my assessment of this issue. So, I suppose you just thought Bush 41 was going to walk into a second term? I mean, to think otherwise would have been pessimistic, right? You must have been certain Dole would romp over Clinton, because we wouldn't want to think about what could go wrong, right? Well, I didn't. I've correctly picked every presidential election a month or so out since I was a kid in 1980. It's not a crystal ball, I just looked at how things shaped up during the campaign. I think Bush will win. But nothing is guaranteed and I don't like anything that takes away from what I perceived to be a nascent but growing sense of inevitability that has been interrupted.

Excuse me for not parroting the party line.

[ambrose]

If Bush were going to have something done with his records, he would have replaced the documents with bland documents saying he met all the requirements. Come on! If he had that kind of access to the records, why leave holes that the morons would exploit?

More to the point, the alleged Killian documents are said to have been in Killian's own personal "CYA" file. Killian's CYAN file would not have been apart of W's official guard record.

[Southack]

"Kerry needs a distraction more than Bush does. I hope I'm wrong."

You're wrong, here's why:

Kerry is behind. Bush has momentum. Bush only needs to hold most of the states that he won in 2000 to win in 2004 (the 2000 census gave those states additional electoral votes).

Kerry in 2004 can't compete well in those Bush 2000 states, however, because being an elite New England liberal hippie anti-war attorney turned Lt Governor under Dukakis and Senator with a more liberal voting record than Ted Kennedy - doesn't play very well in the Heartland.

Worse for Kerry, he's got no catchy slogan, no big policy idea such as an income tax cut to die for, and worse for him still, he can't compete with the daily news of hurricanes, Democratic scandals, and world events.

That makes it tough for him to sway voters.

So in poll after poll he is dropping and dropping nationwide. He's behind in the Democratic state of New Jersey now, for instance, where Democrats vastly outnumber Republicans.

His only hope is that Bush is somehow swallowed by some giant scandal, but that sort of long shot just isn't going to happen because Bush had to be squeaky clean to beat Ma Richards and Al Gore.

In the meantime, Bush is running out the clock. Kerry is down, on defense, and the clock is ticking.

The AWB Has Expired - Gun Owners Have Won Again For All Americans!

[Hank All-American]

I think it's too early to start running out the clock. We haven't even had a debate yet. If it were three weeks from the election, maybe. It's precisely because Bush has had the momentum that I don't like this being all that's talked about. I think it's disruptive.

It's not like I think this is ruining him or a boon for Kerry. I just think it doesn't help Bush, and has gotten him off message.

You are definitely right about one thing--the change in the distribution of electoral votes nationwide since 2000 definitely puts more pressure on Kerry.

Running out the clock is okay under some circumstances, but I'd rather be running up the score.

[zip]

ping

[Hank All-American]

The new Harris poll is just what I've been worried about. I'd like to think it's an outlier, but I'd have to dismiss the IBD poll, too.

I just hope once CBS is forced to drop the pretense that there have merely been "questions raised" about the documents, this will move in Bush's favor.

State polls have been encouraging, I just don't know how much of this news cycle they've absorbed.

[zip]

The 800 billion drug benefit package has not even started to kick in yet.

That's about 25,000 dollars per retiree per year. Source??

[Ann Archy]

I know you're new, but this is NOT hurting Bush as all the polls show!!

[meenie]

GAO. The program starts in '06. 80 billion a year for ten years. That is in addition to regular medicare.

[zip]

for ten years

That's the answer.

[Hank All-American]

I just don't think it's a good thing to have this much attention paid to this issue. It takes him off message, it allows the Democrats to keep trying to chip away at his credibility during the non-stop interview cycle on the story, and it let's Kerry regroup far removed from the scrutiny he'd been receiving.

I'm encouraged by a few state polls I've seen, but you can't say "all the polls" say this isn't hurting him. The only two national polls I've seen since this started were the IBD poll, which had Kerry up by one nationwide, and the Harris poll, which had them tied. I hope those are wrong.

[Hank All-American]

And, as I feared, the Pew poll just released today has Bush and Kerry tied. That means three national polls since this story broke show Bush's lead wiped out. Only Rasmussen has him ahead, and that's only by four.

The effect of the story could be short-lived, as more and more people come to learn the documents were forged. But I've never thought such relentless attention to this kind of story would help him, and I still don't. I think these poll numbers bear me out.

But I guess I'm just a "newbie" who doesn't know anything.

[e_castillo]

I'm pretty sure I remember this being brought during Bush's run for Governor. I think all the info on Burkett isn't out yet. I don't think all of Burketts trouble with Bush isn't about being denied medical coverage from the state.

[Hank All-American]

Although I'm seeing the Gallup poll is showing Bush up by 14. Boy, I hope that's right.

[CFC__VRWC]

Old Dan's going to have to call in a lot of favors, but it looks as though old Howie Kurtz and Dana Milbank are already starting to carry the water.

Howard Kurtz has been one of the few in the MSM who have really been hammering Rather and CBS over the memos. Is he starting to taste the Kool Aid now? As far as Milbank goes, a dog turd you scrape off the bottom of your shoe is nicer and has more value.

[NavySEAL F-16]

The LSM is finding themselves in quite a dilemma. Trying to save Dan while not destroying their own credibility.