Posted on 09/19/2004 7:10:46 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
AUSTIN, Texas - A retired Texas National Guard official mentioned as a possible source for disputed documents about President Bush (news - web sites)'s service in the Guard said he passed along information to a former senator working with John Kerry (news - web sites)'s campaign
Also, a White House official said Saturday that Bush has reviewed disputed documents that purport to show he refused orders to take a physical examination in 1972 and did not recall having seen them previously.
The long-running story on Bush's Texas Air National Guard service took an unusual twist when CBS broadcast a report on what it said were the newly discovered records. The authenticity of the documents has come into doubt.
In his first public comment on the CBS documents controversy, the president told The Union Leader of Manchester, N.H., "There are a lot of questions about the documents, and they need to be answered."
The retired Guard official, Bill Burkett, said in an Aug. 21 e-mail to a list of Texas Democrats that after getting through "seven layers of bureaucratic kids" in the Democrat's campaign, he talked with former Georgia Sen. Max Cleland about information that would counter criticism of Kerry's Vietnam War service. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the e-mail Saturday.
"I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. (Cleland) said counterattack. So I gave them the information to do it with," Burkett wrote.
Burkett, who lives just outside of Abilene, wrote that no one at the Kerry campaign called him back.
The e-mail was distributed to a Yahoo list of Texas Democrats. The site, which had about 570 members Saturday, is not affiliated with the state party.
Republican National Committee (news - web sites) spokesman Jim Dyke suggested collaboration between Burkett and the Kerry campaign. "The trail of connections is becoming increasingly clear," he said.
In the telephone interview published Saturday, Bush replied "I don't know" to a question whether the White House had evidence that either the Kerry campaign or the Democratic Party were involved in releasing the disputed papers.
"The Kerry campaign had absolutely nothing to do with these documents, no ifs, ands or buts," spokesman David Wade said. "Jim Dyke inhabits the fantasy world of spin where George Bush (news - web sites) pretends we haven't lost millions of jobs and everything in Iraq (news - web sites) is coming up roses. He'd be better served getting answers from the president, not hurling baseless attacks."
Burkett, who identifies himself as a Democrat, did not return several phone messages left by The Associated Press over the past week. There was no answer at his telephone number Saturday.
Burkett's lawyer, David Van Os, a Democratic candidate for the Texas Supreme Court, issued a statement this week saying Burkett "no longer trusts any possible outcome of speaking to the press on any issue regarding George W. Bush."
Burkett, who retired from the National Guard in 1999, has been cited in media reports as a source for the CBS News "60 Minutes" story about documents allegedly written by one of Bush's former commanders that indicated the future president ignored an order to take a physical.
The authenticity of the documents has been called into question by some experts and relatives of the late Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, who supposedly wrote them when he supervised Bush in 1972 and 1973. One of the memos indicated that Killian had been pressured to sugarcoat Bush's performance.
CBS has stood by its reporting, but said the network would redouble its efforts to determine the authenticity of the documents.
Leading operatives for the Texas Democratic Party did not receive Burkett's August e-mail, said Kelly Fero, one of the state party's strategists.
"The Democrats who run the party and are sort of the main strategists in Texas never saw it," Fero said. "We have lots of groups of Democrats who communicate among themselves constantly by e-mail."
Burkett, 55, told the AP in a lengthy telephone interview in February that he now is a supporter of Democrats, although at the time he said he didn't necessarily back Kerry.
He said he overheard a conversation in 1997 between then-Gov. Bush's chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh, and then-Adjutant Gen. Daniel James of the Texas Air National Guard in which the two men spoke of getting rid of any military records that would "embarrass the governor."
Burkett said he saw documents from Bush's file discarded in a trash can a few days later at Camp Mabry in Austin. Burkett described them as performance and pay documents. Allbaugh and James denied the allegations.
Burkett retired from the National Guard after more than 28 years of service because of medical reasons. He was involved in a lawsuit against the Guard over his medical benefits, which he lost on appeal.
___
Associated Press writers Scott Lindlaw in Kennebunkport, Maine, and Liz Austin in Dallas contributed to this report.
Help me here, please. No one, in the media, is talking about the following article from NBC. The article is two pages long. I pasted just a few paragraphs. Realizing that it was posted and buried late Friday afternoon, I figured it would be talked about Saturday and Sunday. Still not a word.
The great Mark Levin was reading it on about 7:00pm Friday just seconds before his program was inturrupted and replaced by Curtis Sliwa. Has anyone heard it mentioned?
Speaking Out
Air National Guard Colonel Denies Bush Got Preferential Treatment
ABCNEWS.com
ABC News' Ariane DeVogue contributed to this report.
Sept. 17, 2004— The man cited in media reports as having allegedly pressured others in the Texas Air National Guard to help George W. Bush is speaking out, telling ABC News in an exclusive interview that he never sought special treatment for Bush.
Retired Col. Walter Staudt, who was brigadier general of Bush's unit in Texas, interviewed Bush for the Guard position and retired in March 1972. He was mentioned in one of the memos allegedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian as having pressured Killian to assist Bush, though Bush supposedly was not meeting Guard standards.
"I never pressured anybody about George Bush because I had no reason to," Staudt told ABC News in his first interview since the documents were made public.
The memo stated that "Staudt is pushing to sugar coat" a review of Bush's performance.
Staudt said he decided to come forward because he saw erroneous reports on television. CBS News first reported on the memos, which have come under scrutiny by document experts who question whether they are authentic. Killian, the purported author of the documents, died in 1984.
"He didn't use political influence to get into the Air National Guard," Staudt said, adding, "I don't know how they would know that, because I was the one who did it and I was the one who was there and I didn't talk to any of them."
There's a whole lot o' scurryin' goin' on.
BTTT
ABC Radio ran his quotes live and then it just faded. They don't want that kind of news.
"He's very bright; he's not a hayseed," said Royse Kerr, chairman of the Taylor County Democratic Club, which last spring invited Burkett to speak to the members about the "state of politics in America."
Burkett, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Texas National Guard, mentioned then what he had told several reporters last winter -- that he believes Bush aides ordered the destruction of portions of the president's National Guard record because they might have been politically embarrassing. But that was "tangential" to "the framing of his thesis," Kerr said. "What we heard was to demand more honesty of our politicians." .........***
Something or someone has scared Burkett--could be the threat of some jail time for forgery or someone from DNC who simply threatened him. This guy has craved the spot light for too long to suddenly decide he doesn't want to speak to the press.
They know about it in New Zealand
***....Retired Col. Walter Staudt, who headed Bush's unit in Texas, told ABC News Bush had not used his family connections to avoid being sent to Vietnam.
"He didn't use political influence to get into the Air National Guard," Staudt said. "No one called me about taking George Bush into the Air National Guard. It was my decision." ***
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=Retired+Col.+Walter+Staudt&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d
"The Kerry campaign had absolutely nothing to do with these documents"
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky."
Bump!
Here are some quotes from the haunted history of political cover-up that immediately spring to mind:
"What did they know and when did they know it?"
"Follow the money."
"Mistakes were made."
"I did not have sex with that woman..."
"It depends what the meaning of 'is' is."
In an Aug. 21 posting, Burkett referred to a conversation with former senator Max Cleland (D-Ga.) about the need to counteract Republican tactics:
"I asked if they wanted to counterattack or ride this to ground and outlast it, not spending any money. He said counterattack. So I gave them the information to do it with. But none of them have called me back."
Cleland confirmed that he had a two- or three-minute conversation by cell phone with a Texan named Burkett in mid-August while he was on a car ride. He remembers Burkett saying that he had "valuable" information about Bush, and asking what he should with it.
"I told him to contact the [Kerry] campaign," Cleland said. "You get this information tens of times a day, and you don't know if it is legit or not."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A30043-2004Sep17?language=printer
All you have to do is look at the Kerry handlers, to know that they deal in dirty tricks.
AND
If no one says anything, they can't prove it. - Bill Clinton
"Something or someone has scared Burkett--could be the threat of some jail time for forgery or someone from DNC who simply threatened him. This guy has craved the spot light for too long to suddenly decide he doesn't want to speak to the press."
"My name is Bill. Why does everyone keep calling me Vince?"
Kerry wanted to link himself to Cleland because he thought that Cleland was a good symbol of victimization. Kerry wanted to liken all Americans to victims, and portray Bush as the victimizer. It is somewhat ironic, then, that Cleland has played such an important role in Kerry's demise, and that he did it by making Bush appear to be a victim of Kerry and his dirty tricksters.
This is a small thing, but notice how they say Burkett is "intelligent" even though he lives out in the country, he's not one of them "hayseeds"?
Harrumph. I live waaaay out in the country and I bet a lot of other freepers do too.
I think I am obsessed about wishing and hoping that this all gets thrown into the lap of the DNC/Kerry party. Rather is retiring after the elections. Who cares what happens to him.
Exactly, JFKerry and his campaign better not tick this guy off, there will be .ell to pay.
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