Posted on 02/03/2004 8:40:05 AM PST by PhiKapMom
RNC RESEARCH
February 3, 2004
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MSNBC's "Imus In The Morning," 2/3/04
DON IMUS: So Senator Kerry, sort of, subtly brought up yesterday, and I guess apparently Terry McAuliffe, who came from under some rock some place probably -- but anyway, they brought up this question about the president's military service and whether, in fact, there was -- whether he was AWOL from the Alabama National Guard. Are those appropriate questions, and should the president answer those questions and clear this up?
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ): That issue came up in the last election cycle. I think they were responded to. If this turns into a nasty campaign, clearly they have to respond to it. But, look, I believe that service in the National Guard is honorable service. There are thousands and thousands of National Guardsmen and women who are in Iraq as we speak, and so to somehow denigrate service in the National Guard is totally inappropriate, and I think there would be a backlash to it if they pursued that.
IMUS: I don't think they're doing that. I think what they're -- the question is, it's fine to be in the National Guard if you go to the meetings. I don't think he went to the meetings. I think that's the charge.
MCCAIN: Well, but that charge was never proven, and again, it was brought up in the primary that President Bush and I were in. I never pursued it. I never asked questions, but there were questions asked by the media about it. I don't know. You know, all is fair in love and war, and maybe they'll have to answer those questions again. But everything I know is that President Bush served honorably in the National Guard, and if you're going to make an allegation that somebody didn't, you better have some pretty good proof besides just throwing it out there. You see my point?
IMUS: Sort of.
MCCAIN: Well, look, I mean, you can accuse anybody of anything. But the burden of proof is on the person who is making the accusation.
IMUS: Well, that's not the way it works. You know that. That's not the way it works.
MCCAIN: Look, I know that President Bush has a record of honorable service during the Vietnam War in the National Guard where he also went through pilot training and flew a rather difficult airplane to fly and did well. And that's what I know about his service, and I will believe that until somebody proves otherwise. I mean, you can't say that you're guilty until you prove yourself innocent.
IMUS: I've always said that he went to enough meetings to learn how to fly one of those planes.
MCCAIN: Yes. And it's a difficult airplane to fly.
IMUS: But if he got transferred to the Alabama National Guard for some reason and then didn't show up for any of those meetings, I don't think...
MCCAIN: But, see, I don't know that that's the case.
IMUS: If you don't know that that's the case, that means it's never cleared up then.
MCCAIN: Everything that I've heard -- every bit of information I've ever heard, I never got into it because I wasn't that interested, is that he served honorably and well. And I assume that to be the case.
Clintons are behind the resurfacing and using their friends in the press to spread the allegations that are without fact. IMO, the Clintons are running this DemocRAT primary for the sole purpose of trashing Pres Bush during the primary season. Kerry was annointed by the Clintons and why the convention was put in Boston. Dean came in and upset plans, so they first jumped on the Edwards bandwagon and got Clark in the race as a new face and in the process started their work in taking out Dean. It worked and after today, would expect Kerry to be carrying the banner for the RATs even stronger. The RAT candidates won't be dropping out so that the race can continue on and the bashing for Pres Bush continue by all the RAT candidates.
IMHO, the DemocRAT Primary is nothing but a farce -- light bulb came on last night that this whole RAT primary has been a farce with the sole intent to destroy Pres Bush's numbers and his credibility during the RAT Primary season. It was and has been orchestrated by the Clintons because Clintonites are involved in all the major candidate campaigns.
BTW -- the bold is mine.
PKM
White House Strikes Back at Critics
By TERENCE HUNT
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House struck back Tuesday at Democratic critics questioning President Bush's record of military service, saying the issue ``represents the worst of election-year politics.''
``It is outrageous and baseless,'' presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said in response to suggestions that Bush shirked his military duties when he was in the Texas Air National Guard in 1972.
Military service has emerged as an issue in the campaign for the White House. Sen. John Kerry, the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark are decorated veterans and remind campaign audiences of their service.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe said Bush was ``AWOL'' during the Vietnam conflict, while former Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia has criticized Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. Clark has criticized Bush for his remark challenging enemy forces to ``bring 'em on'' earlier in postwar Iraq.
Bush was a pilot in the Texas guard during Vietnam but never flew in battle. ``Only someone who hasn't seen war firsthand would ever say anything as fatuous as 'bring 'em on,''' Clark said earlier in the campaign.
Responding to Bush's critics, McClellan said: ``The president fulfilled his duties. That's why he was honorably discharged.'' ``These kinds of attacks have no place in politics, and everyone should condemn them,'' McClellan said. 02/03/04 11:33 EST
Thats the way it looks on the surface, but this:
IMUS: If you don't know that that's the case, that means it's never cleared up then.
MCCAIN: Everything that I've heard -- every bit of information I've ever heard, I never got into it because I wasn't that interested, is that he served honorably and well. And I assume that to be the case.
is probably going to leave more doubt in some people's minds.
Once it became clear that these "weapons of mass destruction" would never be found in Iraq, Imus realized that what McGuirk had been saying for the last year was correct, and I'm sure he's felt very betrayed by the Bush administration. I don't feel the same sense of betrayal, for the same reason that Bernie McGuirk doesn't -- we never bought into the WMD crap in the first place.
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