Barnes Upset About Helping Bush Avoid War

[Khephra]

AUSTIN, Texas -- Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes' recollections over how he helped President Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War have evolved over the years from fuzzy to distinct, with him now expressing remorse for what he did.

Barnes, a Democrat who was one of the most powerful politicians in Texas in the '60s and '70s, said at an Austin campaign rally for Democrat John Kerry that he was "ashamed" for helping Bush and sons of other wealthy Texans avoid service in Vietnam.

"I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard ... and I'm not necessarily proud of that, but I did it," Barnes said in a video clip recorded on May 27, which was posted on the Internet and touted to media organizations last month just before the start of the GOP National Convention.

Barnes plans to talk more about his role on "60 Minutes" Wednesday night. In excerpts released by CBS, Barnes said he shouldn't have had the power "to choose who was going to Vietnam and who was not."

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-bush-barnes,0,1102996.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines