Kristol (NYT) quotes the coWard's MBA prof....

[speedoo]

He says the coWard told him poppy's friends got him into TANG, and, get his, poppy's pals also arranged for his early "honorable discharge"!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/15/opinion/15kris.html

The prof also provides some very interesting recollections of what the coWard used to say, back then: "people are poor because they are lazy" and "civil rights is communism/socialism".

Hmmm, shrub might not say any of this stuff publicly anymore, but I have no doubt he still believes it, aling with the rest of the BFEE.

[IndianaGreen]

1. Duh? Why should we be surprised that Bush repeated GOP mantra?

Why should we be surprised that Bush repeated GOP mantra about the New Deal as socialist, calling the S.E.C. an impediment to business, referring to the civil rights movement as "socialist/communist" and declaring that "people are poor because they're lazy." All Republicans say the same thing, and far too many Democrats (of the DLC variety) would agree with most of what Bush said, which eventually became the core of Reaganism. I don't know why Professor Tsurumi would act which such phony outrage about something that all Republicans have been saying for decades.

It's pretty clear that Mr. Bush got into the Guard because of his name but did a fine job in his first few years. "He was rock-solid as a pilot," Dean Roome, a pilot in the same unit who was briefly Mr. Bush's roommate, told me. Mr. Roome adds that Mr. Bush inquired in 1970 about the possibility of transferring to Vietnam but was turned down - and, if so, that's a credit to him.

Then, in 1972, something went badly wrong. My hunch is that Mr. Bush went through personal difficulties that he's embarrassed to talk about today. In addition, Mr. Roome suggests that changes at the Texas air base were making it more difficult for junior pilots, so sometimes Mr. Bush's only chance to fly was as a target for student pilots - not the most thrilling duty.

I will also point out that by 1972 the war in Vietnam was essentially over. We were in the middle of a draw down of troops. None of this is relevant to today. It doesn't take a genius to know that Bush did have a history of alcohol and drug abuse. Bush admitted as much when he "witnessed" about his faith.

As to missing drills, people miss drills all the time and records are doctored to cover this up. This is a fact in the Army National Guard that Army auditors run into all the time. I am certain that the same thing has happened with the Air National Guard.

There is no disputing the fact that Bush was not called to active duty for missing drills, an oversight that was not uncommon at the time, and that he did receive an honorable discharge.

During Vietnam, people that had served their active duty, were told to report to a reserve unit after they got their DD-214 discharge papers. Many people did not bother to do so, and they still got their honorable discharges when their 6-year commitment was up.

[TomClash]

3. Hmmm

So where is his DD-214? There's no honorable discharge without that.

There were still about 300,000 troops in Vietnam in 1972, double the number in Iraq now. The Xmas bombing happened in '72.

It's relevant to those whose National Guard family members were KIA or wounded in Iraq. This President with his spotty National Guard service sends these people to war when he did not exactly "serve honorably" himself.

[Sugarbleus]

2. I posted a piece on his prof. months ago... I'm ecstatic that

the professor's testimony is making a huge comeback! Wooooohooooooo

Thank you Mr. Tsurumi!!