The widow of a Bush family confidant;Alabama Senate campaign job

[cal04]

Linda Allison's story, never before published, contradicts the Bush campaign's assertion that George W. Bush transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to the Alabama National Guard in 1972 because he received an irresistible offer to gain high-level experience on the campaign of Bush family friend Winton "Red" Blount. In fact, according to what Allison says her late husband told her, the younger Bush had become a political liability for his father, who was then the United States ambassador to the United Nations, and the family wanted him out of Texas. "I think they wanted someone they trusted to keep an eye on him," Linda Allison said.

After more than three decades of silence, Allison spoke with Salon over several days before and during the Republican National Convention this week -- motivated, as she acknowledged, by a complex mixture of emotions. They include pride in her late husband's accomplishments, a desire to see him remembered, and concern about the apparent double standard in Bush surrogates attacking John Kerry's Vietnam War record while ignoring the president's irresponsible conduct during the war. She also admits to bewilderment and hurt over the rupture her husband experienced in his friendship with George and Barbara Bush. To this day, Allison is unsure what caused the break, though she suspects it had something to do with her husband's opposition to the elder Bush becoming chairman of the Republican National Committee under President Nixon.

"Something happened that I don't know about. But I do know that Jimmy didn't expect it, and it broke his heart," she said, describing a ruthless side to the genial Bush clan of which few outsiders are aware.


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/02/allison/index.html

[annxburns]

1. Noiyce!

Not about Barnes or ribbongate - something new!

[Old and In the Way]

2. Keep this kicked.......it really does make sense when you think about it.

Bush was obviously out of control in Texas at that time and he was becoming a liability to his father. The solution? Ship Dimson out of state where he was a relatively unknown. Let one of his cronies deal with the loser...

[blm]

6. What bank was Bush heading after his CIA gig?

Was it a bank that did business with BCCI?

[Wickerman]

3. This has missing link potential!

could tie some stuff together!

[ocean girl]

4. Very interesting story! n/t

[blm]

5. Wow...what a read.

Always remember what Nixon said about Barbara Bush - Noone can hate like Barbara Bush hates.

[Raster]

8. The Austin Chronicle: He's Coming Back <just for fun...

...Let's Do The Time Warp Again!



Gore Vidal doesn't think much of the Bushes, which is no surprise. And according to Vidal, neither did Richard Nixon, who once observed that Bush the Elder was the "sort of person you appoint to office" rather than the sort of person you could envision in the White House. But Nixon admired Barbara Bush -- because "she knows how to hate."

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2000-10-13/pols_feature8.html

[Raster]

7. Kick! Kick! Kick! If you read nothing else in the next 24 hours...

...Read This!

On Edit: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/09/02/allison/index.html

[RamboLiberal]

9. Any DU'ers in Birmingham can look up this story?

The break happened not long after a boozy election-night wake for Blount, who lost his Senate bid to the incumbent Democrat, John Sparkman. Leaving the election-night "celebration," Allison remembers encountering George W. Bush in the parking lot, urinating on a car, and hearing later about how he'd yelled obscenities at police officers that night. Bush left a house he'd rented in Montgomery trashed -- the furniture broken, walls damaged and a chandelier destroyed, the Birmingham News reported in February. "He was just a rich kid who had no respect for other people's possessions," Mary Smith, a member of the family who rented the house, told the newspaper, adding that a bill sent to Bush for repairs was never paid. And a month later, in December, during a visit to his parents' home in Washington, Bush drunkenly challenged his father to go "mano a mano," as has often been reported. (1972)?

This is from posted article.