Navy Backs Kerry
Ah, how I love the smell of good investigative journalism in the morning ....
Yet more proof of Kerry's version
UPDATE: Is the dam breaking??? David Corn has this flashback to Bush's 1978 Congressional Campaign:
Putting aside the controversy over Bush's Air National Guard service (or dereliction of duty), there was another instance when Bush clearly did not speak truthfully about his military record. In 1978, Bush, while running for Congress in West Texas, produced campaign literature that claimed he had served in the US Air Force. According to a 1999 Associated Press report, Bush's congressional campaign ran a pullout ad in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal that declared he had served "in the US Air Force and the Texas Air National Guard where he piloted the F-102 aircraft."Bush lost that congressional race, but twenty-one years later, the AP questioned him about the ad. The news outlet had a good reason to do so. Bush had never served in the Air Force. He had only been in the Air National Guard. But when AP asked Bush if he had been justified in claiming service in the Air Force, Bush, then the governor of Texas and a presidential candidate, said, "I think so, yes. I was in the Air Force for over 600 days." Karen Hughes, his spokeswoman, maintained that when Bush attended flight school for the Air National Guard from 1968 to 1969 he was considered to be on active duty for the Air Force and that several times afterward he had been placed on alert, which also qualified as active duty for the Air Force. All told, she said, Bush had logged 607 days of training and alerts. "As an officer [in the Air National Guard]," she told the AP, "he was serving on active duty in the Air Force."
But this explanation was wrong. Says who? The Air Force. As the Associated Press reported,
The Air Force says that Air National Guard members are considered 'guardsmen on active duty' while receiving pilot training. They are not, however, counted as members of the overall active-duty Air Force.
Anyone in the Air National Guard is always considered a guardsmen and not a member of the active-duty Air Force, according to an Air Force spokeswoman in the Pentagon. A National Guard member may be called to active duty for pilot training or another temporary assignment and receive active-duty pay at the time, but they remain Guard members.
The AP report said, "It may be a question of semantics." But today I checked with two spokespersons for the US Air Force, and each confirmed that an active-duty member of the Air National Guard is not considered a member of the US Air Force. "If a member of the Air National Guard is in pilot training," says Captain Cristin Lesperance of the US Air Force media relations office, "they would remain on the Guard books. They would be counted as Guard, not as an active-duty Air Force member."
So where was all the hollering about Bush's exaggeration of his military service? True, Bush was hyping his military record way back in 1978. But he repeated and defended the misrepresentation in 1999 while campaigning for the White House. And, no doubt, Kerry's critics would consider any remark Kerry made twenty-six years ago fair game. Admiral Roy Hoffman, a founder of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, recently said that his group is not politically motivated: "It would make no difference if John Kerry were a Republican, Democrat or an Independent, Swift Boat veterans would still be speaking the truth concerning John Kerry's military service record." But are any of Kerry's accusers willing to criticize Bush for falsely representing his service?
SIDENOTE: The basis of the story above seems to originate from the J.H. Hatfield Book "Fortunate Son" so make of it what you will. But I'd suspect the records of the Lubbock newspaper could be researched by an enterprising soul.
SIDENOTE II: The story also got some minor play in the Union Leader during the GOP primary. Still, it takes on some added significance now. It is, after all, a character issue ... unless there's some flip-flopping going on about that now.
UPDATE 2.0: O'Neill caught in another lie, this one involving the "Kerry would have been court martialed had he been in Cambodia" canard. Josh delivers the goods that place O'Neill himself in Cambodia ... that is, if you take him for his own word.
Also, worth following up on ... O'Neill claimed as part of his bipartisan bonafides that he donated to Bill White for Mayor. Nevermind that Houston city offices are not partisan (that is, unless Michael Berry and Peter Brown have anything to do with it). Campaign finance reports have been downloaded and whenever time permits, I'm tracking down that one. Wouldn't surprise me, in that seemingly EVERYONE donated to White. But still, its worth checking.