Just when it seemed like the story couldn’t get any stranger, the Bush AWOL controversy takes a few more twists and turns.
Though the White House had insisted that Bush’s medical records would not be released, the White House did release a one-page record of a dental exam last night, which reportedly proves Bush was at Dannelly Air National Guard base in Montgomery, Ala., on Jan. 6, 1973. Press Secretary Scott McClellan went so far as to insist that the document proves Bush fulfilled his responsibilities in Alabama.
None of this makes sense. First, a report of dental exam certainly doesn’t prove Bush met his requirements. Second, and far more importantly, Bush wasn’t even in Alabama in January 1973.
As this timeline shows, Bush moved out of Alabama in November 1972 and returned to Houston after the Senate campaign he was working on ended unsuccessfully. He began working at PULL, a mentoring program for kids in inner-city Houston, in January.
I suppose it’s possible that Bush left Alabama in November, started working in Houston in January, then returned to Alabama for a dental exam after blowing off mandatory physicals in the past, only to immediately go back to work in Houston, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Maybe if the White House released all of Bush’s records, the picture would be clearer, but, of course, that hasn’t happened yet.
Speaking of releasing all the records, let’s check the tape again from this past weekend to review what Bush said and to see if the White House is honoring his pledge.
Russert: But you would allow pay stubs, tax records, anything to show that you were serving during that period?
Bush: Yeah. If we still have them, but I, you know, the records are kept in Colorado, as I understand, and they scoured the records. And I’m just telling you, I did my duty, and it’s politics, you know, to kind of ascribe all kinds of motives to me. But I have been through it before. I’m used to it. What I don’t like is when people say serving in the Guard is, is, may not be a true service.
Russert: But you authorize the release of everything to settle this?
Bush: Yes, absolutely. We did so in 2000, by the way.
Pretty clear, right? Not to the White House. As the Washington Post explained, “[A]ides [have] backed away from his weekend pledge to release all his military records…. Administration officials declined yesterday to commit to releasing further records, despite a statement Sunday by Bush on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ that he would open his entire military file.”
In fact, Scott McClellan apparently wants to pretend Bush never said “yes, absolutely” to a question about whether he’d “authorize the release of everything to settle this.” From yesterday’s briefing:
Reporter: On “Meet the Press,” the President was asked, “When allegations were made about John McCain or Wesley Clark on their military records, they opened up their entire files. Would you agree to do that?” And the President replied, “Yeah.” Is that still your position?
McClellan: The President — the specific question was about service, whether or not he had served in the military, if you go back to look at the context of the discussion. And the President said, if we have them, we’ll release them, relating to that issue. We have released what additional documents came to our attention.
And just when you thought this couldn’t get any more bizarre, USA Today notes that a former Texas Guard official is arguing that Bush’s Guard files were “cleansed” for his protection and that he overheard Bush’s former chief of staff tell the state Guard commander, “We certainly don’t want anything that is embarrassing in there.”
As Texas Gov. George W. Bush prepared to run for president in the late 1990s, top-ranking Texas National Guard officers and Bush advisers discussed ways to limit the release of potentially embarrassing details from Bush’s military records, a former senior officer of the Texas Guard said Wednesday.
A second former Texas Guard official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, was told by a participant that commanders and Bush advisers were particularly worried about mentions in the records of arrests of Bush before he joined the National Guard in 1968, the second official said.
Bill Burkett, then a top adviser to the state Guard commander, said he overheard conversations in which superiors discussed “cleansing” the file of damaging information.
Admittedly, Burkett’s credibility has been called into question — he’s had conflicts with Bush and the Texas Guard in the past. Yet, USA Today has a secondary source who corroborates Burkett’s allegation. Kevin Drum, who’s been covering the story as well as any journalist in the nation, has more about this point.