* agrees to release Vietnam-era Military Records

[annxburns]

In an earlier post, I saw someone mention that Bush may have put his foot in it when he agreed to release his pay stubs and tax returns from 1972. Look how Dana Milbank of the Washington Post is spinning it.


Bush to Release Vietnam-Era Military Records
Sen. Kerry, the Democratic Frontrunner, Says Honorable Discharge Does Not Answer Question About National Guard Service
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 8, 2004; 3:16 PM


President Bush committed to the release of additional military records that would prove definitively whether or not he fulfilled his National Guard duties during the Vietnam War.


Bush, seeking to quell a renewed controversy over whether he earned the honorable discharge he received, said he would "absolutely" release records such as pay stubs that would likely indicate more precisely how often he showed up for duty.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23494-2004Feb8.html

[pa28]

1. He said they can look but "the records were scoured" eom

[Leilani]

2. Good for the Washington Post

Hold him to it...

This guy has never been held accountable in his entire life!

[DrFunkenstein]

3. Can Cocaine And Harken Be Far Behind?

But despite significant media attention this week, the only government official to touch upon the disconnect between the drug use of political leaders and the punitive drug policies that they often espouse was Sen. John Kerry (D-MA).

On Monday, Kerry was asked by reporters to explain why he thought that questions surrounding George Bush regarding whether or not he had used cocaine were more substantively relevant than Gore's use of marijuana. Kerry, noting that Al Gore had already admitted his use of marijuana, said:

"(H)e (Gore) said 'I used it.' So that's not an issue... And I don't think Al Gore intends, you know, to make prior use an issue of other people, except to the degree that it affects public policy."

Pressed later on the question of the Bush cocaine rumors, Kerry laid out his thinking on why Bush's drug use, if substantiated, is indeed an important issue for voters to consider:

"The issue about George Bush is not the fact that he may have used it, said Kerry. "The issue about George Bush is, how can you, if you have (used cocaine), have a position that is so at odds in terms of being a governor where you send a lot of other people who may have done the same thing you do to jail. That's the issue. It's not a question of whether he used it or when he used it, it's a question of what his policy is today and whether that's hypocritical and dangerous."

The Week Online spoke with Kerry Spokesman David Wade, who reiterated the Senator's position.

"The Vice President has long admitted that he has used marijuana," said Wade. "Governor Bush, on the other hand, will say only that when he was young and irresponsible, he was young and irresponsible. But when Bush has had the opportunity to score political points in Texas by promulgating tough, extremely punitive new laws against drug users, he has been happy to do so."

http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/123/gorequestions.shtml

[MasonJar]

4. Many served honorably in the Reserves (still are...in Iraq). Bush

just did NOT happen to be one of them. He knows that the records are scrubbed; they will not show up.

[annxburns]

5. More good reporting by Dana Milbank ...

.... from the same article

"Bush said critics, including conservatives, are "wrong" to say he has not kept control of the federal budget. "If you look at the appropriations bills that were passed under my watch, in the last year of President Clinton, discretionary spending was up 15 percent, and ours have steadily declined," he said.

Federal discretionery spending has grown by more than 25 percent in the past two fiscal years, following average annual increases of 2.4 percent in discretionary spending in the 1990s. "

Okay .. so he is a liar or he can't do math. Not very reassuring.

[Crunchy Frog]

6. I guess Karl Rove

is getting busy with forging the documents right now, so they can be released at the appropriate moment.

I wonder If they will do a better job of forging the pay stubs than they did forging the Niger uranium reciepts? I wonder if any of our so called journalists will even bother to investigate?