Kerry on AWOL: "honorable discharge does not answer that question"

[NewYorkerfromMass]

Looks like the heat is being turned up ever so slowly on this. Excellent!

"....Mr. Bush was most assertive in trying to rebut what some strategists in both parties said could be a potent line of attack against him, the charge that he skipped out on some of his National Guard duties not long after Mr. Kerry served heroically in Vietnam.

"They're just wrong," Mr. Bush said of reports that there was no record of him reporting to his unit in Alabama in 1972, while he was working on a Republican Senate race. "There may be no evidence, but I did report. Otherwise I wouldn't have been honorably discharged."

Mr. Bush said he was "absolutely" willing to have all his service records made public. But he acknowledged that so far no one has been able to find records from the relevant period of his service.

At a news conference in Richmond, Va., Mr. Kerry said he did not know whether Mr. Bush had completed all his Guard duties, but he added that "just because you get an honorable discharge does not in fact answer that question."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/09/politics/campaign/09BUSH.html?pagewanted=print&position=

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. For all of those who said that Kerry was "wishy-washy", LOOK AT...

THIS.

He's not letting up on Bushler.

He is taking the fight right to him.

[judge_smales]

3. *Sigh*

I guess this means that the Kusinich, Clark and Dean supporters here will have to step up their attacks on Kerry. :-(

[jpgray]

2. I hope he keeps W's toes to the fire on this

New revelations keep coming on this issue, and they aren't likely to help Bush.

[Lex]

26. Esp. if the media takes a fancy

to the story.

This + the CIA leak + WMD lie + job losses = Dem. victory in November.

(I hope I hope I hope)

[LiberalBushFan]

4. first Kerry says

"obviously the facts don't support it" and "my campaign's not about this sort of thing"

Now he sees sticking with the charge didn't hurt Clark, so he bravely attacks from the back row.

[judge_smales]

6. Yup. Right on cue

Let's bash the front runner!!

I heard that Kerry drinks baby blood too!!

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. Good for Kerry, But...

Clark is the one who shed Democratic blood over this issue. When he got ambushed at the Fox debate on whether he would repudiate Micheal Moore, no other candidate came to Clark's aid. They let him dangle as the media hounds went at him for not forcefully disassociating himself from such reckless charge. No one wanted to talk about it then, Kerry said Moore was "over the top", UNTIL the story about Bush being AWOL began to get the traction that it did. And the story got that traction only because Clark, interviewed on Sunday morning network TV after that debate, DID NOT move into damage control and furiously back pedal. Clark called Moore an important American leader. That story only got traction because initially it was being used as a club to attack Clark with, and Clark took the blows. AFTER Clark was bloodied, McAuliffe, and Kerry, and un named Democrats near and far, puffed themselves up comparing Kerry's Viet Nam record with Bush's, usually failing to even mention Clark's 34 year service to his country in the military, and his Silver Star in Viet Nam.

[paulk]

10. Politics is a blood sport

and Clark, being the good soldier he is, took one for the team.

[blm]

15. Kerry's campaign team has been honking the AWOLhorn for almost a year now.

Max Cleland and veterans for Kerry have been hitting every vet group and talking about this, for most of last year.

I know...I heard Cleland and Gen. Cheney talk about it in SC last September.

[IndianaGreen]

7. Actually it does! Bush would have gotten a General discharge

if he was AWOL.

Most people alive today are younger than the Vietnam war was over. They don't even know anything about it.

A more important question I would ask of Kerry and Bush is that I want to know if they would oppose evading the draft when there is a war in which the US is the aggressor.

[stopbush]

12. Are you sure about that?

I've read otherwise - ie: that he could have made up the AWOL and received an HD.

And, you may be correct - he should have received a General discharge if he went AWOL...but someone may have pulled strings to modify it to honorable.

[welshTerrier2]

22. a C-Span caller

this morning said that he (the caller) had been AWOL from the service and still received an Honorable Discharge ...

the more important point here, is that daddy could have pulled any strings he wanted to ... if junior needed an HD, and an early exit to go to Harvard, no problem ...

it would be silly to accept an HD as evidence of the fact that he was not AWOL ...

the key evidence I'm waiting to see, and Russert highlighted this on the Imus show this morning, is bush's tax returns for the relevant years ... if he didn't show, he didn't get paid ... bush said on MTP he would release all these tax documents ... but we can't really expect him to do that if doing so would jeopardize national security, now can we ??!!

[Lex]

24. If someone pulled strings

to get Shrubbie an honorable discharge, that will be just be plain FUN to watch unfold.

Nice to see the press finally get interested (regardless of WHO or HOW they got interested frankly) because we've been talking about it since BEFORE the election was stolen in 2000.

[grannylib]

8. What pissed me off most about this was Chimpy trying to spin the

issue to make it appear that those questioning him are disparaging service in the Guard, which is NOT the case at all; he is being questioned on his absence FROM the Guard, not taken to task for enlisting in it...
Moron.

[molly]

9. The military has chosen not to prosecute deserters

from the Guard because of the time and money involved. Especially deserters with many-many of poppy's friends in charge.

[rucky]

11. Typical GOP defense: The ends justify the means

or, "If I get away with it, it must be ok."

[progressivebydesign]

14. thanks for the goofy Bush graphic..

We on GD2004 sometimes forget who we're really fighting! What a dork Bush is!

[progressivebydesign]

13. Good for Kerry! He isn't letting the lies just sit there..

I really admire the way Kerry is sticking with this subject. He's doing a great job in not letting Bush change the subject. Kerry has the ear of the people right now, and he's using it well.

[kodi]

16. as nixon showed, one can be unindicted & a co-conspirator simultaneously

.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

17. as long as Bush remains unelected

I don't care.

[MaddogTerp]

18. I just don't see this being a winning issue

to the military, Bushie is a hero. he scored so many big points with them for that Thanksgiving stunt of his, it wouldn't matter if he was AWOL, they would still love him.

so, what's the point?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

20. Many here will read your post

and laugh hysterically. It is all about smashing those very myths.

[mitchum]

23. HAHAHAHA

so funny...and so wrong

[Forkboy]

25. You gotta be kidding

[Lex]

19. If Poppy could get him into the Guard

by bypassing all the others on the waiting list, then I'm sure Poppy could get him an honorable discharge when he didn't fit the criteria for getting one.

Honorable Discharge, arranged by Poppy George I. No problem.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

21. kick