Whitehouse Briefing – Advanced Ignorance On Display
Posted By John Moore on February 10, 2004
As I watch the interrogation of White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan by the hostile press corps, one thing is obvious.
NOBODY IN THE ROOM has done their homework, including McClellan.
Given Bush’s pay records which show his service days, they are now asking him to explain the “contradiction” between those and some written documents stating that Bush “wasn’t observed” on those days, and that his Alabama base commander hadn’t seen him.
This is idiocy.
First, as has been pointed out by National Guardsmen in the blogosphere, “wasn’t observed” on these reports means that the officer signing the report was not able to observe that the individual did a specific duty. This can mean that the signer was himself not present at the time, or was not in position to observe a specific duty. It is common to see these, and does not mean that the individual was not present.
Second, the Alabama commander has recently stated that he doesn’t even remember if he was at the base during the period in question. If he doesn’t remember his own location, any claim that he doesn’t remember Bush is easy to believe and uterly meaningless. Another blogger contacted General Turnipseed who said that the meida has constantly misrepresented what he said and edited him so as to make Bush look bad, that he never said Bush was AWOL, that the term isn’t even used in that National Guard.
Either Bush is laying a trap (which is possible, given that neither his people nor the press secretary have even raised a hint of Kerry’s post-war treachery) or McClellan failed to properly inform himself.
Debunking The Bush AWOL Story – From The Horse’s Mouth
I say Bush is laying a trap for Democrats. He’s capitalizing on their notion that Bush is “dumb”. The trap started on Sunday with his Meet the Press interview- intentionally weak. Now the defense of his military service. Rabid Democrats will latch onto these issues and be left begging for mercy from the big dummy from Texas before it is all over.
On both the Iraq and war record issues, both will hurt Kerry. He’s a big-government Northeast liberal who voted against every major weapons system for the past 20 years.
Kerry is toast.
The other thing to realize is that “not observed” is placed on a fitness report if the individual is not present long enough for the CO to have formulated an opinion on the reportee. We have to get a new fitness report with every change of command.
I believe Fox when they said they didn’t quash that story. Why would Fox sit on news? This is just more wingnut propaganda to discredit George Bush.
> A secret cabal consisting of Richard Mellon Scaife, Ken Jamieson and John Jay McCloy brought to life Collado’s concept. Maurice Stans and Blount excecuted the plan to send Bush to Saudi Arabia and were later richly awarded by the Saudis.
Bush was doing his Reservist duties in November and December, 1972, and certainly not getting smuggled off to Saudi Arabia on a secret mission while he was so-called AWOL!
Janet Bailley