Sarah
2004-02-24 02:26:47 UTC
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
(February 23, 2004 -- 06:33 PM EDT // link // print)
Run it by the boss first?
This morning we noted that Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot tried
to float the demonstrably false line that President Bush had
volunteered for service in Vietnam, but hadn't been 'selected'.
Now, our first thought was that Mr. Racicot might be angling to be the
next winner of the 'Heather Wilson "I think the American people are a
bunch of god-forsaken idiots" Award'.
But this isn't just a blatant mistatement of the facts that Racicot
apparently believes the press will be too timid to call him on. He's
even contradicting what the president himself said only two weeks ago.
Let's go to the tape ...
"He (i.e. the president) signed up for dangerous duty. He volunteered
to go to Vietnam. He wasn't selected to go, but nonetheless served his
country very well."
Marc Racicot
NPR Interview
February 23rd, 2004
Now, here's what the president himself said just two weeks ago ...
RUSSERT: Were you favor of the war in Vietnam?
BUSH: I supported my government. I did. And would have gone had my
unit been called up, by the way.
RUSSERT: But you didn't volunteer or enlist to go.
BUSH: No, I didn't. You're right.
Meet The Press
February 8th, 2004
And here's an even more candid version of events from the president
from fourteen years ago ...
"I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to
get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to
better myself by learning how to fly airplanes."
George W. Bush, 1990
as quoted in The Houston Chronicle
May 8th, 1994.
No doubt there are other examples in which the president has conceded
the undeniable truth that he didn't volunteer for service in Vietnam.
And if folks want to send them in to me, I'd be obliged.
But let's just consider what Racicot is doing here.
This wasn't a slip of the tongue. This was deliberate. Now that the
topic has been moved a bit to the back burner, they're trying to get
back on the offensive by floating a deliberate and undeniable
deception in the hopes that no one will notice. If no one does then
the new false story will become the accepted version in the coming
campaign debate.
You really can't let your eyes off them for a second.
Is anyone going to ask the campaign or the White House whethre their
new line is that the president volunteered to go to Vietnam but just
never got picked?
-- Josh Marshall
(February 23, 2004 -- 11:03 AM EDT // link // print)
Just when you start debating how much or whether the president's
military service record should be an issue in this campaign, you
realize that the main reason it's an issue is that the president and
his surrogates just won't stop lying about it.
This morning Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot was interviewed by
Juan Williams on NPR. When asked about the president's Air National
Guard service he said, the president's and John Kerry's service
"compare very favorably... He (i.e. the president) signed up for
dangerous duty. He volunteered to go to Vietnam. He wasn't selected to
go, but nonetheless served his country very well ."
He volunteered to go to Vietnam?
Marc, no he didn't.
Does he think no one is listening?
(For some reason Williams, made no effort to call him on it.)
Let's set aside the fact that pulling strings to get into the Air
National Guard in 1968 is, on its face, quite the opposite of
volunteering to go to Vietnam. When the president signed up for the
National Guard there was a check box asking whether he wanted to
volunteer for overseas service. And he checked off "do not volunteer."
Now, the president's defenders have tried to explain this in various
ways, hypothesizing that some unknown other person checked off the box
or, more plausibly, that he was instructed to do so since what he was
actually signing up for was to fly planes in Texas. Of late, they've
brought forward friends or fellow Guardsmen who say -- with no
documentary evidence whatsoever -- that Bush at one point or another
asked about serving in Vietnam.
(There is also the president's claim that he volunteered for something
called Palace Alert, a program that would have taken him to Thailand.
But I believe there is no record of this. And as noted in this
Washington Post interview from 1999, if he did sign up, it would have
been within a week of the program's being shut down -- a fact that
points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that if he did sign up, he did
so to sign up, not to go.)
But however that may be, it is awfully hard to turn the "do not
volunteer" into "do volunteer."
This is just a preview of what we're certain to see from the Bush
campaign this year since it follows past practice so closely: Wait
till the brouhaha subsides and then hopscotch over the remaining
unanswered questions about the president's service by making stuff up
that is flatly contradicted by the record.
Who's going to call them on this?
-- Josh Marshall
(February 23, 2004 -- 06:33 PM EDT // link // print)
Run it by the boss first?
This morning we noted that Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot tried
to float the demonstrably false line that President Bush had
volunteered for service in Vietnam, but hadn't been 'selected'.
Now, our first thought was that Mr. Racicot might be angling to be the
next winner of the 'Heather Wilson "I think the American people are a
bunch of god-forsaken idiots" Award'.
But this isn't just a blatant mistatement of the facts that Racicot
apparently believes the press will be too timid to call him on. He's
even contradicting what the president himself said only two weeks ago.
Let's go to the tape ...
"He (i.e. the president) signed up for dangerous duty. He volunteered
to go to Vietnam. He wasn't selected to go, but nonetheless served his
country very well."
Marc Racicot
NPR Interview
February 23rd, 2004
Now, here's what the president himself said just two weeks ago ...
RUSSERT: Were you favor of the war in Vietnam?
BUSH: I supported my government. I did. And would have gone had my
unit been called up, by the way.
RUSSERT: But you didn't volunteer or enlist to go.
BUSH: No, I didn't. You're right.
Meet The Press
February 8th, 2004
And here's an even more candid version of events from the president
from fourteen years ago ...
"I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to
get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada. So I chose to
better myself by learning how to fly airplanes."
George W. Bush, 1990
as quoted in The Houston Chronicle
May 8th, 1994.
No doubt there are other examples in which the president has conceded
the undeniable truth that he didn't volunteer for service in Vietnam.
And if folks want to send them in to me, I'd be obliged.
But let's just consider what Racicot is doing here.
This wasn't a slip of the tongue. This was deliberate. Now that the
topic has been moved a bit to the back burner, they're trying to get
back on the offensive by floating a deliberate and undeniable
deception in the hopes that no one will notice. If no one does then
the new false story will become the accepted version in the coming
campaign debate.
You really can't let your eyes off them for a second.
Is anyone going to ask the campaign or the White House whethre their
new line is that the president volunteered to go to Vietnam but just
never got picked?
-- Josh Marshall
(February 23, 2004 -- 11:03 AM EDT // link // print)
Just when you start debating how much or whether the president's
military service record should be an issue in this campaign, you
realize that the main reason it's an issue is that the president and
his surrogates just won't stop lying about it.
This morning Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot was interviewed by
Juan Williams on NPR. When asked about the president's Air National
Guard service he said, the president's and John Kerry's service
"compare very favorably... He (i.e. the president) signed up for
dangerous duty. He volunteered to go to Vietnam. He wasn't selected to
go, but nonetheless served his country very well ."
He volunteered to go to Vietnam?
Marc, no he didn't.
Does he think no one is listening?
(For some reason Williams, made no effort to call him on it.)
Let's set aside the fact that pulling strings to get into the Air
National Guard in 1968 is, on its face, quite the opposite of
volunteering to go to Vietnam. When the president signed up for the
National Guard there was a check box asking whether he wanted to
volunteer for overseas service. And he checked off "do not volunteer."
Now, the president's defenders have tried to explain this in various
ways, hypothesizing that some unknown other person checked off the box
or, more plausibly, that he was instructed to do so since what he was
actually signing up for was to fly planes in Texas. Of late, they've
brought forward friends or fellow Guardsmen who say -- with no
documentary evidence whatsoever -- that Bush at one point or another
asked about serving in Vietnam.
(There is also the president's claim that he volunteered for something
called Palace Alert, a program that would have taken him to Thailand.
But I believe there is no record of this. And as noted in this
Washington Post interview from 1999, if he did sign up, it would have
been within a week of the program's being shut down -- a fact that
points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that if he did sign up, he did
so to sign up, not to go.)
But however that may be, it is awfully hard to turn the "do not
volunteer" into "do volunteer."
This is just a preview of what we're certain to see from the Bush
campaign this year since it follows past practice so closely: Wait
till the brouhaha subsides and then hopscotch over the remaining
unanswered questions about the president's service by making stuff up
that is flatly contradicted by the record.
Who's going to call them on this?
-- Josh Marshall