Wednesday, February 4, 2004

Howling at the AWOL Story

Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler on both Tuesday and Wednesday kept up with the Bush AWOL story. (His headlines on both days focus on other stories on which he touches.)

He gives the AWOL story a bit of a mystery angle in these two by focusing his media criticism on the treatment of a "torn document." When the story emerged in the 2000 campaign, the Bush team provided the press with a torn document that had the initial "W" on it as evidence that Bush had attended required National Guard duty as early as Nov. 1972. (The period in question is between May 1972 and October 1973.) Somerby's pieces describe why the "torn document" is important to the story, and the confusion it is causing reporters.

A facsimile of the document is available online. The blacked-out section supposedly shows Bush's Social Security number.

Marc Racicot, chairman of the Bush-Cheney 04 campaign, responds to the AWOL issue by saying, "President Bush served honorably in the National Guard. He was honorably discharged." Perhaps Racicot can persuade Bush to make his military personnel records public. Or shed some further light on the "torn document."

And maybe Karl Rove should have thought of this before he dressed Bush up to prance around in a flight suit and before Bush challenged the Iraqi guerrillas to "bring 'em on" against American soldiers.

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