Ask me what the secret to great comedy is.
If you managed to stay tuned through the homophobic rantings of staunch conservative Dr. James Dobson (Focus on the Family – I wonder if he’s still telling people to spank their kids at least once a week because “they’ve done something to deserve it – even if you don’t know about it”), and then managed to sit through Karen Tumulty’s attempts to minimalize the story about Bush’s (non)service in the Air National Guard, you might have heard something odd.
Bob Schieffer – himself no slouch at idly dismissing the Bush story – took a moment to explain why he’s suddenly feeling much more receptive to the idea that it might actually be news. The logic is very reasonable. The syllogism goes thusly:
- The White House has a history of releasing information they want to disappear either late Friday night (to make the story appear in the weekend newspapers, which have a lower readership) or right before a holiday (so people will be more concerned about having fun than about keeping up with the news.
- Bush released his files to the public – files which weren’t anything new and which did nothing to answer the charges against him – late on a Friday night which just happened to be the eve of Valentine’s Day and the beginning of the President’s Day weekend.
- Therefore: The Bush administration must consider this story embarassing and/or potentially damaging enough that they want to bury it quickly and quietly.
Is it proof that Bush did something wrong? Of course not – but the fact that he’s hustling to cover it up makes the idea much more feasible.
But we don’t really need the hustle to convince us – there’s already the conspicuous absence of records which would reflect Bush’s attendance (or lack thereof) from even the latest spew of White House paper, the lack of credible witnesses to Bush’s service, or the statements made by his commanding officer at the time to the effect that Bush never even checked in for duty.
But, please – continue debating whether this story is actually a story or not.
February 16th, 2004 at 10:21 am
And you know, whether or not he fulfilled his duty (and evidence more than suggests he didn’t), I’m reasonably certain the failure to take his physical isn’t in question. He was grounded. Whether or not he was actually there (and again, probably not), Bush hasn’t really come up with an excuse for that.