meta-roj

how do you get something done, when you don’t want to look bad doing it? you ask your friends. it’s good to have friends.

i bring this up because there’s a thing about ben barnes that’s picking up traction in recent days, and will probably show up on 60 minutes over the weekend. it’s the story of how president bush got into the national guard.

i first saw it over at talking points memo, from josh marshall, and they conveniently provide a link to a pretty horrible video and provide a transcript of the comments:

Ben Barnes, May 27

Let’s talk a minute about John Kerry and George Bush and I know them both. And I’m not name dropping to say I know ‘em both. I got a young man named George W. Bush in the National Guard when I was Lt. Gov. of Texas and I’m not necessarily proud of that. But I did it. And I got a lot of other people into the National Guard because I thought that was what people should do, when you’re in office you helped a lot of rich people. And I walked through the Vietnam Memorial the other day and I looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam and I became more ashamed of myself than I have ever been because it was the worst thing that I did was that I helped a lot of wealthy supporters and a lot of people who had family names of importance get into the National Guard and I’m very sorry about that and I’m very ashamed and I apologize to you as voters of Texas.

now there are some holes in this story, as with everything in politics, particularly 35 year old politics, recollection is hazy and facts aren’t easy to establish, but doubt is.

the first problem is that ben barnes apparently wasn’t the lt. governor when he did the favor for the younger bush – he was the speaker of the texas house. he did end up being the texas lieutenant governor a little later, tho. so there’s a fuzzy question about which office he was sitting in when the call came in to save bush from vietnam.

this thing broke on the net, but it’s reached all the way to the white house press rom:

Ex-Lawmaker Regrets Helping Bush in Guard [ap via phillyburbs.com, august 29, 2004]

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said of Barnes’ comments: “It is not surprising coming from a longtime partisan Democrat. The allegation was discredited by the commanding officer. This was fully covered and addressed five years ago. It is nothing new.”

that, of course, doesn’t mean that the allegations from the swift vets that have also been discredited, in some cases, decades ago aren’t worth revisiting again and again.

but back to my original line of thought on this subject…

Ben Barnes in Heavy Rotation [austin chronicle, september 3, 2004 (yes, a day ahead)]

The original rumors also held that then-U.S. Rep. George H.W. Bush himself had asked Barnes to get his son into the Guard. However, Barnes testified instead that the late Houston oilman (and Bush buddy) Sidney Adger, not Bush’s family, had interceded on young George’s behalf – a loophole that allowed the then governor (already a presidential hopeful) to claim (as he does still) that he knew nothing about it.

plausible deniability and call in the favors. keep that in mind.