[cardinal4]

This story will be dead by next week, and W will have squandered political capital to show records and proof of service. He should have completely ignored te allegations. Just another example of the DNC hurling shiite against a wall and seeing what sticks. And Bush and co, stepped right in it-they should have told anyone who was asking to p*ss up a rope..

[beckysueb]

Go investigate John Kerry! Lots more juicy gossip there.

[mewzilla]

But the Globe still sits on all its Kerry info.

All the news that's fit to spike...

[GailA]

btt

[Grut]

Well, these denials could be explained as a bunch of careerists 'getting along by going along' and then covering their asses because falsifying government records is a federal crime, but it's hard to imagine they'd be so casual as to plan the crime where others could overhear them, or explain to passers-by what they were doing at the moment.

[syriacus]

I'm surprised this is in the Globe.

Must be something to it.

[RileyD, nwJ]

BINGO:
For instance, in a 1998 letter to Texas state Senator Gonzalo Barrientos, Burkett complained that he had not received adequate medical care when he became seriously ill after returning from a mission to Panama.

He also said Guard officials had retaliated against him because he had conducted a management study critical of the Guard.

With 12+ yrs USAF enlisted and 19+ yrs civil service these are credibility flags. Hard to imagine Guard officials taking the time and effort to 'retaliate' and BTW how was this individual able to conduct a management study critical of the Guard? Was it on duty time? Was it authorized? Was it validated? Was it ...

Not to mention, a career retired LTCOL would know that personnel records of military and civil service members are regularly purged of excess, duplicative, and out-of-date no longer useful information. Just ask anyone who has gone through a records review and seen their file size reduced by 10-40% during the review.

Bush didn't know what was in his records? Hmmm... Makes sense if he was not a careerist. He would not be making sure all the correct squares were filled in for advancement.

Any personnel specailists out there who can amplfy on these points?

RileyD, nwJ
www.daytonchessclub.com

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...a retired Texas National Guard officer has maintained that President Bush's record as a member of the Guard was purged of potentially embarrassing material at the behest of high-ranking Bush aides laying the groundwork for Bush's 2000 run for the presidency.

Burkett, in his Globe interview and in Moore's book, titled "Bush's War for Re-election"

This all only proves one thing:
That Burkett's and Moore's motivations have nothing to do with clearing up inconsistencies with Bush's service record in regards to his 2000 campaign.
They are only interested in sabotaging his 2004 campaign. The title of the book tells all.

[jwalsh07]

Bush's permanent records were and have always been in Denver, Colorado and St Louis with the Air Reserve Personnel Center.

This reporter and every other moron reporter is just to freaking stupid to know that or to ask somebody that does know.

[Hon]

Officer Who Claims W Discarded Records Is A Bush-Hating Crackpot

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1076243/posts

[Mo1]

bookmark

[SpinyNorman]

But the book's author, James Moore, a former Houston TV news correspondent, concedes he never interviewed some of the key players who could have verified Burkett's charges, including Conn and retired National Guard Colonel John Scribner -- the officer Burkett says he saw removing items from the Bush file.

Well, that just tanked that book!! LOL!!

Is it just me, or do all liberal authors, reporters and researchers seem to fabricate, plaigerize and falsify facts and sources? Bellisles (sp?), Blair, Barnicle, etc., etc. There is the makings of a nice list here......

[NYCVirago]

But Conn, now a civilian government employee working with the US Army in Germany, said Burkett never told him of the conversation. And Allbaugh, a Washington consultant and lobbyist, said, "I would never be so stupid as do something like that."

Here's the gist of why Burkett's allegation is false. The idea that Allbaugh would be so stupid as to say such a thing over a speakerphone, when somebody else could hear, is ridiculous on its face. And to simply dispose of the records in the trash, where this Burkett clown could paw through them, is also laughable.

I wish the article would examine Burkett's motives -- as other freepers have discovered, this guy has a huge axe to grind against Bush and the Guard. What, this reporter couldn't do a google search on him?

[george wythe]

George O. Conn, a former chief warrant officer with the Guard and a friend of Burkett's, is the person whom Burkett says led him to the room where the Bush records were being vetted. But Conn says he never saw anyone combing through the Bush file or discarding records.

This Burkett has turned out to be quite delusional or malicious.

Either way, Burkett is a bold-face liar.

[VeniVidiVici]

Two key points:

1) If Bush was going to "purge" his file to make it look good, wouldn't he have done so before running for Governor?

2) As mentioned, records are routinely purged of old, false and duplicate data. Anybody that has been in the military for more than four years and hasn't done this is a flat-out liar.

[mwdouglass]

For more of "Who is Bill Burkett" ---
http://michael-friedman.com/archives/000139.html

- mwd
Houston, Texas