Ex-Lawmaker Says He Helped Bush With Guard

AP ^ | 8/28/04 | BOBBY ROSS JR

[alydar]

DALLAS - Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes said he is "more ashamed at myself than I've ever been" because he helped President Bush (news - web sites) and the sons of other wealthy families get into the Texas National Guard so they could avoid serving in Vietnam.

[AngieGOP]

So?????????????????

[Jeff Chandler]

The Old Media is like the Energizer Bunny.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

No. He's ashamed he helped a Republican. Now, if it were the son of a rich Democrat, he'd be proud.

[Semper Paratus]

Barnes wasn't in the same cockpit as George Bush.

[A CA Guy]

So, is this guy turning himself in for a crime now?

[dandelion]

I imagine the Guard is ashamed of Barnes. These *ssholes keep smearing the Guard as if it were something of which to be "ashamed". Perhaps they need to go speak at the funerals of the members of the Guard who have died serving their country.

[Merry]

I don't understand the point of that story. So what!!!! I was in college during that time and the guys used to ask us not to get A's on the exams. They were the ones who would get drafted if they flunked out of school.

[sockmonkey]

"more ashamed at myself than I've ever been"

Put a sock in it, Ben...
humming to myself to the tune of "memories"...Sharpstown, though you said it wasn't so, seems that most of Texas Voters thought 'twas time for you to go....

[vpintheak]

The rat hit parade continues on.

[backhoe]

Here we go again:

 EXCLUSIVE: The Dirt on Ben Barnes Claims about Bush and the Air National Guard (NY Times Barf Alert) 
The timing of this news release, days before the Republican National Convention, is suspicious. A Texas Observer editorial from 10/15/1999 shows that Ben Barnes has made this accusation before.

 The Facts about Bush and the National Guard - The Democratic charges fall apart.***Lost amid all the charges are the facts about Bush's time in the Guard. When did he serve? What did he do? Did he fulfill his responsibilities? Was he in Alabama? In the March 8, 2004, issue of National Review, Byron York investigated and found the answers.***

 Barnes says he regrets getting Bush into Texas Air National Guard in 1968

[Dutch Boy]

Who harmed the country more? GWB in the Guard or Kerry as an anti-war activist? GWB's words never cause a Vietnam POW to be tortured. Kerry can't say the same.

[Bogey78O]

This guy has been trying to slander Bush for almost a decade. Suddenly in the past couple months he remembers this.

Wanna bet his history is forgotten by the press?

[alydar]

Day before the convention? As Dr Dean might say I question the timing of this story.

[sonofatpatcher2]

Ben Barnes should be making big rocks into little rocks, but his Democrat connections got him off scott free...

Ah, don't you long for the good old days when Doonsbutt used truth...

--------------------------------
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[Prime Choice]

Everyone on this thread should see this post by Freeper mass55th. He absolutely nailed Barnes on his lie about getting Bush into the Texas ANG.

Spread the word!

[Peace will be here soon]

I hope he has some kind of documented evidence of this, or the media will discount it as lies.

( sarcasm ).

[Texas Eagle]

Good job. I bookmarked that link and I'm ready for action.

[VOA]

Who harmed the country more? GWB in the Guard or Kerry as an anti-war activist?

That is the REAL issue.

As a male in high school who saw the draft looming in the early 1970s, I remember
mulling my options:
1. Enlist and try to get an assignement as either a sniper or as a medic (yeah,
I was a conflicted type)
2. Try for CO status even if my church was ambivalent about it
3. Go to Canada and ride out the situation with relatives
4. Take my chances that the draft wouldn't get me
5. Get an educational/marriage deferrment

Two factors saved me from needing to pick an option: first I had a spontaeously
collapsed lung in high school (corrected by surgery) and the war/draft ended before
I graduated.

But in absolute honesty and transparency...If the need to decide HAD come to pass,
I would have listened long and hard to Kerry and his WinterSoldier troupe
and thought harder on my option being ANYTHING but enlisting.

So, here I admit my shame.
And present my truthful, personal accusation of John Forbes Kerry for
giving aid and comfort to the enemy by discouraging guys like myself.

[backhoe]

Copied & saved- thanks!

[Southack]

Barnes was a UN representative to Geneva, Switzerland in 1968 when GWB joined the Guard.

Barnes was debunked on his lie about helping Bush join the Guard when the news media ran this smear back in 1999.

Are re-runs of failed and disproven smears all that the liberals have "left"?!

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

[MamaLucci]

Barnes is a democrat, democrats are liars. Any questions?

[Southack]

Sung to Camptown...

Sharpstown stock fraud here we go, Ben Barnes, Ben Barnes...Sharpstown stock fraud here we go, all for Ben Barnes paycheck.

5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires

[dandelion]

Confirmation in this AP story, with a direct quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1201553/posts

AUSTIN - In a video posted on the Internet, former Democratic Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes said he is ashamed that he helped President Bush and the sons of other wealthy families get into the Texas Air National Guard in 1968 so they could avoid serving in Vietnam.

"I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard when I was lieutenant governor of Texas, and I'm not necessarily proud of that, but I did it," Barnes said in the 45-second video, which was recorded May 27 at a meeting for John Kerry supporters in Austin.

Barnes, who actually was Texas House speaker when Bush entered the Guard, said he became ashamed after walking through the Vietnam Memorial and looking at the names of people who died."

[dandelion]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1201553/posts

[lgermanio]

Ben Barnes has been a co-conspirator in every other crooked political deal in recent Texas history. It would be easier to believe this one if he had a pattern to admitting to some of the other low life stuff.

[dandelion]

Oh, and BTW, you'll notice that the AP story has taken out the direct quote by Barnes where he says he helped Bush get into the Guard when he was LT GOVERNOR...

[Prime Choice]

Pretty wild that Barnes was serving the U.N. when Bush joined the Texas National Guard in '68. Barnes wasn't a Lt. Governor until 1969.

[rocklobster11]

[jerod]

I guess the SwiftBoat charges are really starting to pissoff Kerry.

The sad part is that if he had of kept his trap shut, instead of this dumb strategy of crapping on Bush and the swifties, the whole thing would've been a two day story.

The DemocRATS are a little too determined to get in the last word, despite the fact that as long as this stuff is hanging in the air, the more their boy is going to suffer.

Are the Clinton's now running Kerry's campaign? If they arn't, then their friends sure are.

[dandelion]

This is beauty. May I link to it from a blog?

[Paleo Conservative]

No. He's ashamed he helped a Republican. Now, if it were the son of a rich Democrat, he'd be proud.

Lloyd Bentsen III the son of then senate candidate Lloyd Bentsen was in the same Air National Guard unit as W and John Conally's son.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush072899.htm"

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=37162

[rocklobster11]

link at will

[mass55th]

Specifically, he said he got Bush into the Air National Guard when he was Lt. Governor. Problem is, he wasn't elected Lt. Governor until 1969. Bush joined the ANG in 1968. The guy flat-out lied.

[sockmonkey]

Specifically, he said he got Bush into the Air National Guard when he was Lt. Governor.

LOL! Did he say it was "seared" into his memory?

[RBroadfoot]

I suppose that the fact that Kerry hasn't denounced this transparent smear by Barnes "tells you everything you need to know: he wants [others] to do his dirty work."

[jackbill]

BTTT

[Whispering Smith]

My thought exactly.

[adam_az]

EXCLUSIVE: The Dirt on Ben Barnes Claims about Bush and the Air National Guard
http://blogspirator.blogspot.com/2004/08/exclusive-dirt-on-ben-barnes-claims.html
Free Republic thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1201549/posts

EXCLUSIVE: The Dirt on Ben Barnes Claims about Bush and the Air National Guard (Part 2)
http://blogspirator.blogspot.com/2004/08/exclusive-dirt-on-ben-barnes-claims_29.html
Free Republic thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1202419/posts

[adam_az]

EXCLUSIVE: The Dirt on Ben Barnes Claims about Bush and the Air National Guard
http://blogspirator.blogspot.com/2004/08/exclusive-dirt-on-ben-barnes-claims.html
Free Republic thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1201549/posts

EXCLUSIVE: The Dirt on Ben Barnes Claims about Bush and the Air National Guard (Part 2)
http://blogspirator.blogspot.com/2004/08/exclusive-dirt-on-ben-barnes-claims_29.html
Free Republic thread: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1202419/posts