Gonzales: Did He Help Bush Keep His DUI Quiet?

Newsweek via MSNBC ^ | January 23, 2005 | Michael Isikoff

[alloysteel]

Curse it all! You forced me to take ten minutes out of my life while I stood saluting that flag as it was raised, before I realized the PC police were not in the room.....

[Peach]

So Russert is going to spend all of next Sunday with the loser of the election vs. someone from the Bush administration which actually won re-election? Oh, save me.

I just read this on FR and sent to a friend via e-mail:

In FEBRUARY, ABC, NBC, and CBS aired a combined 63 network news segments about the charges that Bush was AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard. Meantime, the swift boat vets' attacks on Kerry's Vietnam service drew silence when they emerged in early May. The Big Three failed to air a single story about the group's charges until mid-August, when Kerry finally responded.

If I hated the media anymore than I already do, my head would literally explode. LOL

[snowsislander]

Not an impressive report on the part of Mr. Isikoff.

He must have needed something for the week, because this is thin gruel indeed as an attack on the president. He didn't even manage to get any useable direct quotes from Judge Crain. Instead, as I read this, at best he makes the inference that the events might have had something to do with President Bush's DUI.

As to what Judge Gonzales said, it does appear that his answers were a bit light on substance, but Mr. Isikoff should give the judge a break, it's been almost 10 years -- if you asked me the details of virtually anything that I did in 1996, my answers would likely be even lighter on substance than those of Judge Gonzales.

Unless Mr. Isikoff's memory is better than most (and being a reporter it would be an advantage), his answers to questions about events 10 years ago might just not have all of the fulsome detail that answers about events 10 months ago might have.

[PMCarey]

I've heard that he once went into the express lane at the grocery store with 16 items.

[Rockpile]

No doubt Michael Isikoff's next big investigation will concern the possibility of someone stealing top secret documents out of the National Archives.

If that ever happened you would be on the trail like a relentless bloodhound, right Mike?

[SkyPilot]

I've heard that he once went into the express lane at the grocery store with 16 items.

And he paged through "Us" magazine too.

[prairiebreeze]

Don't get mad, get even. Just like you already do by talking to people about why the MSM isn't to be trusted and educating them to get their news elsewhere.

thanks for the ping. This is such a non-story is gasps for oxygen.

[Gondring]

Two or three more years of this crap and they will be giving away coupons for a free striptease in Vegas with every hour you watch their "news" or buy their mags.

In "related news"...

Nev. Judge Nullifies Law on Lap Dances
Sun Jan 23,10:55 AM ET

LAS VEGAS - A Las Vegas law prohibiting strippers from fondling customers during lap dances is unconstitutionally vague, a judge ruled.

District Court Judge Sally Loehrer affirmed a lower court ruling that as many as five misdemeanor criminal cases filed against Las Vegas strippers should be dismissed.

Friday's ruling affects only dancers within city limits. The Clark County Commission in 2002 limited touching between strippers and patrons during private lap dances, specifically barring strippers from touching or sitting on the customer's genital area.

But the municipal code was not as specific, saying only that strippers and their patrons should not "fondle" or "caress" each other.

More here...

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

And who helped Bill Clinton keep all his peckerdillos quiet? The Broaddrick rape in particular.

I'd really like to know. Whoever it was is way more competent than Gonzales, the evidence shows.

[Gator113]

What a crock!!

[GVnana]

This is absurd. Wasn't Bush the sitting governor of Texas in 1996? And he's supposed to be excused from that job and perform a public service as a jurror? Are they kidding?

[RightWingConspirator]

Why is Newsweak and the other MSM fixated on a DWI nearly 30 years ago in which (unlike Fat Ted's drunk drive off a bridge) no one was injured or killed. Funny how they were not concerned with credible charges of Slick Willie's rape and cocaine use. The MSM are disgusting partisan Democrats.

[fight_truth_decay]

Judge David Crain

From your article posted...according to Travis County Judge David Crain. In separate interviews, Crain—along with Wahlberg and prosecutor John Lastovica—told NEWSWEEK that, before the case began, Gonzales asked to have an off-the-record conference in the judge's chambers.

"The Travis County Democratic Party would like to thank all our Finance Council Members." (Hon. David Crain)

TCDP Finance Council Members are individuals who give $1000 or more annually or $84 or more per month.

According to Travis County Court at Law Judge David Crain, there is no penalty for failing to answer the questions on the jury questionnaire. Crain said it is "fairly common" for prospective jurors not to answer questions on the form. "Some people won't answer anything," he said, adding that if lawyers on the case want to know specifics they will ask the jurors during the selection process.

Crain, a Democrat who has been serving in his elected post since 1992, refused to comment on why Bush sought to be excused. "I'm not going to speculate on what their motives were," said Crain, who added that he agreed with the pardon argument. "I'll leave it at that," he said. Gonzales, who was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court last year by Bush, did not return calls from Salon.

Excerpt: Salon.com 11.05.2000 ___________________________________________________________

David Wahlberg

The defense attorney in the case, P. David Wahlberg, confirmed Oden's version of the events. He told Salon that Gonzales' argument that Bush couldn't serve because he might be called upon to pardon the drunken-driving defendant was "laughable." But Wahlberg says he made the motion to excuse Bush because "it was a foregone conclusion" the governor would be excused, and it was also in the best interest of his client. [Your MSNBC/Newsweek article:"Wahlberg said he agreed to make the motion striking Bush because he didn't want the hard-line governor on his jury anyway"] Wahlberg's client was later convicted and sentenced to probation.

The attorney added that "everybody understood [Bush] just didn't want to answer questions about drinking and drugs and things like that. That was certainly my impression."

Excerpt: Salon.com 2000

____________________________________________________________

Ken Oden

.. a Democrat who has been the Travis County Attorney for 16 years, charged Saturday (11.05.2000) that Bush's failure to answer some of the questions on his jury questionnaire, coupled with his lawyer's efforts to get Bush excused because he might someday be called on to pardon the offender, were part of an effort to deceive prosecutors and others.

___________________________________________________________________________

On Oct. 8, 1996, after Bush was struck from duty in the case, he was asked by reporters if he ever had been arrested for driving while intoxicated. "I do not have a perfect record as a youth," Bush replied.

When he first reported for jury duty at the Travis County Courthouse on Sept. 30, Bush told Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News, "I'm glad to serve." Bush added, "I think it's important. It's one of the duties of citizenship." He also told KVUE-TV in Austin, "I'm just an average guy showing up for jury duty." And in video footage shown by KVUE in 1996 and again on Friday night, Bush had some additional comments on his feelings regarding the case. The KVUE reporter asked Bush if he didn't "really just want to give the guy a pardon and go home?" Bush answered, "No, I probably want to hang him and go home." -
by Robert Bryce a contributing writer for the Texas Observer, is the author of Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate.

[fight_truth_decay]

Yeah..Governor of Texas 1994--

[Raycpa]

With a little extra effort, they could have worked in Bush' AWOL.

[fight_truth_decay]

If he helped to keep it quiet, he did one heck of a sorry a$$ job of it since every neswpaper, pundit, and reporter spoke about it at every opportunity.

On Oct. 8, 1996, after Bush was struck from duty in the case, he was asked by reporters if he ever had been arrested for driving while intoxicated. "I do not have a perfect record as a youth," Bush replied.(now wouldn't you think that would have had the libs diggin'? but this was not a story then..) Post #93