POLITICS - The Bush Defense

Josh Marshall points out a great AP article concerning Bush's behavior in Alabama while working on the Blount Campaign.

Jean Sullivan, former Republican national committeewoman, worked on the Blount campaign, too. She comes to Bush's defense stating:

Sullivan, a former Republican national committeewoman, said Bush sometimes wore his military uniform and talked about serving with the Air National Guard.

Some within the Alabama Guard were resentful because Bush was from Texas and was spending only the minimum amount of required time on duty, said Sullivan. "It was just some idiots," said Sullivan.

Mad about rumors surrounding Bush, whose father was U.N. ambassador at the time, Sullivan said she called a Guard commander to explain that Bush was doing all he could while working on the campaign.

"The man called me back and apologized. I thought it was gone forever," said Sullivan. "And then I started hearing all this stuff a couple of weeks ago."

So Bush's main defender seems to admit that Bush was only serving minimal National Guard duty so he could work on a Republican campaign. Evidently, that's serving your country!!

But here's the best sentence that absolutely calls Sullivan's perspective into question:

Sullivan said she knew Bush drank during the '72 campaign, but usually just one or two beers at a time and not on a nightly basis. "He told me years later that was the only year he ever drank," she said.

Maybe she oughta read his biography sometime if she really believes that 1972 was "the only year he ever drank". Bush himself admits that he indeed was an alcoholic. He eventually matured and grew out of his "drinking phase"..... at the young age of 40!!!!!!!! So either he turned 40 in 1972, or he outright lied to the woman he seems to be his best defense. gg, bush.

Fortunately, another member of the Blount campaign offers testimony that seems more in line with the George W. Bush of 1972:

But a relative of Blount recalled Bush as a heavy drinker who was more interested in talking about his alcohol consumption than discussing his service with the Guard.

"He wouldn't come in until midday usually," said C. Murphy Archibald, Blount's nephew and an attorney in Charlotte, N.C. "He didn't seem to have any particular political interest in the campaign."

Blount lost badly to Democratic incumbent John Sparkman, and Blount's son, Thomas Blount, said Bush "got pretty drunk" the night of the vote. Thomas Blount described the president-to-be as "personable," but with a swagger.

Now that's the Bush we've known in Texas for the past twenty years.