Bush has probably dreaded this day for years

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Questions about Bush's service with the Texas Air National Guard have been circulating for years. They surfaced briefly during the 2000 campaign, but a compliant media, afraid of being labeled "liberal", didn't do the sort of investigative work we've come to expect. If Watergate happened in 2004, it'd probably blow over after being buried on page A23. The Bush-Guard story was essentially dead from November 2000 through January 2004. Then, at a Wesley Clark (yay!) rally in New Hampshire in January 2004, Michael Moore looked forward to a debate between the General and the Deserter. After that hit the air, the right-wing media and punditry went ballistic. The stories calling Clark crazy and Moore a traitor came fast and furiously. The compliant SCLM just parroted the outrage expressed by such media luminaries as "Fox and Friends" and "Sean Hannity". As a matter of fact, Clark took a big and undeserved hit as a result of Moore's comment. A little while later, after the fury calmed down, some people actually went back to Bush's guard records to see if there was something there to validate Moore's claim. See some old Calpundit posts here and here and here and here. In March, however, the whole thing died down again. It's September now, and the Bush-Guard story has gained some new traction. Apparently not good for Bush. Last month was dump-on-Kerry's-heroism month, brought to you by Karl Rove, BC'04 & the Swift Boat Liars. Now it's let's-closely-reexamine-flightsuit's-TANG-record. After being told in 2000, and again in January-February 2004 that all available records had been disclosed, guess what? Some new records (shock!) have been disclosed (horror!) just in the past couple of weeks. Last night on 60 Minutes, Dan Bartlett, onetime Lt. Governor of Texas, explained how he got GWB into the TANG, ahead of thousands of young men on an existing waiting list. In the wake of the 60 minutes story last night, the White House - without comment - released yet more records from Bush's time in the TANG. Of course, the AP and WaPo have outstanding FOIA requests for all of Bush's records, and the White House has repeatedly already stated that it released all of Bush's available records. Another lie. And the WaPo is mad. Page A1 mad.

The new documents surfaced as the Bush administration released for the first time the president's personal flight logs, which have been the focus of repeated archival searches and Freedom of Information Act requests dating to the 2000 presidential campaign. The logs show that Bush stopped flying in April 1972 after accumulating more than 570 hours of flight time between 1969 and 1972, much of it on an F-102 interceptor jet. White House officials have said there was no reason for Bush to take the annual physical required of fighter pilots because there were no suitable planes for him to fly in Alabama, where he applied for "substitute training" to replace his required service with the Texas National Guard. But the new documents suggest that Bush's transfer to non-flight duties in Alabama was the subject of arguments among his National Guard superiors.

Not spinning well is it?

In releasing Bush's flight records, White House spokesmen yesterday expressed frustration over what they depicted as the Pentagon's failure to produce a full and complete record of the president's military service. "It's clear that DOD [the Department of Defense] did not undertake as comprehensive a search as had been directed by the president," said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan, just days after assuring The Post that Bush's full personnel file had already been released. "We have again asked that they ensure that any and all documents [relating to Bush's military service] are identified and released."

The Boston Globe also smells red meat in this story:

In August 1973, President Bush's superior officer in the Texas Air National Guard wrote a memorandum complaining that the commanding general wanted him to ''sugar coat" an annual officer evaluation for First Lieutenant Bush, even though Bush had not been at the base for the year in question, according to new documents obtained and broadcast last night by CBS News. The commander, the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B. Killian, wrote that he turned aside the suggestion from Brigadier General Walter B. Staudt, Bush's political mentor in the Guard. But he and another officer agreed to ''backdate" a report -- evidently the evaluation -- in which they did not rate him at all. There is such a report in Bush's file, dated May 2, 1973. ''I'll backdate but won't rate," Killian apparently wrote in what is labeled a ''memo to file." Initials that appear to be Killian's are on the memo, but not his name or unit letterhead. The August 1973 document, dated as Bush was preparing to leave Texas to attend the Harvard Business School, represents the first apparent evidence of an attempt to embellish Bush's service record as his time in the Guard neared its end. The four pages of documents also contain an August 1972 order from Killian, suspending Bush from flying status for ''failure to perform" up to US Air Force and Texas Air National Guard standards and failing to take his annual flight physical. The suspension came three months after Killian had ordered Bush to take his physical, on May 14, 1972. The documents also contain what appears to be Killian's memo of a meeting he had with Bush in May 1972, at which they discussed the option of Bush skipping his military drills for the following six months while he worked on a US Senate campaign in Alabama. During that meeting, Killian wrote that he reminded Bush ''of our investment in him and his commitment."

Understandably, the Bush campaign is flipping out and playing the victim. Mm hmm. After months of relentlessly negative attacks on John Kerry with nary an idea, program or achievement to tout, the BC'04 campaign are victims. Give me a break. To quote some imbecile... Developing...