gmginsfo:
... exactly how Max Cleland was maimed.  How many others knew the exact circumstances of his loss?  Coulter on Cleland

Cleland lost three limbs in an accident during a routine noncombat mission where he was about to drink beer with friends. He saw a grenade on the ground and picked it up.

Saturday, October 26, 2002

Cleland's campaign manager clarifies senator's Army service

This is in response to the letter to the editor (Sunday, Oct. 20) that inquired how Sen. Max Cleland was injured in Vietnam and whether or not he received any commendations in the war.

Army General Order 4361, dated June 9, 1968, states that the Silver Star was awarded to U.S. Army Capt. Max Cleland \"for gallantry in action while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in Vietnam.\" In 1968, then Capt. Cleland was in action at the battle of Khe Sanh. Below is the language contained in his Silver Star Order:

\"Awarded: Silver Star; Date Action: 4 April 1968; Theater: Republic of Vietnam

\"Action: For gallantry in action while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an armed hostile force in the Republic of Vietnam. Captain Cleland distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous action on 4 April 1968, while serving as communications officer of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Calvary during an enemy attack near Khe Sanh, Republic of Vietnam.

\"When the battalion command post came under a heavy enemy rocket and mortar attack, Capt. Cleland, disregarding his own safety, exposed himself to the rocket barrage as he left his covered position to administer first aid to his wounded comrades. He then assisted in moving the injured personnel to covered positions. Continuing to expose himself, Capt. Cleland organized his men into a work party to repair the battalion communications equipment which had been damaged by enemy fire. His gallant action is in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflects great credit upon himself, his unit, and the United States Army.

\"Authority: By direction of the President, under the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved 9 July 1968.\"

The action cited occurred on April 4, 1968, four days before the grenade explosion that cost Sen. Cleland both legs and an arm.

As has been widely reported in the Atlanta Constitution beginning in 1968, then-Capt. Cleland, an Army Signal Officer, volunteered for infantry service to relieve the stranded Marines and members of the Army's 1st Cavalry at the battle of Khe Sanh.

While disembarking from a transport helicopter, Capt. Cleland reached for a grenade he believed had become dislodged from his web gear. Later it was discovered that the grenade belonged to a young soldier new to the theater. That soldier had improperly prepared the grenade pin for easy detonation and had dropped it while coming off the helicopter. The grenade exploded and severely injured Capt. Cleland.

The Silver Star is the third-highest valor decoration of the United States. Sen. Cleland also was awarded a Soldier's Medal, Bronze Star, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal with Device (1960), Vietnam Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Parachutist Badge.

Thank you for your interest in Sen. Cleland and your interest in the campaign.

Tommy Thompson
Campaign manager, Atlanta

twin58:
 

fantomas:
That stupid, slanderous, ignorant slut

MIB:
Why did the media fail to report the facts?

MIB
Why did the media fail to report the facts?

The Real Military Record of George W. Bush: Not Heroic, but Not AWOL, Either

By Peter Keating and Karthik Thyagarajan

....
On or around his 27th birthday, July 6, 1972, Bush did not take his required annual medical exam at his Texas unit. As a consequence, he was suspended from flying military jets. Bush spokesperson Dan Bartlett told Georgemag.com: \"You take that exam because you are flying, and he was not flying. The paperwork uses the phrase 'suspended from flying,' but he had no intention of flying at that time.\"
....

twin58:
In this instance, we have a commissioned officer, the recipient of several months of expensive flight training, deciding that he need not take a required physical, on the grounds that \"he had no intention of flying at that time.\"

RazorbackTX:
Chimpy McAWOL, Version 27

Pick a lie and stick with it!

By Mike Allen and Lois Romano
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 12, 2004; Page A01

The White House last night released a document showing that President Bush was at a military base in Alabama during the last year of his National Guard service, but aides backed away from his weekend pledge to release all his military records.

Bush's staff provided copies of a one-page record of a dental exam, complete with drawings of Bush's teeth, that showed he was at Dannelly Air National Guard base in Montgomery, Ala., on Jan. 6, 1973.
....

More indications emerged yesterday that some details of Bush's service may never be known. Lt. Col. Robert Horton, a spokesman for the Alabama National Guard, said yesterday that no records exist in Alabama that would confirm Bush's temporary duty in Montgomery in 1972.
....

The White House has been unable to produce peers from Bush's service in Alabama. But Bill Burkett, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Texas National Guard, said in an interview with The Washington Post this week that he overheard a speakerphone call about Bush's National Guard file in 1997, when Bush was Texas governor. Burkett said he was in a National Guard office when he overheard Joseph M. Allbaugh, then Bush's chief of staff, tell an officer in reference to Bush's military file that he \"needed to make sure there was nothing to embarrass the governor.\"

Burkett said he later witnessed some items from Bush's file in the trash. Bush officials and Allbaugh denied these allegations. Bartlett called them \"outrageous.\"

Researcher Lucy Shackelford contributed to this report.

MIB:
 Now there's a mature, intelligent response. Once again the Left resorts to name-calling. How sad.

fantomas:
As for Coulter, she has been proved repeated to lie at will.

MIB:
 Now there's a mature, intelligent response. Once again the Left resorts to name-calling. How sad.

As a lesbian former Army officer who served in Kuwait for 6 months in 1992 as part of Operation Southern Watch, I find it unbelievable that my family and I are about to be written out of the U.S. Constitution via a \"federal marriage amendment\" by a man who couldn't be bothered to show up for National Guard service.

Yes, you may use my name.

Lara Ballard, Washington, D.C.

fantomas:
This person--Coulter--viciously libeled a war hero.  I know you can't bother to read anything that isn't right-wing-leaning, but read the citation of valor for Cleland.  Did the Army and Nixon and everyone else make that up?  As for Coulter, she has been proved repeated to lie at will, and to have misquoted or plagiarized others' works; and yet we have someone quoting her as if anything she says is valid.  Her ignorance and stupidity are well known, and I don't believe she'd deny she's given it up for the price of a cheap cocktail on occasion, so it's just \"truth-telling.\"  How sad.

Col. William Campenni (retired), the guy who's been writing letters claiming that Bush [wasn't AWOL], is going to be on Washington Journal tomorrow morning (7:30 am EST).

twin58:
From This Modern World:

 C-SPAN

PhillyFan:
You know this is my point.

Dean-o averted the system and didnt serve because of his bad back... then went Skiing.  Ok in everyone's book.

Bubba went to other nations rather than be drafted for the war... OK.

W has a nice cush cush position where he would never fight.  

What is the difference?  

and perhaps more importantly, Clinton and Dean never went strutting around in flight suits landing fighter jets (as W boasted again this weekend at the Daytona 500) and trying to portray himself as some glorified military hero

FROM THE MAILBAG....I don't usually print crank email, but every once in a while I get one too good not to share:

From: xxx
To: calpundit@cox.net
Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 7:42 PM
Subject: Melicious Rumors About Our President

Dear Mr. Cal:

I want to be very clear about these incredibbly melicious rumors that are sweeping the country like a bad cold or flew. I cannot beleive that any Americans are so Un-Patriotic to repeat them, and they are giving AID AND COMFORT to out enemies around the world. The latest rumor is President Bush was told to leave the Texas Air National Guard and to get treated for alcohol problems and that they would not let him fly until he was treated. This is just entirly and completley untrue. He did not have no drinking problem then and he does not have one now. And he never flied any jets after he was drinking. It is outrageis for this kind of compleet BULL...T to repeeted by your stupid pathetic outfit and also by newspapers!

ALL YOU FRENCH loving ass****s who repeat this lies are hurting our country. You should all move to Frnace where you belong.

Ted R
A Loyal American

And Loyal Ted, I think everyone doubts it was Bush's frequent alcoholic dazes that kept him from flying, far more likely that it was his frequent cocaine binges. His alcohol binges just had him running into cars and fences, and screaming obscenities at people in front of their young children in public places

I think it is interesting to see that he felt the need to self-censor \"bullshit,\" but calling all of us \"french-loving ass****s\" was completely within the bounds of respectable speech

\"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system\"
many of the components of today's Internet came into being well before Gore's first term in Congress began in 1977, and it's hard to find any specific action of Gore's (such as his sponsoring a Congressional bill or championing a particular piece of legislation) that one could claim helped bring the Internet into being, much less validate Gore's statement of having taken the \"initiative in creating the Internet.\"
(from the link provided in the earlier post)
.

 

ung
... Gore.... Is he gonna claim to be \"Billy Jack\" (portrayed by his college roommate Tommy Lee Jones) next?

twin58:
 

Jim Allen:
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.  Gore did NOT make \"outlandish\" claims.  It was lies by the Republican lapdog media that keep that bullshit--\"I invented the Internet\"--alive.

John B. Calhoun, an Atlanta resident who served for 28 years in the Air Force and the Alabama Guard, told TIME he clearly remembers Bush reporting for duty on weekends starting in the summer of 1972, apparently before Bush officially requested reassignment there.

Calhoun explained that Bush signed into his office and mainly read training manuals and safety magazines, signing out at the end of each drilling day. Bush kept a low profile, Calhoun said, and sometimes ate lunch with Calhoun in the snack bar.

But there are some discrepancies in Calhoun's account: he claimed Bush turned up more often than was indicated in Bush's official pay records for the period. And many other veterans of the 187th do not recall seeing Bush on base.

CHAPTER II—THE RNC SPEAKS: How was Gore made into a liar? Gore made his comment on March 9; after two days of silence from the press corps, the RNC swung into action. At mid-day on Thursday, March 11, a story written by Michelle Mittelstadt appeared on the AP wire. “Republicans pounce on Gore’s claim that he created the Internet,” the headline said. But had Gore really said he created the Internet? A new GOP press release said that he had—and so did the new AP headline. Indeed, showing off her writerly skills, Mittelstadt began her crucial report with a second tendentious paraphrase:

MITTELSTADT: Vice President Al Gore’s claim that he is the father of the Internet drew amused protests Thursday from congressional Republicans.
But had Gore really said he was father of the Internet? The language was entertaining—and highly tendentious—but it wasn’t drawn from Gore’s actual statement. No matter—on the morning of March 11, GOP leaders had released statements in which they’d attacked Gore’s remark.

Mittelstadt began with Dick Armey:
MITTELSTADT: House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said that even under the time-honored tradition of politicians taking credit for everything, Gore’s statement is an “outrageous claim.” Gore, who is widely credited for coining the term “information superhighway,” raised eyebrows with a pronouncement he made Tuesday during a CNN interview.

As we’ve seen, that last statement by Mittelstadt was wildly misleading. Gore’s “pronouncement” hadn’t “raised any eyebrows” with Blitzer, for example; Blitzer said nothing when Gore made his statement. Nor had it “raised any eyebrows” at the AP itself; on March 9 and 10, the service had filed several reports on the interview, none of which mentioned Gore’s comment. No, Gore’s “pronouncement” had only “raised eyebrows” among his Republican political rivals, several of whom Mittelstadt now quoted. For example, she quoted Rep. James Sensenbrenner, who said, “Gore taking credit for creating the Internet certainly gives new meaning to the term ‘March madness.’” The next day, the AP quoted a press release from RNC chairman Jim Nicholson. “Al Gore the father of the Internet?” he asked. Gore was “claim[ing] credit for other people’s successes,” according to the RNC chief. (Nicholson, of course, would play the press corps for fools throughout the election. Revisit his tour of the fancy hotel. Links are provided below.)

In her influential report, Mittelstadt committed one of the press corps’ most common sins; she took an unremarkable statement by Gore and paraphrased it in the most tendentious way possible—which also happened to be the way Gore’s political rivals were spinning it. Had Gore ever claimed to be “father of the Internet?” The language didn’t appear in his statement, but it now led Mittelstadt’s AP report. And now, the press corps—having ignored Gore’s remark for two solid days—began to file excited reports uncritically adopting the GOP’s spin-points. Indeed, some of the GOP’s most tendentious language was simply adopted, word-for-word, by major members of the press. On March 11, for example, Sensenbrenner’s press release carried this headline: “DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR: VICE PRESIDENT GORE TAKES CREDIT FOR CREATING THE INTERNET.” On March 12, Lou Dobbs cribbed from the statement on Moneyline, his nightly CNN program. Dobbs called Gore’s remarks “a case study tonight in delusions of grandeur,” just as Sensenbrenner had done. And Gore “apparently thinks he’s the Father of the Internet,” Dobbs said, using a key phrase from Nicholson’s statement! That’s right, kids! Dobbs took “delusions of grandeur” straight from Sensenbrenner, and “father of the Internet” straight from Nicholson; like Mittelstadt, he directly adopted the GOP’s tendentious accounts of what Gore supposedly said. But there were a few things Lou Dobbs didn’t do in his report, in which he trashed Gore for his “delusions.” He didn’t describe Gore’s important work in the Congress—and he never quoted Gore’s actual statement. But so it would go throughout this election, as RNC-scripted spinners like Dobbs ginned up nasty campaigns against Gore, confounding ideas about who runs the media. On March 11, the GOP said that Gore had “delusions of grandeur.” The next day, CNN—which said nothing about Gore’s remark in real time—went ahead and used the nasty phrase too.

as for the Love Story thing..... I'm like .... God! Is he gonna claim to be \"Billy Jack\" (portrayed by his college roommate Tommy Lee Jones) next?

Which sort of took some of the fun away, because everyone agreed there had been such a story, published in the Nashville Tennessean during the Segal book tour. In fact, Henneberger had already quoted Segal, right there in paragraph 15:

HENNEBERGER: In their phone conversation a few days ago, Mr. Gore reminded Mr. Segal that while Mr. Segal was on his book tour for “Love Story,” a reporter for the Nashville Tennessean who knew that Mr. Gore and the author were friends had asked if there was not a little bit of Al Gore in Oliver Barrett. Mr. Segal said yes, there was, but the reporter “just exaggerated,” Mr. Segal said. “He made it to be the local-hero angle.”
Let’s see if we have this straight. Gore said that he read it in a newspaper quoting Segal (Tumulty: “He said all I know is that’s what he told reporters”). Everyone agreed there had been such a story (although Henneberger didn’t seem to have researched it).

One would think this news, in a rational world, would have been the end of this whole silly story. And a familiar story it would have been, given the morés of our celebrity press. A reporter in Tennessee had exaggerated a bit, misquoting Erich Segal. Then a reporter from Time slightly misquoted Gore in reporting something he had said. Then Maureen Dowd, a thousand miles away, somehow knew that she’d spotted Gore’s motive. You know--the motive he had in saying the thing that it turned out he hadn’t quite said?

All just a part of the bumbling way CelebCorps assembles its stories. We’ve shown it to you again and again, in our own unassailable way. But we’ve told you something else, dear friends: the press corps never gives up a good story. When facts emerge that damage good tales, the facts will give way every time.

ung:
as for the Love Story thing..... I'm like .... God! Is he gonna claim to be \"Billy Jack\" (portrayed by his college roommate Tommy Lee Jones) next?

The Love Story nonsense began in late 1997—invented by a Maureen Dowd column—and in the aftermath of that piece, Melinda Henneberger wrote a lengthy story on the topic for the Sunday New York Times (12/14/97). No one has ever disputed the facts she reported; pundits have simply preferred to ignore them. But what Henneberger reported, two years ago, contradicts both the things Connolly still says.

First question: Did Gore \"inspire Love Story?\" As part of her research, Henneberger interviewed Erich Segal, who had known Gore at Harvard while writing Love Story. And sorry, folks, we hate to upset you, but here's Henneberger, on what Segal said:

HENNEBERGER: The character of the preppy Harvard hockey player Oliver Barrett 4th was modeled on both Mr. Gore and his college roommate, the actor Tommy Lee Jones.

According to Segal, Jones had been the model for the \"macho athlete with the heart of a poet\" part of the character, and Gore had been the model for the young college student with a highly accomplished father to live up to.

So Gore had been a \"model\" for the part. Parsing pundits will doubtless note: none of this means that Gore \"inspired\" Love Story. But it also became clear in Henneberger's piece that Gore had made no such claim. Gore's meaningless remarks about Love Story had been made on a long, late-night plane ride, in a conversation with two respected reporters—Rick Berke of the New York Times, and Karen Tumulty of Time. Henneberger interviewed both reporters. Sorry, folks, we hate to disappoint you, but here's Tumulty's account of what Gore said:

HENNEBERGER: \"[Gore] said Segal had told some reporters in Tennessee that it was based on him and Tipper,\" Ms. Tumulty said. \"He said all I know is that's what he told reporters in Tennessee.\"

Berke agreed that Gore attributed the story to reporters in Tennessee. And sure enough, Segal confirmed that there had been such a story, in the Nashville Tennessean. Segal told Henneberger that the reporter \"just exaggerated\" a bit, playing \"the local-hero angle;\" for example, Segal said the reporter added Tipper Gore into the mix, though she had not been the model for Love Story's other lead character in the tale, Jenny Cavilleri.

Incredible, isn't it, that this sort of nonsense inspires our press two years later? That on the basis of absolute idiocy like this, a major public figure is called \"delusional\" on TV, and a reporter who can't even get simple quotes right calls his character into question? Two years later! Welcome to the riot of nonsense and spin we laughingly call our public discourse—and welcome to the world of Ceci Connolly, whose grisly work for the Washington Post has been on this level all year.

But the facts of this story, as reported two years ago, are, sad to say, all too simple. Gore told reporters that he had seen a newspaper story saying he and Tipper were the models for Love Story. That's \"all I know,\" Gore had said. And everyone agrees such a story did exist. In a rational world, that would end the silly tale, but for the record, Segal said that Gore and Jones were the two models for the Ryan O'Neal part. Now read again what Connolly wrote—two years later—and raise a cup to our great public discourse:

CONNOLLY: [Gore] mistakenly claimed to have inspired the movie \"Love Story.\"

Say hello to our brilliant celebrity press corps, 1999 style.

I'd say \"creating\" the Internet or \"inventing\" the Internet or whatever Al Gore said was plenty outlandish.

In the March 21 Washington Post, for example, Jason Schwartz quoted several Internet pioneers, including Vinton Cerf, the man often called “the father of the Internet.” Cerf praised Gore’s role in the Net’s development. “I think it is very fair to say that the Internet would not be where it is in the United States without the strong support given to it and related research areas by the vice president,” he said. Meanwhile, Katie Hafner, author of a book on the Internet’s origins, penned a short piece in the New York Times, quoting experts who said that Gore “helped lift the Internet from relative obscurity and turn it into a widely accessible, commercial network.” On March 18, Gore tried to clarify his remark in an interview with USA Today. “I did take the lead in the Congress,” he told Chuck Raasch; he described his Internet work in detail. Raasch quoted Gore’s explanation—but it was mentioned in no other paper.

GINGRICH: In all fairness, it’s something Gore had worked on a long time. Gore is not the Father of the Internet, but in all fairness, Gore is the person who, in the Congress, most systematically worked to make sure that we got to an Internet, and the truth is—and I worked with him starting in 1978 when I got [to Congress], we were both part of a “futures group”—the fact is, in the Clinton administration, the world we had talked about in the ’80s began to actually happen

CHAPTER II—THE RNC SPEAKS: How was Gore made into a liar? Gore made his comment on March 9; after two days of silence from the press corps, the RNC swung into action. At mid-day on Thursday, March 11, a story written by Michelle Mittelstadt appeared on the AP wire. “Republicans pounce on Gore’s claim that he created the Internet,” the headline said. But had Gore really said he created the Internet? A new GOP press release said that he had—and so did the new AP headline. Indeed, showing off her writerly skills, Mittelstadt began her crucial report with a second tendentious paraphrase:

MITTELSTADT: Vice President Al Gore’s claim that he is the father of the Internet drew amused protests Thursday from congressional Republicans.
But had Gore really said he was father of the Internet? The language was entertaining—and highly tendentious—but it wasn’t drawn from Gore’s actual statement. No matter—on the morning of March 11, GOP leaders had released statements in which they’d attacked Gore’s remark. Mittelstadt began with Dick Armey:
MITTELSTADT: House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said that even under the time-honored tradition of politicians taking credit for everything, Gore’s statement is an “outrageous claim.”
Gore, who is widely credited for coining the term “information superhighway,” raised eyebrows with a pronouncement he made Tuesday during a CNN interview.

As we’ve seen, that last statement by Mittelstadt was wildly misleading. Gore’s “pronouncement” hadn’t “raised any eyebrows” with Blitzer, for example; Blitzer said nothing when Gore made his statement. Nor had it “raised any eyebrows” at the AP itself; on March 9 and 10, the service had filed several reports on the interview, none of which mentioned Gore’s comment. No, Gore’s “pronouncement” had only “raised eyebrows” among his Republican political rivals, several of whom Mittelstadt now quoted. For example, she quoted Rep. James Sensenbrenner, who said, “Gore taking credit for creating the Internet certainly gives new meaning to the term ‘March madness.’” The next day, the AP quoted a press release from RNC chairman Jim Nicholson. “Al Gore the father of the Internet?” he asked. Gore was “claim[ing] credit for other people’s successes,” according to the RNC chief. (Nicholson, of course, would play the press corps for fools throughout the election. Revisit his tour of the fancy hotel. Links are provided below.)

In her influential report, Mittelstadt committed one of the press corps’ most common sins; she took an unremarkable statement by Gore and paraphrased it in the most tendentious way possible—which also happened to be the way Gore’s political rivals were spinning it. Had Gore ever claimed to be “father of the Internet?” The language didn’t appear in his statement, but it now led Mittelstadt’s AP report. And now, the press corps—having ignored Gore’s remark for two solid days—began to file excited reports uncritically adopting the GOP’s spin-points. Indeed, some of the GOP’s most tendentious language was simply adopted, word-for-word, by major members of the press.

On March 11, for example, Sensenbrenner’s press release carried this headline: “DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR: VICE PRESIDENT GORE TAKES CREDIT FOR CREATING THE INTERNET.” On March 12, Lou Dobbs cribbed from the statement on Moneyline, his nightly CNN program. Dobbs called Gore’s remarks “a case study tonight in delusions of grandeur,” just as Sensenbrenner had done. And Gore “apparently thinks he’s the Father of the Internet,” Dobbs said, using a key phrase from Nicholson’s statement! That’s right, kids! Dobbs took “delusions of grandeur” straight from Sensenbrenner, and “father of the Internet” straight from Nicholson; like Mittelstadt, he directly adopted the GOP’s tendentious accounts of what Gore supposedly said. But there were a few things Lou Dobbs didn’t do in his report, in which he trashed Gore for his “delusions.” He didn’t describe Gore’s important work in the Congress—and he never quoted Gore’s actual statement. But so it would go throughout this election, as RNC-scripted spinners like Dobbs ginned up nasty campaigns against Gore, confounding ideas about who runs the media. On March 11, the GOP said that Gore had “delusions of grandeur.” The next day, CNN—which said nothing about Gore’s remark in real time—went ahead and used the nasty phrase too

gmginsfo:
Coulter on Cleland

Jim Boyd, Star Tribune  
Published February 20, 2004

... Ann Coulter. Here's what she had to say this week: \"Cleland lost three limbs in an accident during a routine noncombat mission where he was about to drink beer with friends. He saw a grenade on the ground and picked it up. He could have done that at Fort Dix.\" Coulter's version is akin to saying that John F. Kennedy was injured in World War II while taking a boat ride.

Here's what really happened: In March 1968, the Tet offensive staged by the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong was winding down -- except at Khe Sanh, a Marine outpost famous for the siege it endured. An Army-Marine team was put together to relieve the Khe Sanh garrison and Cleland, an Army captain, volunteered. The combat his unit saw was heavy. At one point Cleland, the battalion signals officer, was told to set up a radio site on a hill near Khe Sanh. As he was helicoptered in with a couple of young soldiers (presumably because it was too dangerous to walk or drive), he told the pilot he was going to stay awhile because he knew some of the guys on the hill. Maybe have a beer with them, he said. As the soldiers left the helicopter, Cleland noticed a grenade on the ground. He thought he'd dropped it and leaned down to pick it up. It exploded, shredding one arm and both legs. It took a heroic effort by medics and doctors to keep him alive.

It is sick that Coulter can take that story and make it sound as if Cleland was safely ensconced at some rear area, ambling toward the officer's club for a few brews. She also fails to mention that Cleland won a Silver Star a week before he lost his limbs -- he was honored for braving enemy fire to tend wounded troops.

There's more: The new Republican story about Kerry himself is that his Vietnam experience is sort of exaggerated. Heck, he was only there two months, the Republican shills for this line say. Well, actually, he was there for closer to four months. And the reason he was rotated home? Because he'd been wounded three times -- not to mention winning Bronze and Silver stars along with three Purple Hearts.

Finally, there's the granddaddy of them all: Bush's gutter job on Sen. John McCain in the South Carolina primary of 2000. Bush lost to McCain in New Hampshire and wasn't going to allow it to happen again. So the Bush team resorted to what are called \"push polls.\" They're designed to plant seeds of doubt about candidates. In South Carolina, callers asked those they were polling questions like: Would you be more or less likely to vote for McCain if you knew he'd fathered a black child out of wedlock? Some had him fathering the child with a prostitute. Others inquired whether voters knew that McCain's wife was a drug addict. And did they know he had abandoned his crippled first wife? It was nasty, nasty stuff, and it caused McCain to lose his composure in public, which didn't help his cause at all.
....

Democrats are capable of some of this, too. But for sheer effrontery, no one can hold a candle to Bush, his father and those who work for them, beginning with the late Lee Atwater and continuing through Rove. When it comes to truly gutter politics, they wrote the book -- or at least the modern version.

Jim Boyd, deputy editor of the editorial pages, is at jboyd@startribune.com.

In Washington, D.C., officials with the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign were telling reporters that Turnipseed gave $500 to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. On Feb. 5, the Salon online magazine reported that Bush-Cheney spokesman Terry Holt, citing the Turnipseed-to-Edwards donation, questioned whether the motives behind Turnipseed's comments about Bush's service were \"pure\" or part of a \"political attack.\" That donation, as the Mobile Register was able to confirm on Thursday, was actually given to the Edwards campaign by Will Turnipseed, a 34-year-old waiter at Wynlakes Country Club in Montgomery.

But the primary failing of the former general, according to widespread reports, is that he has Alzheimer's disease -- a progressive neurological disorder that impairs memory -- and can't even remember if he was commanding the Montgomery-based 187th Tactical Reconnaissance Group some 31 years ago, when Bush either did or did not report for duty. Last Monday, Turnipseed's daughter, Tracy T. Roberts of Spanish Fort, was in her car listening to Rush Limbaugh, when the conservative announcer told her and his millions of other radio listeners something she didn't know. \"When he said that General Turnipseed had reported that he had Alzheimer's, I laughed,\" said Roberts, a member of Leadership Baldwin County 2003. \"I told my husband, 'Daddy has really thrown them a bone.' I knew it had to be a joke.\" Turnipseed -- while expressing dismay over reports that he, a Bush supporter, had given money to Edwards -- admitted making what he called \"a crack\" about Alzheimer's to a reporter from Georgia.

Friday afternoon, the Register contacted the Bush-Cheney'04 campaign and informed it of the true identity of the Edwards donor. Reed Dickens, a Southeast region spokesman, called back with a short response.

Said Dickens, \"The statement was inaccurate, and we regret it.\"

Arrrrgggghhhh! It's. a. f**king. LIE. Period. He did not claim either of those things. I don't know what site Ung went to get his quote above-

Web of inaccuracy
Students writing term papers or journalists doing Google-reporting have learned by now not to believe everything they read on the Internet. Just like good old hard copy reference materials, it's best to check the source. One would hope for credibility from sites administered by the U.S. government. But not when it comes to an official bio of the president found on the State Department Web site, it turns out.

The Boston Globe  points out that the State Department has, since 2001, featured an embellished account of Bush's National Guard service on the Internet. The site \"credits him with almost six years in the F-102's cockpit -- two years on active duty flying the plane and nearly four more years of part-time service as an F-102 pilot. The websites of at least five American embassies -- those in Germany, Italy, Pakistan, Vietnam, and South Korea -- use the identical language, even though Bush spent barely two years flying the airplane.\"

The Globe quotes Dan Bartlett, White House communications director, admitting the bio is wrong: \"It does not reflect the facts of his service. It will be corrected.\"

-- Geraldine Sealey

Tuesday, June 22, 2004 · Last updated 2:18 p.m. PT

AP sues for access to Bush Guard records

By PETE YOST
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

WASHINGTON -- The Associated Press sued the Pentagon and the Air Force on Tuesday, seeking access to all records of George W. Bush's military service during the Vietnam War.

Filed in federal court in New York, where The AP is headquartered, the lawsuit seeks access to a copy of Bush's microfilmed personnel file from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission in Austin.
....

There are questions as to whether the file provided to the news media earlier this year is complete, says the lawsuit, adding that these questions could possibly be answered by reviewing a copy of the microfilm of Bush's personnel file in the Texas archives.

The Air National Guard of the United States, a federal entity, has control of the microfilm, which should be disclosed in its entirety under the Freedom of Information Act, the lawsuit says.

The White House has yet to respond to a request by the AP in April asking the president to sign a written waiver of his right to keep records of his military service confidential.
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In the absence of any privacy objection by the president and in light of the importance of the file's release in advance of the November election, says the lawsuit, AP seeks a court order to compel the release of records \"that are being unlawfully withheld from the public.\"
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Under Texas law, a copy of military personnel files of those serving in the Texas Air National Guard must be retained on microfilm at the Texas archives.

The lawsuit says that no one has looked at any of the Texas Air National Guard records maintained at the state archives since 1996.

Responding to AP's request, the Texas Air National Guard concluded that Bush's file was a federal record under control of the U.S. Air National Guard.

When the government did not produce the documents, AP appealed to the Pentagon, saying that by law, the microfilm copy should have been produced within 20 days. The Pentagon said it could not respond within the legally required period.