It's interesting that as the Bush team defends his service record, the team features John McCain. Has McCain been promised anything? (SEE BOTTOM TWO PARAGRAPHS OF THE ARTICLE)
Is he a possible Chaney replacement on the ticket as Sula has suggested? Not that it would make Bush any less AWOL. He'd just be hanging around with another real guy.
Politics - AFP
Bush team defends his military service
Wed Feb 4,11:53 AM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The White House mounted a rare, election-year counterattack at opposition Democrats accusing US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) of skirting National Guard duty during the Vietnam War.
"It is outrageous and baseless. I think it represents the worst of election-year politics, and everyone should condemn this baseless attack," Bush spokesman Scott McClellan declared.
Military experience has emerged at the heart of the 2004 race for the White House amid violence in Iraq (news - web sites) and the global war on terrorism, with candidates playing up their time in uniform as a barometer of their leadership qualities.
Two Democrats -- Senator John Kerry (news - web sites) and retired general Wesley Clark (news - web sites) -- have campaigned with veterans at their sides, and described in detail how they were wounded in Vietnam War gun battles.
Bush, 57, avoided combat in Vietnam by serving as a fighter pilot in the Air National Guard, but some Democrats seeking his ouster have revived questions about his attendance record.
The issue drew media scrutiny in 2000, when a Boston Globe investigation found no evidence Bush performed Guard duties between May 1972 and October 1973, when he received an honorable discharge from service.
But renewed charges by Bush opponents that the president was either a "deserter" or at least "absent without leave" (AWOL) forced the White House to abandon its official policy of staying out of the Democratic fray.
Leftist filmmaker Michael Moore, a Clark backer, accused Bush of being a "deserter." Clark, who commanded NATO (news - web sites) forces during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, has not echoed that charge.
Kerry, who went from decorated veteran to Vietnam war protestor, has cautiously said: "If it's true, it's a legitimate question, but I don't know whether it's true."
"Obviously, it ought to be answered. The person who can answer it is the military and George Bush."
Democratic National Committee (news - web sites) chairman Terry McAuliffe on Sunday said that if Kerry wins the party's nomination, he will have no trouble defending his national security bona fides from an "AWOL" Bush.
"I look forward to that debate when John Kerry, a war hero with a chest full of medals, is standing next to George Bush, a man who was AWOL in the Alabama National Guard," he told ABC television.
On Tuesday, his Republican counterpart, Ed Gillespie, angrily accused McAuliffe of "presidential character assassination" and said "there is no ambiguity" about Bush's time in the Guard.
"The president was honorably discharged from the National Guard. He served his time," Gillespie told CNN television. "And he fought -- he served in a very dangerous area, which is fighter jets."
Bush has drawn fierce criticism from Democrats for a May 1 photo-opportunity in which he landed a jet on a homebound aircraft carrier, from which he declared "major combat" over in Iraq.
Bush's Republican rival in the 2000 election, Senator John McCain, also defended the president, saying Bush "has a record of honorable service during the Vietnam War in the National Guard where he also went through pilot training and flew a rather difficult airplane to fly and did well."
"Everything I know is that President Bush served honorably in the National Guard, and if you're going to make an allegation that somebody didn't, you better have some pretty good proof besides just throwing it out there," McCain told MSNBC.