This AWOL issue could be unleashing a Pandora's Box on Bush's past, something he was able to side-step nicely in 2000, aside from that DWI, while running on an "honesty and integrity" platform.

First, one issue that has been raised in WH Press Briefings lately is whether or not Bush did not serve in the summer of 1972 because he was performing court-ordered community service for a drug? conviction. Also, the person that the White House has put forward to claim that he saw Bush in Alabama doing Guard duty says that May 1972 was one of the months he saw Bush do that duty. However, the Bush campaign has always maintained that Bush didn't start his Alabama Guard duty until the fall of 1972. Also, not only are pay records missing for Bush's last year in the Guard, but so is his Officer Effectiveness Report, the annual evaluation he should have received. There may be more to the allegation that embarrassing records were destroyed than first met the eye.

Then there's this by Larry Flynt, who's always good to point out sexual hyprocrisy by Republicans after what they did to Clinton. Flynt is apparently going to come out with a book that alleges that Bush paid for an abortion for an ex-girlfriend in the early 1970s. This story was around in 2000 but didn't go anywhere. According to Flynt, "I've talked to the woman's friends," Flynt said. "I've tracked down the doctor who did the abortion, I tracked down the Bush people who arranged for the abortion," Flynt said. "I got the story nailed."

As Drudge likes to say, developing...

- posted by Joshua @ 10:55 AM