I wish I had the ear of the DNC. They're going about this Bush military issue the wrong way. Why wait for Rove & Co. to find a couple true believers to lie about having served with Bush? Why try to prove a negative? They should:

1.        Find people to establish where Bush WAS at that time. He had to be working on that campaign. He might have been attending meetings, appearing at benefit dinners, dating, partying, whatever. ANYTHING they establish as to his whereabouts and any good time he might have been having while he was SUPPOSED to be on a military base, during wartime, keeping in a state of readiness (e.g. drug & alcohol free at the very least) would be a good example of his lack of responsibility & patriotism, and his elitist attitude that the rules don't apply to rich, powerful people like the Bushes.

        And if anyone argues that Reservists don't have to be in a state of readiness, point out how many have been sent to war by HIS administration.

2.        Get a couple volunteers who served at his base at that time and assemble THEIR papers. Not in an intrusive way or to get them in trouble, just to show America what the paper trail of someone who definitely WAS serving and wasn't AWOL looks like. There should be canteen records, uniform & toiletry requisitions, weapon's logs & ammo requisitions for firearm practice/drills, medical records, guard duty logs, travel logs, motor pool requisitions, visitor records, 3-day passes, laundry tickets, library records.... oh, wait, this is George W. Bush we're talking about. Forget that last one.

        How about simply mail receipts? Didn't Barbara ever send him some Christmas cookies, or a sweater, maybe some Cuban cigars or "Christmas Cheer" from Dad? Or is there a record of his mail being FORWARDED?

        How about his ration of cigarettes? His flight pack? (It may contain currency that must be signed for, and chocolate, condoms, drugs and other perishables that must be renewed periodically.) His parachute: every pilot must learn to pack his own, and most will only fly with one they packed themselves, and they're kept on a marked hook or in a personal locker, not grabbed from a pile. How about his signed requisition for the atropine ampule & syringe kept in his flight first-aid kit (medication against nerve gas) along with his amphetamine tablets (which have to be signed and accounted for)? I think you even have to sign something when you have your oxygen tanks recharged!

        Forget his dental records: where are his EYE EXAMINATIONS? For that matter, if he was a flight instructor, where are his students? Where are his grades on their performance? If he was a test pilot, where are his reports on the performance of the planes he flew? You know, the one's they weren't using in battle in Viet Nam, which is why he became a pilot of those particular planes. Or was he teaching no one and testing nothing, just using the Reserves as a draft dodge... and even that wasn't good enough for him! Maybe he couldn't waste his time hanging around serving his country even in that capacity; things to do, people to meet, palms to grease.

        Don't try to look for the records: just find someone else's, and show the press what his records SHOULD include. Then let them take the ball, either to do a little journalistic legwork for a change, or demand that the White House produce them or explain why they can't when other Air Force Reservists can.

        Ad Astra, Jeff

P.S.        Heck, Bush was a drinking man back then. Doesn't anyone remember him at the PX? What about all those "dancing on the table" stories? Even if he settled down a bit in the Reserves, he was an Air Force Officer, and any base a Bush would go to must have had an Officer's Club. Any reprimands for rowdy behavior, or drunk driving (something we know he was prone to)? Any traffic tickets at all, or a license renewal, there or wherever he REALLY was?