Updated: W on the National Guard in '88

Update: The more I think about this video clip, the angrier I get. You know what the video above reminds me of? A mouthy person who narrowly avoids a severe butt whipping at the hands of someone much larger and meaner when his friends step between them. Once the big, bad man is out of the room, the lucky, mouth person boasts, "It's a good thing you stopped that guy, or I really would have beat his ass."

What balls Bush has - a ticket to the National Guard during the Vietnam conflict was a ticket to stay home and not have to fight. If Bush were that eager to fight and serve his country in a time of war, he very easily could have gone off to Vietnam and flew jets. But Bush was the fortunate beneficiary of his daddy's connections to jump over thousands of others on the list to get a plum assignment in the Texas Air National Guard. This is the textbook behavior of a chicken hawk Republican. For similar behavior, see Wolfowitz, Paul or Cheney, Dick.

The fact that Gore and Kerry didn't bludgeon Bush with this video clip (especially Kerry) during their respective campaigns against our National Embarrassment should be an embarrassment to the people who ran those campaigns.

Maybe I should be a little more forgiving about Bush's comments during this interview 19 years ago - after all, Dubya was still on the sauce back then, and maybe even the booger sugar.

**

Original Post: This sure was good for a laugh this morning before I get to the serious stuff - take a look at this video of an interview between Connie Chung and Dubya on the floor of the 1988 Republican National Convention. I know, I know - it's ancient history, but talk about hubris and arrogance - it's all on full display here. I wonder where this video was in 2000, Mr. Gore?

My favorite parts:

Bush: "I flew fighters in the Texas Air National Guard for which I’m very proud."

[Snip]

They should have probably called up the National Guard in those days. Maybe we would have done better in Vietnam.

Well, the man's got balls, without a doubt.

I also got a kick out of Chung's question about people making phone calls for Quayle, and if anyone had ever done that for him. Notice Bush's response: "I don't think so." What exactly does that mean? Translation: I don't want to answer.

Just another example of blatant lies that he got away with in 2000, and 2004. Or, put this another way - if Karl Rove were working for Al Gore in 2000, imagine for a nanosecond what Rove would have done with that video?