CJR’s Campaign Desk, on the facts of President Bush’s National Guard service:
Here’s the real story. In May of 1972, Bush moved from Texas to Alabama to work as campaign manager for Republican Winton “Red” Blount’s senate campaign. He requested a transfer from his unit, the 111th Interceptor Squadron, to a “postal unit” in Alabama that required no active duty. While Bush’s commanders in Houston approved the request, it was rejected by Air National Guard officials at the organization’s headquarters in Denver, Colorado, and Bush technically remained assigned to the Houston unit that summer. Bush moved to Alabama to work on the campaign anyway, and in September 1972, requested transfer to a different Alabama unit. This time he won approval all the way up the bureaucratic chain, and was given a three-month temporary assignment with the 187th Tactical Recon Group in Montgomery, Alabama.
Then CJR singles out a bunch of reporters who didn’t report things this way — all well and good. But there’s no source for the “real” story. You have to click on a link, read down a ways and assume the source quoted near the bottom of the second post is the same one for this post. And then you have to assume the source is credible.
Lot of making-asses-of-you-and-me going on.