Ben Barnes on "60 Minutes"
Domenico Rosa
Ben Barnes to break silence on "60 Minutes"
The Republican campaign gets ready for shock waves, as the former
Texas official who says he pulled strings to get George W. Bush into
the Air National Guard finally goes public.
By Eric Boehlert
Sept. 1, 2004 - The campaign battle over Vietnam War records is
still raging, but President Bush may soon be the one answering
uncomfortable questions about his past service. Ben Barnes, the former
lieutenant governor of Texas, will finally break his silence and talk
to the press about what role he played in helping Bush get a coveted
slot in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968. Sources say Barnes has
already sat down for a "60 Minutes" interview that will air next week.
A "60 Minutes" spokesperson declined to comment, saying the program
does not discuss reports that are in progress.
Barnes made headlines last week when his videotaped comments that he
was "very ashamed" of getting Bush into the National Guard began
circulating on the Web. He said the remorse was prompted by a recent
visit to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, where he saw the
names of thousands of other young men who did not enjoy the
connections of the Bush family. Barnes made his comments in May and
the video was posted on a pro-Kerry Web site in June, but word of it
only began to spread widely last Friday.
Over the weekend, the national press, which for weeks has been
amplifying factually challenged allegations against John Kerry by the
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, gave Barnes' stunning remarks only
cursory coverage. The Washington Post, for instance, ran a brief wire
story on Saturday, the same day it printed yet another exhaustive
piece about allegations surrounding Kerry's war past. In a subsequent
WashingtonPost.com online chat, the Post reporter covering the Swift
boat story suggested Barnes' comments didn't qualify as "fresh
information," and consequently he wasn't interested in "simply
regurgitating old controversies." The New York Times ran a brief item
on Barnes' statements deep inside its Saturday news section, next to
yet another lengthy profile of Kerry's longtime Swift boat nemesis,
John O'Neill.
With Barnes now being featured in a sit-down interview with "60
Minutes," the highly rated CBS news magazine, reporters may finally be
forced to address the consistent curiosities of Bush's National Guard
record. Such as why, after nearly a decade of sifting through military
records, neither Bush nor his team of longtime advisors can piece
together a coherent explanation for his whereabouts, particularly
after April 1972 when Bush inexplicably stopped flying and moved to
Alabama, failed to take his physical exam, was grounded by his
superiors, and by all accounts failed to show up for weekend training
for months at a time. Bush received an honorable discharge in 1973 in
order to attend Harvard Business School. Bush supporters insist the
honorable discharge proves his service was above reproach. But
military legal experts note honorable discharges, particularly in the
early '70s as the Vietnam War was winding down, do not indicate
unblemished military records.
Rather than offering insight into Bush's so-called missing year,
Barnes has firsthand knowledge of how Bush was able to get into the
Guard. During the Vietnam War, Guard members were rarely called up for
duty in Vietnam, making it a top choice among those seeking to avoid
serving in wartorn Southeast Asia. (On his Air Force pilot
application, when asked about an overseas assignment, Bush checked "do
not volunteer.") In fact, Bush's Guard unit was
known as the Champagne Unit, because among its members were sons of
prominent Texas politicians and businessmen.
Throughout his political career Bush has adamantly denied that he got
a Guard pilot spot through preferential treatment. That, despite the
fact Bush was jumped ahead of a nationwide waiting list of 100,000
Guard applicants, while achieving the lowest possible passing grade on
his pilot aptitude test for would-be fliers, and listing "none" as his
background qualifications.
Barnes, once a rising star in Texas politics, insists strings were
pulled on Bush's behalf, and he helped pull them. Speaking to Kerry
supporters in Austin, Texas, in May, he said, "I got a young man named
George W. Bush into the Texas National Guard ... I got a lot of other
people in the National Guard because I thought that was what people
should do when you're in office, and you help a lot of rich people."
Recalling a recent visit to the Vietnam Memorial, Barnes added, "I
looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam, and I became
more ashamed of myself than I have ever been, because it was the worst
thing I ever did, was help a lot of wealthy supporters and a
lot of people who had family names of importance get into the National
Guard. And I'm very sorry about that, and I'm very ashamed."
That story is entirely consistent with the statement Barnes made five
years ago, when he revealed that in 1968 he made the phone call to the
head of the Texas Air National Guard at the request of the late Sidney
Adger, a Houston oil man and longtime Bush family friend. At the time,
neither Bush nor his campaign directly denied the story. Bush simply
stressed that neither he nor
his father had made a call on his behalf, and he was unaware of any
other such string pulling.
"Ben Barnes is a key to this election because he knows firsthand what
happened in 1968," says Paul Alexander, director of "Brothers in
Arms," a new pro-Kerry documentary about the Democratic candidate's
Vietnam experience. Alexander has also written extensively about
Bush's past. "Barnes is an eyewitness."
Barnes is a Kerry supporter, and the White House last week tried to
depict him as a longtime partisan. But the fact is, Barnes for years
resisted any attempt to get dragged into a political debate about
Bush's war record. It was only under threat of legal action back in
1999 -- and only after efforts to assert "executive privilege" failed
-- that Barnes came forward with his statement about helping Bush.
(And even then, Barnes issued it through his attorney, refusing to
answer press questions.) The lawsuit was brought by a disgruntled
Texas lottery executive who charged that his former company, which
Barnes lobbied for, was able to keep a lucrative Texas state contract
in exchange for Barnes' remaining silent about helping Bush get into
the Guard. The case was later settled out of court, with the executive
receiving $300,000.
In 1998 Barnes even met privately with Bush's then-campaign manager
and current commerce secretary, Donald Evans, in order to give him a
heads up about the unfolding Guard story. Bush himself sent Barnes a
note thanking him "for his candor" on the matter.
Whether Bush still appreciates Barnes' "candor" next week remains to
be seen.