Like Clockwork, Fox Does it’s Duty…

Just another chapter from the 'Anything to Win' file.

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As predicted here the day after Ben Barnes came out to explain how he helped Bush leap to the front of the National Guard line, the smears based on the Republican Talking Points have made their way into the Media. Though that GOP web page gives no evidence of Barnes lying, nonetheless, they claim (falsely) that he’s changed his story on this issue. In fact, he never has.

Barnes has never claimed that anyone from the Bush family approached him for this favor. Rather that he was asked by a friend of the Bush family, a Houston oilman by the name of Sidney A. Adger.

But truth or decency doesn’t matter to Sean Hannity. As reported by the ever-meticulous Media Matters:

During the September 9 edition of FOX News Channel’s Hannity & Colmes, Armey labeled Barnes a “liar,” a “standing joke,” and not a “good person.” Hannity repeated the false claim that Barnes’s recent statements on 60 Minutes contradict sworn testimony from 1999, in which Barnes said he had not acted at the behest of the Bush family in recommending Bush for the Guard.

Later in the program, Barnes was accused of being “a partisan Democrat trying to help Senator Kerry”. While Media Matter notes that Barnes is indeed currently raising money for Kerry, he has also supported many Republicans — including Jeb Bush and White House press secretary Scott McClellan’s mother!!! — over the years…

As The New York Times reported on September 15, 2003, Barnes contributed $35,000 to the 2003 campaign of Texas State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the mother of White House press secretary Scott McClellan. The Dallas Morning News reported on October 25, 1994, that Barnes contributed $500 to Governor Jeb Bush (R-FL) during his unsuccessful 1994 bid for the Florida governorship. And the Austin American-Statesman noted on January 13 that Barnes has served on a fund-raising events committee for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX).

Apparently that information didn’t show up on those Republican Talking Points for some reason. Anything to win.

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Like Clockwork, Fox Does it’s Duty…

12 Comments

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12 Responses

  1. 1)
    Paul said on 9/14/2004 @ 5:30pm PT: [Permalink]

    From my hometown radio station:

    Daughter of Ben Barnes Disputes Father’s Claims as Political

    http://www.wbap.com/listingsent...wbaptopstories

    BARNES: I love my father very much, but he’s doing this for purely political reasons. He is a big Kerry fund-raiser and he is writing a book also. And [the Bush story] is what he’s leading the book off with. … He denied this to me in 2000 that he did get Bush out [of Vietnam service]. Now he’s saying he did.

    BARNES: Yes, yes. This came out in 2000 and I asked him then, at the time, if he [helped get Bush into the Guard]. He said: "No, absolutely not. I did not do that." –

  2. 2)
    jaime said on 9/14/2004 @ 6:10pm PT: [Permalink]

    Hey Paul…what was Bush’s score on the ANG entry exam?

    If you guessed lower 25th percentile (D-) you were right!!!!!!

    Explain how someone who was one bulb of a christmastree from failing the test able to leapfrog the hundred other people that scored well ahead of him? Charm? Not likely.

    Influence? Is there any other way to get in with shitty grades?

    Or are you going to tell me, the ANG accepts near failures as a matter of routine? Does Yale gladly accept C- students? Does Harvard accept C students as a matter of routine?

    What does acceptance with horrible scores in the ANG, High School and Yale have in common. B-U-S-H.

    And if you have any proof otherwise, please post them here (sourced, please).

  3. 3)
    Brad said on 9/14/2004 @ 7:33pm PT: [Permalink]

    Not to mention that Barnes’ daughter "Amy" who just happened to call the Mark Levine show has never been heard from again.

    Anything to win.

  4. 5)
    ED said on 9/15/2004 @ 9:17am PT: [Permalink]

    jaime,

    Lets talk about Hahvahd for a second. They did not kick Ted Kennedy out for cheating. Talk about influence. It happens on both sides. Yet you only want to talk about the Republicans. Why do I bother??

  5. 6)
    Brad said on 9/15/2004 @ 9:43am PT: [Permalink]

    Uh, Ed, one reason being that it’s Bush (not Kennedy) who is running for President. And claiming that he didn’t achieve his bragged about qualities due to family influence.

    As to the Kennedy/Harvard assertion, I’ve seen neither evidence of it (feel free to point me towards some) nor do I see how that applies to the question of Bush’s family influence.

    Are you now admitting that his family’s influence *did* help him into Harvard, Yale and the National Guard?

  6. 7)
    johnhp said on 9/16/2004 @ 3:03am PT: [Permalink]

    Brad,

    There’s one thing about education that Bush proves: we can’t trust private education. From Andover to Harvard, this guy was given social promotions. Now he commands the most powerful weapons in the history of humanity. One day we are going to figure out that we need smart leaders not smart bombs.

  7. 10)
    Brad said on 9/16/2004 @ 10:41am PT: [Permalink]

    Wow, Ed. There is NOTHING sourced on the page you pointed to. Simply one assertion after another, without a single link to a single piece of evidence!

    And you believe it!

    And yet, when evidence after evidence is presented to you, from mulitple sources (for example, no WMD, Bush did not fullfill ANG requirements) you don’t except it.

    Perhaps if I just started making stuff up, posting no sourcing for the information, you’d be more inclined to believe it! Amazing.

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