The Truth About Dubya During Vietnam?

Mary Jacoby, Washington Correspondent with Salon.Com gives us an account of George W. Bush’s “missing year” in 1973, while John Kerry was fighting in Vietnam.

The piece is based on a first-hand accounting by Linda Allison, wife of the late Jimmy Allison, a campaign consultant and friend to the Bush family, of Bush’s activities in Alabama in 1973. Jacoby writes:

“Asked if she’d ever seen Bush in a uniform, Allison said: ‘Good lord, no. I had no idea that the National Guard was involved in his life in any way.’ ”

Describing a rift that opened up between the Allison’s and the Bush’s in 1973, which may or may not have resulted from the Allison’s non-prevention of George Jr.’s alcohol-induced shenanigans, Jacoby relates Linda Allison’s story:

“The break happened not long after a boozy election-night wake for Blount, who lost his Senate bid to the incumbent Democrat, John Sparkman. Leaving the election-night ‘celebration,’ Allison remembers encountering George W. Bush in the parking lot, urinating on a car, and hearing later about how he’d yelled obscenities at police officers that night. Bush left a house he’d rented in Montgomery trashed — the furniture broken, walls damaged and a chandelier destroyed, the Birmingham News reported in February. ‘He was just a rich kid who had no respect for other people’s possessions,’ Mary Smith, a member of the family who rented the house, told the newspaper, adding that a bill sent to Bush for repairs was never paid. And a month later, in December, during a visit to his parents’ home in Washington, Bush drunkenly challenged his father to go ‘mano a mano,’ as has often been reported.”

If this is true, then it sounds like Dubya hasn’t changed much over the years, except that now he’s a dry ego-maniacal jerk with a lot more power, rather than a drunk ego-maniacal jerk who could safely have been ignored.

But is Linda Allison to be believed? Is there a counter-argument? Does Dubya have any evidence, any evidence at all, that he’s a different George W. Bush than the one who pisses on cars, drunkenly insults the police, shirks work and responsibility, and back-stabs those who get in his way? Yes, we know he’s not a drunk anymore, but what about the rest?

If you’re on the fence about Bush vs. Kerry, you owe it to yourself to read the article. If you’re already decided, then don’t bother because it’ll just piss you off either way.

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