The Gap, Plugged

Last week as Memogate broke, one of the big glaring, non-typographical sirens that erupted was the mention of Brig. General Buck Staudt - a man who had apparently retired from the Guard nearly 18 months before the alleged memos were written.

Finally, Staudt is on the record:

Retired Col. Walter Staudt, who was brigadier general of Bush's unit in Texas, interviewed Bush for the Guard position and retired in March 1972. He was mentioned in one of the memos allegedly written by Lt. Col. Jerry Killian as having pressured Killian to assist Bush, though Bush supposedly was not meeting Guard standards.

"I never pressured anybody about George Bush because I had no reason to," Staudt told ABC News in his first interview since the documents were made public.

The memo stated that "Staudt is pushing to sugar coat" a review of Bush's performance.

Staudt said he decided to come forward because he saw erroneous reports on television. CBS News first reported on the memos, which have come under scrutiny by document experts who question whether they are authentic. Killian, the purported author of the documents, died in 1984.

So what?

So CBS' memos' last, tenuous claim on legitimacy has had a stake pounded through its heart.

And the lefties' biggest, nastiest trope - that Bush benefitted from political clout to get out of gong ot Vietnam - took another gut shot:

Staudt said he never tried to influence Killian or other Guardsmen, and added that he never came under any pressure himself to accept Bush. "No one called me about taking George Bush into the Air National Guard," he said. "It was my decision. I swore him in. I never heard anything from anybody."

Let it go, guys.

Posted by Mitch at September 17, 2004 11:01 PM | TrackBack