On a Break from Chores

Orcinus has some additional information on Lt. AWOL. He further links to The Daily Howler and Salon for more. If you don't have a subscription to Salon, I encourage you to click through the ad and check it out.

The Republican spin cycle will attempt to do several things to control the damage--all involve selective disregard for the truth. First, they'll claim that this has previously been investigated and found to be groundless. That's not true. Second, they will attempt to attack anyone for even bringing it up. This could could be effective, as the press routinely allows itself to be cowed into submission. If this becomes "merely" an attack by the Democrats, it will be spun as "partisan bickering" (funny, though, how the press will repeat Republican attack points without EVER noting the "partisan" nature of the attacks). Finally, if this does get the attention it deserves, an all out effort will be made to dismiss the allegation as "thirty year old news." Damn, I can't find the link, but I've seen at least one story that pushes the idea that young voters won't care about something that happened back in the 70's.

But the spin point that the Democrats MUST make is that this goes directly to character. The fact that Bush will not release his military records--just like he won't release relevant records to the 9/11 Commission, just like he won't release records from Cheney's energy task force that show the close relationship between this administration and Enron, just like he won't release records relating to how intelligence was stovepiped to justify the Iraq war--this demonstrates a pattern of behavior that is anathema to genuine representative democracy.

And that's why, IMO, we're seeing record voter turnouts thus far: the American public is sick and tired of being taken for a fool--especially when lives are being lost for no reason overseas, and money is being dumped by the truckload into no-bid crony contracts...

(Took a break from trying to fix a leaking pipe. Back to plumbing...)