>From Online Journal
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Smith110900/smith110900.html
Two breaking scandals drive Bush's rush to claim presidency; desperate scramble ensues
By Eileen Smith
November 9, 2000 | Thursday afternoon the Bush campaign scrambled frantically to seize the presidency as it came closer to slipping out of its hands. Cabinet appointments were announced, plans for a victory celebration were underway, and old Bush associates were called in to lend an air of authority.
The rush was necessary because of two breaking scandals now nipping at Bush's heels that could ultimately render him ineligible for the office or heavily damaged as president.
Bush has been accused of a deception in a Texas jury questionnaire that has been characterized as perjury. He is also under fire for refusing to release his military records, despite numerous requests from the press and from veterans groups who have provided documentation that Bush deserted his National Guard post duty from May 1972 to May 1973.
Both of these scandals even prior to election day were dogging Bush, with further documentation and emerging details now shaping a gathering storm for the besieged governor. Thus the rush to seize the presidency now.
Veterans groups point out that any of the 26 million veterans who may have voted for Bush without knowing of his alleged desertion from his military obligation during wartime - the Vietnam War, even though he served in the Texas Air National Guard -- would question the legitimacy of his assumption of the post of commander in chief.
Lt. George W. Bush disappeared from the view of his commanding officers in the Texas Air National Guard in May of 1972 and refused to submit to a flight physical. He was suspended from flying, and did not appear for duty until May of 1973 when direct orders were sent out for him to appear. The story of Bush's apparent desertion of duty was first broken in the Boston Globe in May 2000, and has been gathering increasing interest despite an apparent media blackout.
On Thursday, Nov. 2, Senator Bob Kerrey and Senator Max Cleland, holders of the Congressional Medal of Honor for valiant service in Vietnam, held a press conference detailing the evidence of Bush's desertion of duty. In an interview, Kerrey, called for Bush to release his service records. ''It upsets me when someone says, `Vote for me, I was in the military,' when in fact he got into the military in order to avoid serving in the military, to avoid service that might have taken him into the war. And then he didn't even show up for duty.''
Bush, Kerrey continued, ''needs to explain where he was when he was supposed to be fulfilling his military obligation. If he is elected president, how will he be able to deal as commander in chief with someone who goes AWOL, when he did the same thing?''
The unrelated allegation of perjury was raised after the news of a 1971 DUI arrest led reporters to look at a questionnaire Bush submitted when called for jury duty in 1996. Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff reported that Bush lawyers huddled to discuss the legal and political liability for Bush contained in the question regarding prior arrests, and the form was submitted with no answer to the question and no signature. A Bush lawyer negotiated dismissal of Bush's jury duty by presenting a questionable claim of conflict of interest.
Another possible perjury charge lies in testimony given by Bush under oath in recent litigation in Texas.