Another Couple Hammers

Salon has this amazing story by Linda Allison, widow to former Bush family political operative Jimmy Allison. Jimmy brought W. along to Alabama in 1972, ostensibly to work on a Senate campaign, but, in the words of Linda, "to keep an eye on him." It blows the lid off of the entire Alabama National Guard controversy, and corroborates suspicions that he never showed up for duty.

The charges are unsurprising, and yet extremely credible coming from this old widow, a former friend of the Bush family who was cast aside once she could do nothing for them. It paints a portrait of an irresponsible, spoiled little brat (and I'm not talking about the twin daughters, but the President) who was clueless, smug, petty, and cruel. My favorite passages include this...

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." Allison also confirmed previously published accounts that Bush often showed up in the Blount campaign offices around noon, boasting about how much alcohol he had consumed the night before. (Bush has admitted that he was a heavy drinker in those years, but he has refused to say whether he also used drugs).

"After about a month I asked Jimmy what was Georgie's job, because I couldn't figure it out. I never saw him do anything. He told me it basically consisted of him contacting people who were impressed by his name and asking for contributions and support," Allison said.

...and this...

Bush... neglected his other duty: the mundane but important task of mailing out campaign materials to the county campaign chairs. Archibald took up the slack, at Allison's request. "Jimmy didn't say anything about George. He just said, 'These materials are not getting out. It's causing the candidate problems. Will you take it over?'"

(which, parenthetically, is SO damning, and just shows you the character of this man, who can't be bothered to do the dirty work)

...and this...

The Blount Senate campaign he (Jimmy Allison) ran against the Democrat, Sparkman, in 1972 was notable for a dirty racial trick: The Blount side edited a transcript of a radio interview Sparkman had given to make it appear he supported busing, a poison position at that time in the South. When Sparkman found an unedited script and exposed the trick, the Blount campaign was finished. But it was an early introduction for Bush to the kinds of tricks that later Republican strategists associated with the Bush political machine, from Lee Atwater to Karl Rove, would use against Democrats, often to victorious effect.

...and of course, because what story about the President would be complete without a good "taking a wiz on the sidewalk" story, this...

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.

All class. But this final passage is even more telling about the two true mean pillars of the Bush family, W. and his mother. This is Tennessee Williams-like in its dramatics:

Around the same time, for the 1972 Christmas holiday, the Allisons met up with the Bushes on vacation in Hobe Sound, Fla. Tension was still evident between Bush and his parents. Linda was a passenger in a car driven by Barbara Bush as they headed to lunch at the local beach club. Bush, who was 26 years old, got on a bicycle and rode in front of the car in a slow, serpentine manner, forcing his mother to crawl along. "He rode so slowly that he kept having to put his foot down to get his balance, and he kept in a weaving pattern so we couldn't get past," Allison recalled. "He was obviously furious with his mother about something, and she was furious at him, too."

Yeah, there's your strong, steady leader. What an angry, bitter, vindictive nutjob. In other words, the head of the Republican Party.

These charges must be repeated over and over. Everything is on the table. I'm particularly looking forward to next Wednesday night, when former Texas Lt. Governor Ben Barnes, who has claimed that he is "ashamed" for pulling strings to get George W. in the National Guard during the Vietnam War, goes public on CBS' 60 Minutes. Time to keep hammering. We have to take him down the same way the Republicans are trying to take down Kerry.