But, the incredible thing about the latest accusation regarding Bush's work with Project PULL in the early 70s isn't that according to people who worked with him it wasn't voluntary. I mean, come on, we know that it isn't exactly in the Bush family gene pool to do something like that. The incredible thing is that in addition to lying about why he was doing it, he lied about the importance of his involvement:
-
HOUSTON - Former employees of a now-defunct inner-city program here have disputed the role President Bush says he played working with troubled teens in 1973.
"I was working full-time for an inner-city poverty program known as Project PULL," he said in his 1999 autobiography, A Charge to Keep. "My friend John White... asked me to come help him run the program... . I was intrigued by John's offer... . Now I had a chance to help people."
Bush often has cited this work for the Professional United Leadership League as the source for his belief in compassionate conservatism.
Some former associates of White, who died in 1988, speaking on the record for the first time, say that Bush wasn't helping to run the program but was instead a volunteer, and that White hadn't asked Bush to come aboard. Instead, the associates said, White told them he agreed to take Bush on as a favor to Bush's father, who was honorary cochairman of the program at the time. They say White, a tight end for the Houston Oilers in the '60s, told them Bush had gotten into some kind of trouble, but White never gave them specifics.
While they question how he came to the group, they also praise his work and agree that he connected well with the youths.
"We didn't know what kind of trouble he'd been in, only that he'd done something that required him to put in the time," said Althia Turner, White's administrative assistant.
"He didn't help run the program. I was in charge of him and I wouldn't say I helped run the program, either," said David Anderson, a recreational director at PULL.
A White House spokesman, told about the interviews, denied that Bush had been in any trouble or that Bush's father, who was ambassador to the United Nations at the time, had arranged the job at PULL. He acknowledged that Bush wasn't paid for his work there.
"It was incorrect to say he was working there," spokesman Trent Duffy said. "He was doing volunteer service and getting paid by the Guard."
It's incredible that all signs point to his being a volunteer working off some community service time. Instead of just claiming to be a volunteer, he claimed he was asked to "help run the program."
Is there anything he won't lie about?
And, remember folks, it's not about the sex, it's about the lying...
...just a thought. I'm pretty surprised they got away with running this story so close to the election. I'm guessing the reporters may even have a bit more up their sleeves that makes this an even more solid story... Developing, as they say...