The questions of illicit drug use first surfaced during the 1999 campaign. After Bush's first-place showing in the Iowa GOP straw poll, he was asked by Sam Attlesey of the Dallas Morning News whether Bush would insist his appointees answer the drug use questions contained in the FBI background check, a standard security screening. Bush responded, "As I understand it, the current form asks the question, 'Did somebody use drugs within the last seven years?' and I will be glad to answer that question, and the answer is 'No'". When pressed if he had ever used cocaine, Bush angrily chided the reporter, saying "Somebody floats a rumor and it causes you to ask a question, and that's the game in American politics, and I refuse to play it. That is a game. And you just fell for the trap."
The very next day at a campaign stop in Roanoke, Virginia, Bush told reporters he could also have passed the stricter standards of a 15-year drug-free period when his father was inaugurated. This meant that he had not used any drugs since 1974, when he was 28. When Bush was told by NBC's David Bloom that current White House employees are required to list any drug use since their 18th birthday, Bush stated that he had not used any illegal drugs in the past 25 years. This again only covers the time from 1974.
At that same time, author Jim Hatfield had completed Fortunate Son, a biography about George W. Bush. The book had not yet gone to press, and the Salon article seemed to answer nagging questions about Bush's first full-time job as a Project P.U.L.L. inner-city youth counselor.
Hatfield first called the director of Houston's Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, Madge Bush. He told her he knew that Bush had not been ordered to do community service at the center. "Finally, someone believes me", she replied, having fended off inquiries from dozens of reporters across the country. Hatfield then pointedly asked her if Bush performed court-ordered community service at another agency, and after a pause she declined comment.
Hatfield then contacted three confidential sorces that had been helpful in writing his book, and all three confirmed Salon's story, but with the community service at Project P.U.L.L. instead of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center. Ominously, two of the sources warned Hatfield to be careful and watch his back.
One source was identified only as a former Yale classmate who had partied with Bush in Houston in the late '60s and early '70s. He told Hatfield that George was arrested for cocaine possession in 1972, but "due to his father's connections, the entire record was expunged by a state judge whom the elder Bush helped get elected. It was one of those 'behind closed doors in the judges chambers' kind of thing between the old man and one of his Texas cronies who owed him a favor. In exchange for successfully completing community service at Project P.U.L.L., where Bush senior was a heavy contributor and honorary chairman, the judge purged George W.'s record."
Another source is described as a longtime Bush friend and unofficial political advisor. "Take this any way it sounds, but do you think George would take time out from speeding around town in his TR-6 convertible sports car, bedding down just about every single woman-and a few married ones- and partying like there's no tomorrow to go work full-time as a mentor to a bunch of streetwise black kids? Get real, man, this is a white-bread boy from the other side of town we're talking about."
The third source was a high-ranking advisor to Bush who had known him for several years. He again confirmed that Bush had been busted in 1972 and the community service at Project P.U.L.L. was court-ordered. This source also told Hatfield that "...I can confirm that W.'s Dallas attorney remains the repository of any evidence of the expunged record. From what I've been told, the attorney is the one who advised him to get a new driver's licence in 1995 when a survey of his public records uncovered a stale but nevertheless incriminating trail for an overly eager reporter to follow."
(Online Journal reporters Bev Conover and Linda L. Starr had uncovered the mysterious driver's licence issued to Governor Bush on March 31, 1995, instead of his birthday, July 6. In Texas, every infraction of the law appears on the Driver's Licence Detail. By the way, the Texas Department of Public Safety, which issues state driver's licences, was headed by James Byrne Francis, Jr., a close friend and fundraiser for George W.)
What is eerie about reading Jim Hatfield's book is the warning this third source gave him. "Be careful and watch your back every step of the way...Without sounding paranoid, I think I would be amiss if I didn't remind you that George's old man was once director of the CIA...W's raised almost a staggering $60 million for his White House run in a matter of only a few months, and his corporate sponsors and the GOP fat cats aren't going to roll over and play dead when you expose the truth about their investment."
When Fortunate Son was released, it stirred up a hornet's nest. The Dallas Morning News received information about Hatfield's checkered past. Hatfield had done prison time for a 1988 conviction for solicitation of capital murder, a felony. That was all the Bush camp needed to discredit the book. The author was routinely discredited by pointing out that he was a convicted felon, but the accusations in the book could not be debunked. The only other defense the Bush campaign could muster was to dispute that the judge could not be Republican, as stated by one of Hatfield's sources, since at that time there were no GOP judges in that county. Two of the three sources merely said that the arrest was expunged by a state judge. The one source could easily have assumed party affiliation, since George senior was was Republican. CBS's 60 Minutes ran a story on Jim Hatfield, titled "Unfortunate and Untrue?". The piece concentrated on Hatfield's past but never refuted anything in his book. The original publisher, St. Martin's Press, panicked and recalled 70,000 copies from bookstores. Luckily, the book remains in print today through Soft Skull Press.
In the second edition, Soft Skull publisher Steve Hicks revealed that Hatfield's sources for the cocaine story were Karl Rove and Bush's personnel director Clay Johnson. It may seem strange that these Bush loyalists would admit to the cocaine bust, but in his book Hatfield describes how he bluffed that the story had leaked elsewhere and wanted to get their comments. When Soft Skull Press picked up the rights to publish Fortunate Son, Hatfield called Clay Johnson to tell him the campaign to discredit him and suppress the book hadn't worked. Johnson then made several harsh threats, telling him if he "valued the lives" of his wife and baby daughter (whom he called by their first names), he should stop the publishing deal.
The book sales were disappointing, and the character assault never let up. The American media danced to Karl Rove's tune, diverting inquiries about the drug bust into stories about Hatfield's criminal past, killing the book by discrediting the author. He lost two other book contracts. On July 20, 2001, Jim Hatfield's body was found in an Arkansas hotel room, an apparent suicide from taking two kinds of prescription drugs. Hatfield was only 43 years old.
The cocaine bust story fills in a lot of the blanks surrounding Bush's tenure in the Air National Guard. The timing dovetails with lapses in George's military service. George had enlisted in May 1968 for a six-year hitch, and was accepted despite a long waiting list. In those days, people with power and influence who didn't want to go to Vietnam could instead fulfill military duty by enlisting in the National Guard. Since the National Guard is run by the state, many sons of prominent politicians bypassed the long waiting list.
"I am angry that so many of the sons of powerful and well-placed...managed to wrangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units...Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal alliegiance to their country" (Colin Powell's autobiography, My American Journey)
George was trained to fly the F-102, and was assigned to the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS) at Ellington AFB, Texas, flying "alerts" to Orlando and back. The 111th FIS was a nuclear-capable unit. Bush's F-102 could carry the AIM-26A Nuclear Falcon air-to-air missle. As such, airmen were subject to the Human Reliability Program, which ensured that servicemen in contact with nuclear weapons demonstrate the highest loyalty, integrity, and trustworthiness. Drug use would certainly flag an airman as unfit for duty. Bush's drug bust occurred in 1972, and we know he served for seven months at Project P.U.L.L. in Houston.
We also know that Bush was not seen at Ellington AFB from May 15, 1972 to April 30, 1973. This information is contained in an Annual Officer Effectiveness Report, dated April 30, 1973, and it explained that Bush had moved to Montgomery, Alabama and was stationed at Dannelly ANG Base. Actually Bush was working for his father, helping in the Senate campaign of Winton "Red" Blount. (Blount lost). This only accounts for three months of Bush's time in Alabama. No one remembers seeing George Bush at Dannelly ANG, and Bush cannot recall his commanding officer's name or details of his duties there. Bush was suspended from flying in August, 1972, because he skipped his annual medical exam. There is in fact a reward, as yet unclaimed, for anyone who can positively verify that George Bush was at either Ellington AFB in Houston or Dannelly ANG Base between May, 1972 to September, 1973. If you believe you can, you can claim your prize here.
George Bush sprang the news to his overjoyed parents that he was accepted at Harvard Business School during the Chritmas holiday in 1972. (Apparently shirking his military obligations met with their approval.) This demonstrates that George had no intention of fulfilling his duty. We can only speculate as to the reasons why.
Perhaps he feared the medical exam would show that despite the drug bust, he was still a regular drug user. (Remember, Bush has told us he has been clean since 1974.) Perhaps alcohol abuse was the problem. Whatever the reason, it is deporable that he simply refused to show up for duty. George should have been grateful, since his dad had pulled some strings to keep him out of harm's way. Many other young sons at the time would have appreciated the opportunity and served the whole term. What young soldier went to Vietnam because Bush bumped him from the National Guard's waiting list? George could have served the remainder of his commitment in a non-flying role, but it appears that if he could not fly, it wasn't worth his time. Spoiled child that he was, if the kids wouldn't play his way, he'd take the ball and go home. Whether due to fear from exposure as a drug/alcohol abuser or due to disdain or boredom, George W. simply quit, going AWOL (away without leave.) Apparently George Bush liked his cocaine more than he loved his country. Even if he was clean and sober, he arrogantly considered himself too good for military service and dared them to hold him to the same standards as us mortals.
Bush was given an early release from the National Guard in September 1973, because, well, he wasn't showing up anyway and who's going to complain about the U.N. Ambassador's son?
