BUSH LIES PILE UP AS NEW FACTS ARE UNEARTHED
According to a story in the Boston Globe this morning, a Maine man said he was in court in 1976 when George W. Bush was present to answer to his DWI charge. This confirms our assertion (see next story) that, based on the docket records, Bush lied at his press conference Thursday evening when he indicated that his DWI charge was taken care of on the evening it happened and that he never appeared in court. Further, Boston Globe reporters Stephen A. Kurkjian and David Armstrong imply that Bush lied another time when he participated in a hearing with Maine officials in a successful attempt to regain his right to drive in Maine, two years after the DWI infraction. Bush's "comments, made in a 1978 hearing conducted by telephone, clash with the presidential candidate's more recent recountings of his drinking habits at that time in his life." Another point made in the story continues to baffle us. People who lived in Maine in the '70's indicate that Bush's infraction would not have been taken as seriously then as it would be taken today. Having said that, why was Bush given such a lengthy suspension of his license for a fist-time DWI. Even today, a first-time DWI only merits a 90-day suspension. Also, in 1976 would a first-time DWI be forced to complete a driver rehabilitation course prior to having his suspension lifted? Nothing in Maine's 1997 laws indicates such a requirement. Excerpts from their story follow. --Politex, 11/4/00
"Bush confirmed Thursday that he was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, following a night of drinking with three friends and his sister Dorothy. Bush, who was 30 at the time, pleaded guilty, paid a $150 fine, and had his right to drive suspended.... The 1978 reinstatement hearing took place after Bush, in a handwritten letter to state authorities, said he was unable to complete a required driver rehabilitation course because he lived in Texas. In the letter, he said he hoped to be able to drive again in Maine as a ''tourist.'' Maine regulations allowed for him to be reinstated without taking the course, but doubled the length of time he had to wait before seeking to restore his right to drive....
"In a plea to win back his right to drive in Maine following his 1976 conviction for drunken driving, George W. Bush portrayed himself as a casual drinker, saying he drank ''infrequently'' and had an ''occasional beer,'' according to an official handwritten notation in Maine state records. His comments, made in a 1978 hearing conducted by telephone, clash with the presidential candidate's more recent recountings of his drinking habits at that time in his life. Bush said he stopped drinking in 1986 and has not had any alcohol since. But he has acknowledged a hard-drinking past that came to interfere with his life, though he has not been specific about how often he drank. His comments in the 1978 hearing cast his consumption of alcohol in the softest of terms. Notes from the hearing officer, included in records released by the state to the Globe, note that Bush said he drank about once a month and ''infrequently.'' The hearing officer, David Schulz, also noted that Bush said he drank an ''occasional beer.'' Following the hearing, Bush's right to drive in Maine was reinstated. In various interviews, Bush has said he stopped drinking when he turned 40 and realized the toll alcohol was taking on his life. In September, he said ''alcohol was beginning to compete for my affections for my wife and my family.'' In another interview with the Washington Post, Bush gave the following answer when asked if he had ever participated in Alcoholics Anonymous: ''I didn't ... I don't think I was clinically an alcoholic; I didn't have the genuine addiction. I don't know why I drank. I liked to drink, I guess.'' The Bush campaign yesterday did not respond to a request to reconcile such remarks with the self-description Bush offered the state hearing officer in 1978.....
"It began Thursday morning when a Maine man, who said he had been in Biddeford District Court on the same day in 1976 that Bush appeared to answer to the drunken driving charge, remarked to his chiropractor that he didn't understand how the arrest escaped attention by the media. Until Thursday, there had been only one other request for Bush's driving record in Maine, said Wyke, the Maine official. That request, made Oct. 23 by a man with a Phoenix address, asked for a copy of Bush's record during the past 10 years. Because the drunken driving arrest dated back more than two decades, the man was told the Texas governor's record was spotless. Many media outlets had requested copies of Bush's Texas driving records before Thursday, but because the charge in Maine was more than 10 years old, it would not have shown up on the Texas files, said a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. And in Maine, driving under the influence at that time was considered a type of traffic offense, said Mark Lavoie, president of the Maine State Bar Association. ''It was worse than a speeding ticket certainly, but far less than what it is today,'' he said. William Head, an attorney who wrote a book on drunken driving defense strategies, said the era in which Bush was arrested could have made it easier for him to avoid the conviction."
geocities.com |
