"Informer" on Bush's OUI Charge Is Lying
It also gives us live illustration of how George Bush deals with crisis.
By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Original Sources (www.originalsources)
November 4, 2000
Rush Limbaugh happened to be on the Fox News Hannity and Colmes show minutes after the 24 year old "operating under the influence" story about George Bush broke. Limbaugh tells us:
"A Fox reporter in Portland, Maine, Erin Fehlau, released the story. Wednesday, Fehlau says she was at the Cumberland County Courthouse covering a story, when a cop told her that she overheard a lawyer and a judge talking about Bush's arrest in 1976. She just happened to overhear that.
"Fehlau said she made calls for two hours, couldn't get any information because the case was so old. No computer files existed, and the paper documents had been archived. At about 2:30 yesterday afternoon, she caught up with the lawyer, who offered to provide her a docket number and other information that he said was at his law office.
"It just happened to be in his law office, this quarter-century-old docket number."
The lawyer was Tom Connolly, an attorney in Maine who ran for governor of the state two years ago. Connolly was interviewed by Tony Snow on FoxNews yesterday. He was a delegate at the Democratic National Convention in August and claims he didn't know a thing about the OUI incident until Wednesday. The exchange between Connolly and Snow went as follows:
Snow: You said the clerk called you up and gave you information about this?
Connolly: Oh, no, no! After I called the clerk the Clerk faxed me the abstract…
Snow: And how did you learn about it?
Connolly: I learned about it in court yesterday about 1:10 after I after a call from from an attorney who became aware of it also….
Snow: Is this an attorney who is based primarily in Maine?
Connolly: Yes, sir.
Snow: So it wasn't a judge then?
Connolly: Ah - In Maine the-the system is complicated and so I will neither confirm or deny my particular source. That person is confidential.
Snow: You are not going to say whether it is a certain probate judge whose name is being bandied around a lot?
Connolly: I certainly wouldn't say that because that's not my function. My function is that I got the information from the Clerk's office. It's truthful information. The Secretary of State confirmed and then I provided it out.
Snow: Where do you think your source got the information?
Connolly: From a person who was in court at the day that "W" went in and pled guilty.
From that we are supposed to believe that Connolly just happened to hear from a fellow attorney, sort of out of the blue, that George W. Bush had a OUI arrest 24 years ago, and he called up the clerk in the town of Biddeford, who in a matter of 20 minutes was able to find the 24 year old records and fax them to him, and no other Democrats knew a thing about it and the person who is the actual source is an unnamed person who was in court the day George W. Bush went in and pled guilty.
And, of course, all Connolly is really interested in is the truth and, when asked, stoutly said that the Gore campaign had nothing to do with his actions.
There's a small problem with this scenario. George W. Bush never when into a court.
When the story broke, George W. Bush stepped in front of press cameras and said:
Bush: There's a report out tonight that 24 years ago I was apprerhended in Kennebunkport, Maine, for a DUI. That's an accurate story. I'm not proud of that. I oftentimes said that years ago I made some mistakes. I occasionally drank too much and I did on that night.
I was pulled over. I admitted to the policeman that I had been drinking. I paid a fine. And I regret that it happened. But it did. I've learned my lesson.
As I mentioned, as many of you know that I quit drinking alcohol in 1986. And it was the right decision for me to make then. I would be glad to answer a few questions. Question: Why wait until now?
Bush: Well, it came out now because a TV station in Maine broke the story. But I made the decision that, as a dad, I didn't want my girls doing the kinds of t hings I did and I told them not to drink and drive. It was a decision I made. I have been very up front with the people of the state of Texas that, you know, that I had been drinking in the past, that I had made mistakes. And the story broke.
Question: Why now?
I think that's an interesting question, why now, four days before an election?
A reporter asked:
"Could you tell us some more about the night that you spent some time in jail? Did you…"
Bush responded: "No, I didn't spend any night in jail there. I did not spend time in jail.
Then a reporter asked:
Question: Governor, was there any legal proceeding of any kind? Or did you just…
Bush: No, - you know, I said I was wrong and I…
Question: In court?
Bush: No, there was no court. I went to the police station. I said "I'm wrong."
So, Connelly tells us , the Gore Campaign headquarters had nothing to do with this and all he's told us is "truthful information?" Connelly also urges us to "look at the facts" and to realize this is a "criminal offense - not just youthful exuberance. When you have an OUI offense you can't go into Canada and Canada is a NATO country. OUI is a matter of moral turpitude." He repeated over and over that this is a "crime" of great magnitude.
Yet, in 1976 in Maine, it appears from researching Title 29-A of the Maine laws, an OUI offense was not considered a crime, but a traffic offense. The laws on OUI offenses on the books today are tougher than the laws were in the 1970s but even under the law passed in 1993 the incident was NOT a "criminal" offense since Bush was not under 21, was not resisting arrest, refusing to take a sobriety test, did not have a blood-alcohol level higher than .15 or speeding.
While Connelly said George W. Bush "could have gone to jail" and someone apparently started a rumor that he HAD gone to jail, even today a first time OUI offense, where no one has been hurt, and the driver is over 21, was not speeding and does not resist arrest, is not a "crime" where jail time would be given.
Connelly is clearly lying and obviously covering up the identity of the person responsible for this last minute dirty trick. It also gives us live illustration of how George Bush deals with crisis. As Rush Limbaugh says:
"Neither Bill Clinton nor Algore have ever shown the kind of integrity and guts that George W. Bush displayed Thursday night. And presidents, as we all know, face these kinds of personal and official challenges during the time they hold office.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I honestly believe that the way Bush dealt with this brought tears to the eyes of many people. There he was, admitting it, not using his father's power, name or status to try and cover it up or escape punishment a la Ted Kennedy.
"Thursday night, we saw George Bush behave precisely the way he has assured us he would if elected. He will be a steady man with a steady hand. He demonstrated that for us, whereas Algore has demonstrated that he lacks these critical qualities.
"It's clear that Bush will not lie to the American people as president, because he didn't lie to his friends and he didn't lie to his family about this DUI. He was open and straightforward. He faced the situation like a man.
"Contrast that with 'no controlling legal authority.' Contrast it with Bill Clinton's 'It depends what the meaning of 'is' is."
Rush is right. This carefully orchestrated Democrat plot to trap George W. has trapped the Democrats and they deserve it.
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