The influence behind W.(alleged misconduct of George W. Bush while in National Guard)

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 17

THE charge of scandalous behavior by Lt. George W. Bush in the National Guard evolves, on reflection, into scandalous behavior by CBS and Dan Rather. Mr. Rather is standing by his story, but hanging on by his fingernails. The focus had been on whether CBS had relied on forgeries. In his second 60 Minutes broadcast, Rather had the courage to bring onstage the 86-year old secretary, Mrs. Marian Carr Knox, who said flat-out that the document suggesting inattentive duty was a forgery--this was not a document typed by her or in her office. But even though the document was fake, Mrs. Knox went on, its sentiments weren't fake. Namely, that Lieutenant Bush was happy-go-lucky in the Texas National Guard, more interested in other things than Guard duty.

At that point Dan Rather looked sternly at his guest, and indeed at life itself, and said, Well, then, George Bush defied direct orders!

Yes, said Mrs. Knox.

The concrete issue had to do with his failure to take a physical examination on the appointed day. These physicals, 60 Minutes viewers were told, were routine annual requirements. An officer was supposed to undergo a physical on his birthday, a reasonable arrangement designed to allocate medical resources. But Bush didn't take the exam that day.

An awful, irreverent thought enters impious minds. Namely: So what?

So he missed the physical. What did the postponement of it have to do with anything of current interest? No one has charged that he missed the physical in order to conceal something. Conceal what? That he had syphilis, and didn't want to show up with the medics until his antibiotics had dispelled all traces of it? That he had taken to defying military authority to express his iconoclasm?