Dubya's DUI An '11th-Hour Gotcha'? Not So!
AP Reports that Portland Paper Knew of It Back In July -- But SAT on the Info!

To: Senator Bob Kerrey
From: Tamara Baker
Date: Nov. 6, 2000

Dear Senator Kerrey:

I know you probably won't see this or hear about this until well after your appearance on Meet the Press today, but I left messages about it for you on your office voicemails in both DC and Nebraska, just in case.

You know, Senator Kerrey, that both Tim 'Clinton-Gore Is Evil' Russert and your fellow Senator John 'I Support Bush Even Though He Slandered Me In The Primaries' McCain will try to throw you off by tying the AWOL issue, which we have known about since May, thanks to the Boston Globe, together with the DUI issue, which the public only was told about last Thursday. They will try to make the link in order to claim that both AWOL and DUI are '11th-hour attacks made by the desperate Gore campaign'.

Well, it turns out that the DUI story could have been released much earlier than it was, because at least two persons on the staff of the Portland, Maine, Press-Herald -- a reporter and that reporter's editor -- knew about the story since July, but chose to sit on it.

According to a November 4th AP article in the Nando Times-- quoting from an article in that day's Portland Press-Herald -- a reporter for the Press-Herald came across the information in July while researching a story about the town of Kennebunkport preparing for a possible second Bush presidency. However, the reporter's assignment editor allegedly decided the drunken-driving arrest 24 years ago happened too long ago to be relevant, according to both the Associated Press article and the Press-Herald article.

"Not relevant", my patootie.

I think that's Kennebunkportese for "We don't want to find horses' heads in our beds."

Suddenly, this story's angle is changed. The issue no longer 'Is this a dirty trick?', but 'Was this story suppressed for political reasons?'

Considering how the national media has steadfastly refused, up until very recently, to look at the AWOL issue -- and only after some heavy prodding from you, Senator Kerrey -- the evidence for its being suppressed to protect George W. Bush is strong, indeed.

You have a new weapon on your shoulder now. Use it.

Sincerely,

Tamara Baker
American Politics Journal