Texans for Truth: Difference between revisions

Texans for Truth (TfT) is a political advocacy organization, registered under Section 527 of the United States tax code, formed to oppose George W. Bush's re-election efforts in the 2004 presidential election. The group was founded by Glenn Smith, a Texas Democratic political consultant. Smith is an Austin resident who ran Democrat Tony Sanchez's unsuccessful 2002 campaign for Texas governor. In September 2004, the group began airing advertisements in various swing states that challenged Bush's National Guard record, particularly as to whether or not he fulfilled his obligations to serve.

Membership and organization

On its website, the TfT states that it was established by "the 20,000-member Texas online activist group, DriveDemocracy.org". DriveDemocracy is an organization started in April 2004 by MoveOn.org, a large advocacy group opposing Bush. Glenn Smith, the head of TfT, once a political reporter for the Houston Chronicle and Houston Post, has worked as a Democratic political consultant on several campaigns, including Democrat Tony Sanchez's campaign for governor of Texas in 2002. Smith said he started TfT in response to another 527 group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, that challenged the legitimacy of how Senator John Kerry received his Vietnam War medals as well as his accounts about the Vietnam War. [1]

The Bush-Cheney campaign dismissed TfT as "a smear group launching baseless attacks on behalf of John Kerry's campaign that will be rejected by the American people" [2], and maintains that "the president served honorably in the National Guard, fulfilled his duties and was honorably discharged." [3] Various questions about his National Guard record, including those based on information from military documents, have been raised against Bush since the 2000 presidential campaign and even before that, in 1994 and 1998 when he twice won election as the Governor of Texas. This article describes only the participation in this long-standing dispute by the Texans for Truth organization. For a comprehensive review of the allegations, responses, and evidence, see George W. Bush military service controversy.

Media activities

First television advertisement

The first advertisement features testimony from Bob Mintz, a lieutenant colonel in the 187th Alabama Air National Guard unit in 1972, where George Bush was assigned to serve that year. (See the video and the transcript.) In the video, Mintz claims that he never saw George Bush, and is quoted contending that "It would be impossible to be unseen in a unit of that size." The ad concludes by asking: "Was George W. Bush AWOL in Alabama?"

Second television advertisement

The second advertisement (video) reiterates the charges against George W. Bush that he did not fulfill his military service requirements but also accuses George H. W. Bush of pulling strings in order for his son to get into the Texas Air National Guard. The advertisement concludes by suggesting that George W. Bush had not released all of his military records and that despite Bush calling for the release on Meet the Press, Feb 8, 2004, he had not signed the actual form (Standard Form 180) to release such records.

In February 2004, Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said "said the latest [released] material apparently is all of Bush's records". [4] In September 2004, a federal judge "ordered the Pentagon to find and make public by next week any unreleased files about President Bush's Vietnam-era Air National Guard service. [5]

Reward

In September 2004, Texans for Truth offered a $50,000 reward to anyone who could prove that Bush fulfilled his service requirements by either "first-hand, eye-witness testimony," or authentic "documentary evidence." [6]

External links

• Texans for Truth

News articles about TfT

• "Records Say Bush Balked at Order" - Washington Post, September 9, 2004
• TV writer gives $100G to Texans for Truth ABC News - Sept. 9, 2004
• "Texans for Truth" Disinfopedia article