The Story of Bush's old DUI - Tampa Bay Times [View all]

[TheNutcracker]

Last edited Sun Nov 23, 2014, 01:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Tampa Bay Times - Perspective

Finally, 38 years later, we're getting details about George W. Bush's 1976 DUI arrest. The info comes from his drinking buddy that night — former tennis great John Newcombe. Thanks, Newk.

Bush's long-ago DUI became a thing with the approach of Election Day 2000. Fox News disclosed Bush's previously unbeknownst-to-most-of-us 1976 DUI in Maine. Bush fessed up to it on the campaign trail but spared us the details.

The 1976 arrest went down near the Bush family's Kennebunkport, Maine, complex. (Don't all families have a "complex" of some sort?) It was known that Newcombe was a passenger in the car, but he kept mum about details until now.

more at link below:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/perspective/perspective-the-story-of-bushs-old-dui/2207410


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There is also another aspect of this story, still untold. It was not just a DUI that was hidden. It's the story of once this ticket and or others were written, HOW it would be covered up, and the community work Bush had to do to make the charges go away, where he really did the community service work, and the driver's license number change. Only because Daddy was head of the CIA could they get that done. This is the story of what happened after the DUI, that is not discussed.

James Hatfield told this story in his book, Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President, and of course he died after writing it.

Democracy Now! Premieres the Full Interview with Bush Biographer J.H. Hatfield who died in 2001 of an alleged suicide amidst controversy Over his book Fortunate Son

Listen to the interview with Hatfield on Democracy Now years ago. Why they are writing about this covered up DUI now, I'm not sure. But there is more to it, so I thought I would put some of it together for readers here.

http://www.democracynow.org/2003/8/11/democracy_now_premieres_the_full_interview


Today we play an interview that we have held for over three years. It involves allegations of President Bush, drugs, obstruction of justice and corporate scandal. It raises questions about why Bush’s driver license number was changed.

In the book Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President author J.H. Hatfield charges that President Bush was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession and that Bush’s father George Sr. used his political connections to have his son’s record expunged.

Soon after publication, Hatfield’s credibility was challenged. He had been convicted in 1988 for hiring a hit-man in a failed attempt to kill his boss and had served five years in prison.

J.H. Hatfield died of an alleged suicide in July 2001. [Includes transcript]

This is how the story goes: Four years ago St. Martins Press published a book by author James H. Hatfield called Fortunate Son. It is about the life of George W. Bush.

In the book, Hatfield charges that Bush was arrested in 1972 for cocaine possession. Why wasn’t the future President charged? Hatfield writes that Bush’s father used his political connections to have his son’s record expunged.

Soon after publication of Fortunate Son the Dallas Morning News received information about Hatfield’s criminal past.

The media jumped all over it and Hatfield’s reputation and credibility were ruined.

St. Martins Press promised to turn Fortunate Son into "furnace fodder." It withdrew 70,000 copies from bookshelves and destroyed them. But a small publisher Soft Skull Press reprinted the book with the banner "The Book They Burned is Back."

Hatfield had previously refused to reveal the source of his information about Bush’s alleged cocaine arrest. He now to decided to name him. He claimed it was none other than Karl Rove, Bush’s closest political adviser.

If Rove did indeed leak the information, he couldn’t have leaked it to a better subject. Soon after publication of the Fortunate Son, Hatfield’s credibility came under fierce attack.

The media followed the trail laid out for them. They diverted inquiries about Bush’s drug history to stories about Hatfield’s checkered past. He lost two other book contracts and faced financial ruin and obscurity.

The character assassination finally took its toll. In July 2001, Hatfield was found dead of an apparent suicide in a hotel room in Springdale, Arkansas. He was 43 years old. Police said he left notes for his family and friends that listed alcohol, financial problems and Fortunate Son as reasons for killing himself. He is survived by a wife and daughter.

Special thanks to Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky who made the documentary film "Horns and Halos" about J.H. Hatfield and Soft Skull Press publisher Sander Hicks. They filmed the Democracy Now! interview we premiered today.

Listen to the interview above. You can still buy the book!
http://www.amazon.com/Fortunate-Son-George-American-President/dp/1887128840