George Jr sent out of Texas by father as a 'drunken liability'

Gary Younge in New York
Friday September 3, 2004
The Guardian

The US president, George Bush, was transferred to the Alabama National
Guard during the Vietnam war because his drunken behaviour was a
political liability to his father in Texas, the wife of one of his
father's former confidants revealed yesterday.
Linda Allison told the political website Salon.com that throughout the
time Mr Bush was in Alabama she never saw him in uniform and had no
idea he was supposed to be in the National Guard.

"Georgie was raising a lot of hell in Houston, getting in trouble and
embarrassing the family and they just really wanted to get him out of
Houston." Asked if she had ever seen him in uniform Mrs Allison said:
"Good Lord, no. I had no idea the National Guard was involved in his
life."

Mrs Allison is the wife of the late Jimmy Allison, a former political
consultant and newspaper owner from Midland, Texas and one time
confidant of the Bush family. Motivated by pride in her husband and
pique at the manner in which the Bush family discarded him once they
believed he was no longer useful, the interview is the first she has
ever given.

On Sunday the former lieutenant governor of Texas Ben Barnes will
admit on the CBS primetime news programme 60 Minutes that he pulled
strings to enrol Mr Bush in a unit of the Texas National Guard known
as the Champagne Unit, because it had so many sons of prominent Texas
politicians and businessmen.

Mrs Allison said that in 1972 her husband received a call from Mr
Bush's father asking whether he could find a place for his son on a
Senate campaign he was managing in Alabama. Mr Bush Sr was the US
ambassador to the UN at the time and his son's drunken and
occasionally loutish behaviour was becoming an embarrassment.

Mr Allison agreed to take the errant Bush son as his deputy in a
Senate campaign to elect the Alabama Republican Winton "Red" Blount.
Once he had an official reason to be in Alabama, Mr Bush Jr
transferred from the Texas National Guard to its Alabama counterpart,
although beyond one dental examination there is no proof that he
showed up for any service even though it was only a part-time posting.
Mr Bush was subsequently given an honourable discharge.

Most involved in the Senate campaign recall Mr Bush Jr turning up
late, boasting about how much alcohol he had drunk the night before
and then going home early. "After about a month I asked Jimmy what was
Georgie's job, because I could never figure it out," recalled Mrs
Allison. "I never saw him do anything."