Hmmm...

This could be an interesting little twist in the US Presidential election, if the 'liberal media' manages to find the time to look into it, though I understand their next couple of months are full of hard-hitting interviews with people who once stood in the same room as John Kerry when he didn't scream about the pain he was suffering from a shrapnel wound which therefore 'proves' how he's not fit to be President.

Meanwhile, though, someone's been doing some actual investigation and reporting:

In 1994, George W. Bush was elected governor of Texas by a whisker. By that time, Barnes had left office to become a big time corporate lobbyist. To an influence peddler like Barnes, having damning information on a sitting governor is worth its weight in gold – or, more precisely, there’s a value in keeping the info secret.

Barnes appears to have made lucrative use of his knowledge of our President’s slithering out of the draft as a lever to protect a multi-billion dollar contract for a client. That's the information in a confidential letter buried deep in the files of the US Justice Department that fell into my hands at BBC television.

Here's what happened. Just after Bush's election, Barnes' client GTech Corp., due to allegations of corruption, was about to lose its license to print money: its contract to run the Texas state lottery. Barnes, says the Justice Department document, made a call to the newly elected governor's office and saved GTech's state contract.

Move along, citizen, nothing to see here. No, there's nothing to see here, what are you, some friend of the terrorists? (via Pandagon)