Rove stayed up late Friday night after the remarks concerning Bush's National Guard placement by former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes were publicized. As a direct result, on Saturday, Rove lined up Bush for NBC's "Today" show. Excerpts of the Bush interview, conducted Saturday for broadcast Monday, were released by NBC Saturday.

That's right, after tossing the knife down the street-gutter, Rove had Bush enter into the NBC studio and wash the blood right off. Bush, after watching without rebuking as the SBVF'ers slimed Kerry for three weeks, nowsays:

"I think that we ought to move beyond the past... The real question is who best to lead us forward"... Asked if he believed that he and Kerry "served on the same level of heroism," Bush replied, "No, I don't. I think him going to Vietnam was more heroic than my flying fighter jets. He was in harm's way and I wasn't. On the other hand, I served my country. Had my unit been called up, I would have gone."Oh boy, "flying fighter jets" by Bush, and as for Kerry, ah, hmm, he just went to Vietnam-- notice whom Bush associates with the fight there in that comparison. And the chest-thumping there by Bush-- "if I was called up". Right.

As Bush knows, there was no chance Bush's unit would be ordered overseas. Bush flew a F-102, and The Air Force ordered all overseas F-102 units closed down as of June 30, 1970. Bush only graduated from Combat Crew Training School on June 23, 1970.

How about that, Bush is ready to go off to fly his big fighter jet in war, and aw shucks, just 7 days later the Air Force orders all F-102 units overseas to close.

But wait, where it stinks there's shit, and a whole lot more on this Barnes & Bush connection. Greg Palast, The Pay Off, writes about how Barnes cashed in on his secret knowledge after Bush got elected Governor of Texas, with a little bit of that Texas-style backroom hardball quid pro quo'n:

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.

The letter said, "Governor Bush ... made a deal with Ben Barnes not to rebid [the GTech lottery contract] because Barnes could confirm that Bush had lied during the '94 campaign."

In that close race, Bush denied the fix was in to keep him out of 'Nam, and the US media stopped asking questions. What did the victorious Governor Bush's office do for Barnes? According to the tipster, "Barnes agreed never to confirm the story [of the draft dodging] and the governor talked to the chair of the lottery two days later and she then agreed to support letting GTech keep the contract without a bid."

And so it came to pass that the governor's commission reversed itself and gave GTech the billion dollar deal without a bid.

The happy client paid Barnes, the keeper of Governor Bush's secret, a fee of over $23 million. Barnes, not surprisingly, denies that Bush took care of his client in return for Barnes' silence. However, confronted with the evidence, the former Lt. Governor now admits to helping the young George stay out of Vietnam.

Come on out Ben, spill those Texas-size beans.

May 27, 1968, twelve days away from losing his student draft deferment, George Bush Jr. puts in his application and jumps ahead the waiting list, grabbing the last of only 2-3 open spots in the Air National Guard. The Bush campaign wants everyone to believe that this was all covered 5 years ago by the press. But back in 1999, Barnes wasn't talking. Now that he's started, what's Ben got to lose?