In an interview aired Wednesday on CBS's "The Early Show," the president's father dismissed claims that he helped his son stay out of the conflict.

"They keep saying that and it's a lie, a total lie," former President George H.W. Bush said. "Nobody's come up with any evidence, and yet it's repeated all the time."

Well, Mr. President, setting aside the fact that former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes has openly stated that he helped get your son into the "Champaign Unit" of the Texas Air National Guard (TXANG, 147th Fighter Interceptor Group), which was stocked with other rich boys and professional athletes from the Dallas Cowboys football team, the end result was the same. It seems to me that you are parsing the word "helped" beyond anything Clinton dreamed of when he parsed the word "is".

Whether you actively intereferred to get your boozing son into the Champaign Unit or passively stood by while politicians pandered to you by pulling strings... the fact remains that your son was allowed to jump over 200 young men already in line to get into that unit. And he was able to do so because of who his daddy is.

Do you seriously believe that GEORGE ALLEN ALFORD JR, of Alvin Texas, could have gotten into the Champaign Unit? He entered the military mere weeks after your son did. How about FRANCISCO ALVAREZ of Rio Grande City, Texas? He enlisted just after your son did too. Do you think he had a chance in hell of getting into the Champaign Unit? He died in Vietnam. As did George Alford Jr. Alford had the right first name. But, unfortunately his last name wasn't sufficiently impressive to save his life.

Oh, and by the way, Mr. President... The most that Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes could do was to help your son get in. As The AWOL Project documents, not even the Governer of Texas had the authority to get Dubya into a cushy unit that didn't need more F102 pilots.

So, how did your son get into a unit that didn't need more pilots and which already had a LOT of young men in line ahead of him? I'm sure the families of Francisco Alvarez and George Alford Jr. would like to know how their sons lives could have been spared.