News sources report that CBS will concede it was misled on the Bush National Guard Record memos. The network is trying to get their source for the memos to come foward. Assuming CBS was misled, it's time to move on to the real story here: Bush's National Guard Service.

Two articles delve into Mr. Bush's past service. The first is a New York Times article written by Sara Rimer and other reporters. Military Service: Portrait of George Bush in '72: Unanchored in Turbulent Time. The second is by Eric Boehlert in todays' Salon Magazine, Bush in the National Guard: A Primer. From Boehlert:

What is also already known is that in the spring of 1972, with 770 days left of required duty, Bush unilaterally decided that he was done fulfilling his military obligation. Also in the spring of 1972, Bush refused to take a physical and quickly cleared out of his Guard base in Houston, heading off to work on the Senate campaign of Winton "Red" Blount in Alabama. Referring to that period, one of Bush's Guard flying buddies remarked to USA Today in 2002, "It was an irrational time in his life."

It may have been an irrational time for him, but Bush managed to focus intently on not serving in the Guard in any significant capacity again. His public records paint a portrait of a Guardsman who, with the cooperation of his Texas Air National Guard superiors, simply flouted regulation after regulation, indifferent to his signed obligation to serve.