AWOL isn't going to wash away that easily

At least the internet will not let Double-face get away with his lies to Russert, even though Russert was happy to let him try.

From Orcinus:

All this, in fact, continues to point to the increasing likelihood that the Bush campaign was involved in a coverup that included destroying government records in order to "sanitize" Bush's military career for public consumption.

The one man who has gone on the record in saying he observed such behavior is a former Guardsman named Bill Burkett, who served in Bush's office when he was governor of Texas and is now retired.

As this account describes, citing Burkett's own words:

"As the State Plans Officer for the Texas National Guard, I was on full-time duty at Camp Mabry when Dan Bartlett was cleansing the George W Bush file prior to GW's Presidential announcement. For most soldiers at Camp Mabry, this was a generally known event.

The archives were closely scrutinized to make sure that the Bush autobiography plans and the record did not directly contradict each other. In essence it was the script of the autobiography which Dan Bartlett and his small team used to scrub a file to be released. This effort was further involved by General Daniel James and Chief of Staff William W. Goodwin at Camp Mabry.

Burkett later clarified, in detail, what he observed, and why he went public with it, in this account:

...In 1998, I provided sufficient detailed information including documentation of severe irregularities within the Governors own chain of command in an effort to correct those deficiencies which I believe undermined the Texas National Guard and in some cases broke the law.

...UPDATE: Kevin Drum at Calpundit has a significant update -- solving, perhaps, the mystery of the torn document. This one will be fascinating to watch play out.

UPDATE 2: Marty Heldt also has a significant update -- having just received a letter from the National Personnel Records Center stating that there shouldn't have been any "new" documents in Bush's military records -- which appears to imply that the infamous "torn document" was inappropriately placed.

The letter also says: "It should be noted that tampering with or changing Federal records is a criminal offense under Title 18, Section 2071, and is punishable by fine or imprisonment."

This is a somewhat lengthy, but interesting and informative post with plenty of links to reference the comments. Check out the rest of it here.