-Caveat Lector-
Friends: Barnes was asked to help get Bush in Guard
Governor says he didn't know of aid, didn't need any
09/08/99
By George Kuempel and Pete Slover / The Dallas Morning News
© 1999, The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN - Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes has told friends that in the
late 1960s, a well-known Houston oilman asked him to help George W. Bush get
a spot in the Texas Air National Guard.
Two of those friends, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said in
recent interviews that Mr. Barnes identified the oilman as Sidney A. Adger,
a longtime Bush family acquaintance who died in 1996.
Austin businessman and sometime lobbyist - told them that one of his staff
members forwarded Mr. Adger's request to the general in charge of the
Guard's air operations.
Mr. Bush said Tuesday that if such a contact occurred - at a time when many
young men were trying to get into the Guard as an alternative to combat duty
in Vietnam - it wasn't needed and it was without his knowledge or consent.
Asked whether Mr. Adger or anyone else approached Mr. Barnes about the
Guard, Mr. Bush said, "I have no idea and I don't believe so. I applied to
be a pilot in the Guard and I met the requirements and the people who
decided I was going to be in the Guard have said publicly that there was no
influence."
"All I know is anybody named George Bush did not ask him for help," said the
governor and GOP presidential front-runner while campaigning in New
Hampshire.
Mr. Barnes declined to comment but is scheduled to be questioned Thursday
about Mr. Bush and the Guard in a lawsuit filed by the ex-director of the
Texas lottery. Brig. Gen. James Rose, the general in charge of the Guard's
air operations, died in 1993.
A spokeswoman for former President George Bush confirmed the elder Bush's
friendship with Mr. Adger but said he was "almost positive" he never talked
to Mr. Adger - or anyone else - about getting his son into the Guard.
"He said he is fairly certain - I mean he doesn't remember everything that
happened in the 1960s - but he said he and Sid Adger never, ever talked
about George W. and the Texas Air National Guard," said Jean Becker, a
spokeswoman for the former president.
'The King'
Mr. Adger, a former pilot for Pan American World Airways, was known
affectionately in Houston business and political circles as "The King."
For years, he lived in the same Houston neighborhood and sent his children
to the same private school as the Bushes. He belonged to the the same
downtown clubs as the elder Mr. Bush, who from 1967 to 1970 represented
Houston as a Republican congressman.
"President Bush knew Sid Adger well," Ms. Becker said. "He loved him."
The governor's stint as a stateside fighter pilot during the height of the
Vietnam War has been a recurrent issue, raised by opponents when he first
ran for governor and now during his presidential bid.
Earlier this summer, Mr. Barnes acknowledged he sometimes received requests
for help in obtaining Guard slots. But he said he never got such a call from
anyone in the Bush family. He declined to comment on whether someone else
contacted him on Mr. Bush's behalf.
Lawsuit subpoena
Mr. Barnes has been subpoenaed to give a deposition Thursday in a wrongful
termination suit filed by Lawrence Littwin, the former lottery director,
against Gtech Corp., the lottery contractor that employed Mr. Barnes as a
lobbyist.
Mr. Littwin and his lawyers have suggested in court records that Gtech kept
its state contract in exchange for Mr. Barnes' silence on the Guard matter.
Gtech and Mr. Bush's office have denied the allegation.
A top Barnes aide, Nick Kralj of Austin, who simultaneously served as aide
to the late Gen. Rose, already testified in the lawsuit that he passed on
names of Guard applicants from Mr. Barnes to Gen. Rose. He said that he
couldn't recall the applicants' names but that Mr. Bush was not among them.
In interviews with The Dallas Morning News, Mr. Barnes' friends said he told
them Mr. Adger contacted him and asked for help to secure a Guard spot for
Mr. Bush. They said Mr. Barnes did not make it clear whether he believed the
Bushes were behind Mr. Adger's request.
They said that Mr. Adger was on good terms with Mr. Barnes, who would go on
to become lieutenant governor, and other Democrats in control of state
politics.
Interviews show that Mr. Adger had influential contacts in both parties. And
Mr. Barnes, as speaker and later as lieutenant governor, was the chief
political ally of Gen. Rose, who was engaged in an ultimately unsuccessful
fight to keep his job.
A rival for that job was Walter "Buck" Staudt, a colonel and commander of
the 147th Fighter Group in Houston, later promoted to general and now
retired. He was the person who signed up Mr. Bush for his pilot slot.
Bush's stance
Mr. Bush, 53, has maintained he got no special treatment in entering the
Guard after graduating from Yale University in May 1968. While working at
other civilian jobs,
