The Ghost of Vince Foster

Poor, poor Mr. Bush. Military stuff just ain't his bag. In February he was unable to prove that he actually fulfilled his military obligations. Despite the release of hundreds of pages of documents he was caught with several important documents notably missing.

Now it seems that the exculpatory payroll records were "inadvertantly" destroyed.

The disclosure that the payroll records had been destroyed came in a letter signed by C. Y. Talbott, chief of the Pentagon's Freedom of Information Office, who forwarded a CD-Rom of hundreds of records that Mr. Bush has previously released, along with images of punch-card records. Sixty pages of Mr. Bush's medical file and some other records were excluded on privacy grounds, Mr. Talbott wrote.

He said in the letter that he could not provide complete payroll records, explaining, "The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) has advised of the inadvertent destruction of microfilm containing certain National Guard payroll records."

He went on: "In 1996 and 1997, DFAS engaged with limited success in a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm. During this process the microfilm payroll records of numerous service members were damaged, including from the first quarter of 1969 (Jan. 1 to March 31) and the third quarter of 1972 (July 1 to Sept. 30). President Bush's payroll records for these two quarters were among the records destroyed. Searches for backup paper copies of the missing records were unsuccessful."

Since the Pentagon can't find the records perhaps we need one of Laura Bush's assistants to go rummaging through old boxes in the third floor of the White House residence? Any chance she might find Bush's microfiche along with some dusty billing records from the Rose Law firm?

I'm also curious as to who had to commit "suicide" in order to ensure those records will never be found.