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Showing their medal mettle He's Looking for Those Throwaway LinesBy Rick Horowitz I figured it was my big chance. I know how it works in the journalism biz: You want to get ahead, you have to break a big story. You have to come up with a gold nugget somewhere, something that nobody else has come up with -- or better yet, something that nobody else has even thought to look for! That's the way I figured it, anyway, and seeing how this particular year is a presidential election year, I decided that's where I'd concentrate my efforts; I'd go out and find myself a nice, shiny presidential-election-year nugget. What George Bush did with his medals, for instance. His medals from Vietnam. I know -- strictly speaking, what George Bush did with his medals from Vietnam shouldn't really have a lot to do with a presidential election, especially a presidential election so many years later. Of course, I wouldn't have thought that what the other guy did with his medals from Vietnam had a lot to do with this election either. Shows you what I know. So anyway, here's what I was thinking: With everybody focusing so hard on John Kerry's combat medals -- what he did with them, or didn't do with them, or what he once said he did or didn't do with them -- I figured nobody was focusing on George Bush's combat medals. If I could just find out what happened to them, I'd be well on my way to journalistic glory. (Or at least to Larry King.) But my scoop wouldn't be simply a good career move -- not at all. I knew it would help the voters, too. Help them sort out the candidates between now and Election Day. If my research panned out, the voters would finally be able to do one of those side-by-side comparisons the networks and the newspapers love so much: * How many combat medals did each guy throw away? * How many combat ribbons did they each throw away? * Did they throw away only their own combat medals and ribbons, or did they throw away some of their buddies' combat medals and ribbons, too? * Did they throw the medals and ribbons away left-handed, or right-handed? Overhand, or sidearm? Crucial questions, every one of them -- and what about the names of the medals? After all, if I was going to talk about throwing away medals, I really ought to know what they're called, shouldn't I? Actually, I did know the names of Kerry's medals: a Bronze Star, a Silver Star, three Purple Hearts. (They were in all the stories.) But I hadn't seen a word anywhere about what Bush's medals were called. I figured I owed it to him to fill in the blanks. That's what I figured. But I failed. It hurts to admit it, but it's the only way to say it: I failed. I failed to come up with the names of George Bush's combat medals, or how many medals he threw away, or how many ribbons he threw away, or even whether the medals and ribbons he threw away were his own medals and ribbons, or his buddies' medals and ribbons. Trust me: I looked high and low for that stuff, looked everywhere I could think of -- and I didn't come up with any of it. I didn't come up with any official records about the combat medals Bush won, or which ones he would have been eligible to win. I didn't get any interviews with Bush's squadmates from Vietnam who'd seen him throw any medals away -- or, for that matter, had seen him keep them. I didn't even find any videotape. There's always videotape. It's as if the whole thing never happened! You can imagine my disappointment; I really thought this was going to be my ticket to the big time. Instead, I'm still stuck right where I was before, hunkered down in my own little -- Dick Cheney. I'll bet Dick Cheney won plenty of medals! Gotta go. Posted 4/29/04. For
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Rick Horowitz
