Salon is reporting today that former Texas lieutenant governor Ben Barnes will appear on 60 Minutes a week from Sunday to confirm that he pulled strings to get George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam:

Ben Barnes to break silence on "60 Minutes"Barnes, once a rising star in Texas politics, insists strings were pulled on Bush's behalf, and he helped pull them. Speaking to Kerry supporters in Austin, Texas, in May, he said, "I got a young man named George W. Bush into the Texas National Guard ... I got a lot of other people in the National Guard because I thought that was what people should do when you're in office, and you help a lot of rich people." Recalling a recent visit to the Vietnam Memorial, Barnes added, "I looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam, and I became more ashamed of myself than I have ever been, because it was the worst thing I ever did, was help a lot of wealthy supporters and a lot of people who had family names of importance get into the National Guard. And I'm very sorry about that, and I'm very ashamed."  [more]

Barnes's admission is actually old news, but has barely been reported in the major media.

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