Politics: Oops...

The Pentagon finally admits that the military records that would settle the issue of President Bush's questionable National Guard service (a.k.a. his three-month drug and alcohol AWOL party) have been permantently destroyed and there are no backup copies in existence:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Pentagon says military records related to President Bush's service in the National Guard more than 30 years ago were inadvertently destroyed, The New York Times reported on Friday.

Payroll records of "numerous service members," including Bush, were ruined in 1996 and 1997 during a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the newspaper said, citing the Pentagon.

The destroyed files cover three months of a period in 1972 and 1973 when Bush's claims of service in Alabama are in question, the newspaper said. No back-up paper copies of the records could be found, the Pentagon said in notices dated June 25, according to the Times.

But I thought the White House released all of the President's records? Oh, that's right, they were lying. It's a surprise that the "salvage technique" of taking microfilm out to the parking lot and throwing it in the dumpster didn't have better results.