THE BOSTON GLOBE REPORTS that the Bush AWOL story is collapsing, as a key witness turns out to have lied. Capt. Ed observes:

The Globe, which has been at the forefront of the media pushing this story, now reveals that the entire series of accusations had no basis in reality and in fact should never have been legitimized by the press in the first place. . . .

Listening to Hugh Hewitt’s show yesterday, Peter Beinart of The New Republic vehemently accused Hugh of irresponsible journalism by mentioning the Drudge Report story about Kerry’s alleged infidelity without having done any responsible verification of the sources, in effect making Kerry publicly prove his innocence without having any evidence of his guilt. However, TNR and every other media outlet has done the exact same thing to George Bush despite the normal presumption of innocence and the extraordinary presumption of satisfactory and complete service that an Honorary Discharge presents.

Yeah. And if this infidelity story were about Bush, with the woman in question out of the country, they’d be running with it in a big way already.

UPDATE: Here’s another officer who remembers Bush from the National Guard days:

A retired Alabama Air National Guard officer said Friday that he remembers George W. Bush showing up for duty in Alabama in 1972, reading safety magazines and flight manuals in an office as he performed his weekend obligations.

“I saw him each drill period,” retired Lt. Col. John “Bill” Calhoun said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from Daytona Beach, Fla., where he is preparing to watch this weekend’s big NASCAR race.

Nice that they’re finally starting to do interviews like this, now that the story’s been out and circulating for weeks. Reader Harvard Fong weighs in with this comment on the media’s double standard:

Where was all this confirmation process for Bush? And I don’t mean W.

Recall the alleged infidelity flap back in ’92 of GHW Bush, with an aide who was so conveniently dead. I recall it well because that’s when I changed my voter reg from D to L.

So where was the careful vetting of the allegations of infidelity then?

Yeah.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The unravelling continues as other witnesses come forward.