INDEED: “Isn’t strange that the biggest difference between the Bush National Guard stories and the Kerry Vietnam controversy is that, in the President’s case, it’s the major media dogging the story to death?”

What could possibly account for the difference?

UPDATE: John Cole offers the story to the Big Media, free of charge. But will they take it?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s some stuff that seems to have been missed by the press. (George Magazine covered the Bush National Guard story back in 2000? Who knew?) [LATER: Some questions here and here.] And here’s a Chicago Sun-Times article from February that lays out a lot of facts that don’t seem to be getting much attention today. It’s worth reading.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Here’s a summary of Bush’s National Guard Service in The Hill. Seems like he put in more hours in the air than Kerry did in Swift boats:

After training, Bush kept flying, racking up hundreds of hours in F-102 jets. As he did, he accumulated points toward his National Guard service requirements. At the time, guardsmen were required to accumulate a minimum of 50 points to meet their yearly obligation.

According to records released earlier this year, Bush earned 253 points in his first year, May 1968 to May 1969 (since he joined in May 1968, his service thereafter was measured on a May-to-May basis).

Bush earned 340 points in 1969-1970. He earned 137 points in 1970-1971. And he earned 112 points in 1971-1972. . . .

That brings the story to May 1972 — the time that has been the focus of so many news reports — when Bush “deserted” (according to anti-Bush filmmaker Michael Moore) or went “AWOL” (according to Terry McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee).

Bush asked for permission to go to Alabama to work on a Senate campaign. His superior officers said OK. Requests like that weren’t unusual, says retired Col. William Campenni, who flew with Bush in 1970 and 1971.

“In 1972, there was an enormous glut of pilots,” Campenni says. “The Vietnam War was winding down, and the Air Force was putting pilots in desk jobs. In ’72 or ’73, if you were a pilot, active or Guard, and you had an obligation and wanted to get out, no problem. In fact, you were helping them solve their problem.”

So Bush stopped flying. From May 1972 to May 1973, he earned just 56 points — not much, but enough to meet his requirement.

Then, in 1973, as Bush made plans to leave the Guard and go to Harvard Business School, he again started showing up frequently.

In June and July of 1973, he accumulated 56 points, enough to meet the minimum requirement for the 1973-1974 year.

Then, at his request, he was given permission to go.

Reading further in this story, I note that the Bush folks seem to want to press this issue, in order to demand that Kerry release his military records in full. Is this another rope-a-dope? Hmm. It just might be: “Kerry Navy probe to expand scope?”

MORE: Reader Ed Brenegar emails: “What is most strange to me is that Kerry bases his qualifications for the presidency on his Vietnam experience, and Bush doesn’t give much credence at all to his NG experience.”

I continue to think that Kerry’s emphasis on Vietnam is a mistake.

Matthew Hoy has further thoughts: “So, what have the Globe and Lechliter done? They’ve looked at all the documents, determined that they are not to be taken at face value and reinterpreted them as they see fit. . . . Is the mainstream media carrying water for the Kerry campaign? I’d have to say so.”

And reader Ellis Disch doesn’t think it matters:

The ‘swing voters’ went overwhelmingly for President Clinton, an admitted draft dodger, over two bona fide war heroes.

This President is not pushing his warrior status for re-election, his opponent is pressing his own. Why does the media think that all of a sudden a swath of voters who could care less what Clinton did during that era (when he wasn’t making it the rationale for his election) will care now?

Barking up the wrong tree. Again.

Well, it gives them something to talk about. Perhaps this is what this commenter at The Belmont Club predicted — a sort of news-media “denial of service” attack, flooding the information channels with this story so that there’s not room for more damaging stuff.