WITH A DAUGHTER LIKE THIS...REDUX

Just heard Bob Barnes' daughter Amy explaining to radio talk host Gary MacNamara why she called a Dallas talk radio station to claim her father lied about getting George W. Bush into the Texas Air National Guard. I was not impressed.

Amy (I didn't catch her last name) told how she just "fell in love" with Ronald Reagan in 1980 when she was 18 and voting for the first time. It was because of Reagan, she said, that she became a conservative.

When MacNamara asked why she came forward to say that her father had lied, he suggested some answers: was it personal, because she felt his lie was wrong? No, Amy accused her father of lying to the whole world (even though he's been telling the same story so long, and under oath, that the Bushes sent him a thank-you note in 2000 for being honest enough to say that although he DID get GWB in the "champagne unit," he was never contacted directly about it by any Bush family member -- it was a Bush family friend that made the request) because "I want to do anything I can to help George W. Bush get re-elected; I think he deserves it." She elaborated by saying that she volunteered for the Bush-Cheney campaign but hadn't been contacted, but she'd be glad to do anything she could do. Her father was motivated by partisan politics to say what he did -- (but she's motivated by "love"?)

The interview closed with MacNamara commiserating with her about the awful 36 hours she's had to endure since her public pronouncement. Amy confessed that if she'd known how it would be, she probably wouldn't have done it. MacNamara asked if that was because she's worried about it messing up her relationship with her father. Oh no, she hopes that won't happen because she loves and admires her father. It's because it's raised such a fuss or some such lame reason.

So we have it straight from the accuser: it's all about partisan politics. Little Amy loves George Bush so much that he's worth a family schism and branding her father a liar. "Somebody please explain it to me like I'm a fourth grader" -- where does this devotion come from, for a man who never did anything for anybody that cost him anything?

UPDATE: Here's the link to Amy Barnes' initial call-in to WBAP in Dallas.