The American Spectator

p> BEN THERE br> It’s not October, but the Kerry campaign is playing perhaps its final card for a surprise with the help of Dan Rather and “60 Minutes.” On Wednesday, stories began breaking that Ben Barnes , the former speaker of the Texas House of Representatives and former lieutenant governor, was breaking his off and on silence and telling how he pulled strings to get a then-young George W. Bush into the Texas National Guard. /p>

Barnes has consistently told reporters for years that no Bush family member ever directly contacted him for assistance in getting the young Bush into the Guard, but that Sidney Adger, a Houston businessman and friend of the Bush family, made the request. Adger is now deceased. At the time, George H.W. Bush was a U.S. congressman. Barnes has said that he did for Bush what he had done for the sons of other well-connected Texas families.

Every senior Texas National Guard official has stated that no favoritism was shown for Bush, and that Bush served honorably during his time in the National Guard.

Today, Barnes is a major fundraiser for the Kerry campaign. According to a CBS News employee who has seen raw interview footage, CBS will attempt to put together a story that creates the impression that the Bush family attempted to appeal to Barnes directly and that Barnes for years suffered from undue pressure.

“Barnes goes into a lot of detail,” says the CBS source. “He will make similar charges to those he’s made in the last few weeks. But the story is going to make it appear that Barnes was personally lobbied by the Bush family and that the Bush family for decades has put pressure on Barnes to keep quiet and to sing from the same songbook.”

If this is the case, Barnes has some explaining to do. Barnes has for years discussed his role in the National Guard controversy, at one point laying out in a formal court deposition that it was Bush family friends who made the request. At other times with reporters, he has consistently claimed that no Bush family member contacted him for assistance in recommending Bush for Guard duty.