I can’t find much on this guy Rob Sherman except from his own web site. And from what I can see, I would not call him a credible source-- he’s a guy with an agenda. If anyone has access to the letters in the archives, that migh shed some light on the subject. It just makes no sense that someone as educated as GHWB is would say that atheists aren’t citizens. No sense at all.
Well, the link MEBuckner provided says the following:
I wonder – if somebody writes to the George Bush Presidential Library requesting copies of that item, will they provide the copies?
If you read more at MEBuckner’s link, you’ll see that GHWB repeated an attack on atheists (Example three) at least once more.
There’s more than adequate reason to believe that Bush hated atheists to the point of not considering them valid citizens. There are no grounds that I can see to suggest (as some have done here) that Sherman manufactured the quotations then dared to use them in an amicus curiae brief to the Appeals Court for the Ninth Circuit!
That’s a quote from Bush fils. It is, however, a patently absurd statement.
Fyi, here is how to do it:
Forgot to cite: Linky.
Bush the Elder can believe whatever he wants; it’s a free country. I tend to doubt he said it, but wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see or hear proof that he did. In any event, I would remind him, his idiot son and everyone else of the Framers’ wisdom in providing that:
…no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Art. VI. To say nothing of:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…
Amendment I.
The United States Constitution. Read it and heed it.
Show me an article in the NYT or the WashPost or any major newpaper that contends that these quotes are true, and I’ll believe them. As it stands, they only come from a very biased source.
Circular reasoning. The only evidence is from this guy’s site. There’s every reason to believe that Bush is smart enough to realize that anyone born here is a citizen regardless of his or her beliefs.
Why not? He seems like a borderline nut case to me. Anyone can file an *amicus *brief, and AFAIK, there is no factual checking of the brief before it is entered into the record. Sherman may have misquoted Bush and believed he was correct about it. We just don’t know.
Anything like this, if it really happened, would have been a scandal, and the major news services would have picked it up, even if it was reported on page 27. Show us the quote from a major (non-editorial) news source and we’ll say “case closed”. Until then, the assumption is that that quote was fabricated.
Until then, your assumption is that the quote was fabricated. Is what I think you mean.
In a country where roughly one-third to half the population believes in the Bible as literal truth? I wish.
If you want to get into the nuance here, the best we can say at this point is that we don’t know whether ther quote is correct or not. There simply isn’t enough objecctive evidence that it is true. If we are forced to choose only between “true” and “false”, the GQ answer has to be “false” since there isn’t enough evidence to prove “true”. If you want to debate the veracity, open a GD thread, but the cite given thus far wouldn’t stand up to a debate there.
I disagree. Until proven otherwise, it appears you can physically walk into 1000 George Bush Drive West
College Station, TX 77845
and ask for document # CF 01193-002.
After all, it is a very easy thing to test, not just a reliance on a magazine article.
Would this have been a scandal in 1987? I’m not convinced it would have been.
Possibly not a scandal, but something you would have expected to have been reported.
I’ve searched all the major newspapers from the weeks, even months after this, and can find nothing. Not even an editorial.
Then do it, and show us.
But consider that the reporter might have misunderstood or even misquoted GHWB. In that case, GHWB can still “stand by everything he said” and still not have said what was reported.
Show us the letter and the exact wording. Until then, I don’t accept it. It’s just what some guy with an agenda is telling us.
Walk from Baltimore to Texas?
No.
But shall I call later and find out how much it would cost to get a copy of the letter? (fifty cents per page, but how many pages?) Yes.
The vice-president’s schedule is a matter of historical record, so it should be possible to confirm whether he was even in Chicago on that date. If he was, the New York Times may have published a transcript. The fact that samclem didn’t find any mention of this in his search also makes me doubt the story.
Knock yourself out. If you can prove something, I might steal your idea and publish an expose of GHWB in the NYT. I smell a Pulitzer!! Does anyone else???
Scott, I think Sherman’s site said there was a two-year backlog. But I guess you might as well try. Do you know how to file a FOIA request?
Since we are asked to choose between Sherman’s “agenda” and yours, I choose his. He was a reporter for a legitimate publication. You, like me, are just posters on a message board.