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Some dispute bush account of 73 charity work Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/9992359.htmhttp://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/9992359.htm
Posted on Sat, Oct. 23, 2004
Some dispute Bush account of '73 charity work
By Meg Laughlin
Inquirer Washington Bureau
HOUSTON - Former employees of a now-defunct inner-city program here have disputed the role President Bush says he played working with troubled teens in 1973.
"I was working full-time for an inner-city poverty program known as Project PULL," he said in his 1999 autobiography, A Charge to Keep. "My friend John White... asked me to come help him run the program... . I was intrigued by John's offer... . Now I had a chance to help people."
Bush often has cited this work for the Professional United Leadership League as the source for his belief in compassionate conservatism.
Some former associates of White, who died in 1988, speaking on the record for the first time, say that Bush wasn't helping to run the program but was instead a volunteer, and that White hadn't asked Bush to come aboard. Instead, the associates said, White told them he agreed to take Bush on as a favor to Bush's father, who was honorary cochairman of the program at the time. They say White, a tight end for the Houston Oilers in the '60s, told them Bush had gotten into some kind of trouble, but White never gave them specifics.
While they question how he came to the group, they also praise his work and agree that he connected well with the youths.
"We didn't know what kind of trouble he'd been in, only that he'd done something that required him to put in the time," said Althia Turner, White's administrative assistant.
"He didn't help run the program. I was in charge of him and I wouldn't say I helped run the program, either," said David Anderson, a recreational director at PULL.
A White House spokesman, told about the interviews, denied that Bush had been in any trouble or that Bush's father, who was ambassador to the United Nations at the time, had arranged the job at PULL. He acknowledged that Bush wasn't paid for his work there.
"It was incorrect to say he was working there," spokesman Trent Duffy said. "He was doing volunteer service and getting paid by the Guard."
Much like Bush's disputed 1972 service in the Alabama National Guard, his tenure at PULL has been the subject of speculation over the years.
In a video shown at the 2000 Republican National Convention, Bush recalled that through the program, "I realized then that a society can change and must change one person at a time."
Other accounts have suggested his service was involuntary. A 1999 book, by a political reporter for the Dallas Morning News, said Bush's father had insisted on the service after Bush was involved in a drunken-driving incident.
No documents from Bush's time with PULL exist. The agency, which closed in 1989, left most of its records behind when it moved to another location in 1984.
Many people recall Bush's tenure at the agency.
Turner, who said she had avoided reporters for years, agreed to be interviewed only after phoning her pastor.
"George had to sign in and out - I remember his signature was a hurried cursive - but he wasn't an employee. He was not a volunteer either," she said. "John said he had to keep track of George's hours because George had to put in a lot of hours because he was in trouble."
The organization, which brought in children from Houston's poverty-stricken Third Ward community for sports, table games, tutoring and counseling, was a favorite charity for many Houstonians, including pro football players, who were frequent volunteers. While it wasn't unusual for others to volunteer, none apparently kept the kind of hours Bush did.
"Bush was really into it and rarely missed a day," said Ernie Ladd, a PULL founder and former player for the Houston Oilers and Kansas City Chiefs who was featured in the 2000 Republican National Convention video.
"I just don't recall other volunteers doing that, the way Bush did," said Oscar McClendon, who was assistant recreational director when Bush was there.
All agree that Bush, who was 26 at the time, worked well with the teens, many of whom had been expelled from school. Ladd says Bush was "an excellent bridge for the kids."
"He connected them to the white community on a level they could understand," said Ladd, now a minister in Louisiana.
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