[+/-] Bush steered $23 M in hush money to Barnes

It has been previously revealed that former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes of Texas admitted to pulling some strings to keep Bush out of the jungles of Vietnam. Barnes said: "I got a young man named George W. Bush into the Texas Air Guard - and I'm ashamed."

So, what did Barnes receive in return? $23 million. You gotta love the investigative tenacity of Greg Palast. Here's the short version:

According to a confidential letter buried deep in the files of the US Justice Department that fell into Palast's hands at BBC television, when Bush was elected governor of Texas, Barnes had left office to become a big time corporate lobbyist. Barnes' client, GTech Corp., due to allegations of corruption, was about to lose its license to run the Texas state lottery.

Barnes, says the Justice Department document, made a call to the newly elected governor's office and saved GTech's state contract. The letter said, "Governor Bush ... made a deal with Ben Barnes not to rebid [the GTech lottery contract] because Barnes could confirm that Bush had lied during the '94 campaign." In that close race, Bush denied the fix was in to keep him out of 'Nam, and the US media stopped asking questions. What did the victorious Governor Bush's office do for Barnes? According to the tipster, "Barnes agreed never to confirm the story [of the draft dodging] and the governor talked to the chair of the lottery two days later and she then agreed to support letting GTech keep the contract without a bid."

GTech then paid Barnes, the keeper of Governor Bush’s secret, a fee of more than $23 million.

I, for one, will enjoy watching Karl Rove squirm as he tries to fight this one.