They got to him too (source renegs on L. Bush drug story)

From the NYT (via WIRED):

Mr. Nash contacted The New York Times by e-mail on Sept. 15, one day after the newspaper cited him in its review of the book as the source for the passage about drugs. In an e-mail exchange responding to questions from a reporter, Mr. Nash did not deny the statement attributed to him but said that in his conversation with Ms. Kelley he had merely acknowledged the existence of a rumor.

"With the clear understanding that I was chatting with her off the record," he wrote, "we discussed many things.''

Read more for the kicker...

From the NYT (via WIRED):

"Additionally, Ms. Kelley was chasing down various Austin rumors," Mr. Nash wrote. "I acknowledged that I had heard of various old rumors but said that as far as I knew they had been thoroughly explored years ago by the national media to no avail. Also, I made it perfectly clear that I had no direct information, and that if she was to pursue this she needed to look elsewhere."

In his e-mail messages to The Times, Mr. Nash said he was traveling in Italy and had only periodic access to e-mail. He declined to offer a telephone number or the name of a hotel where he could be reached. There was no response to a request for him to call the newspaper collect.

... traveling in Italy? Visiting his godfather no doubt... or his uncle.

Sounds like BushCo got to him.

PS ciao, Hell Upside Down!:

•  How to the "get" to people?

  It seems to happen a lot.  

  What is this, the Mafia?

  by WWGray on Thu Sep 23, 2004 at 06:35:49 AM PDT

•  Mafia is Right

  Here is something from the introducion of "Fortunate Son," quoted from the author J.H. Hatfield:

  I was pacing outside on the cellphone and I called one of the sources from the afterword, and just let him know that, hey, the book is coming back out--kinda like "ha, ha, ha, you tried to stop it . . .

  [snip]

  And he says, "Well, the second thing we're going to do is, you need to really think about the safety of your wife and your newborn daughter" --which, he called her [i.e., his daughter] Haley--hec alled them by their names.

  [Fortunate Son: George W Bush and the Making of an American President, 2001 Omega Publishing Endevours Inc., Third Edition, Soft Skull Press, page xii]

  by David in Burbank on Thu Sep 23, 2004 at 06:53:14 AM PDT

•  E-mail messages?

  What is the verification that the e-mail messages actual were from Nash?

  Declining to provide phone confirmation of identity is suspect.  Why did the Times run with this story if they had not gotten phone confirmation of his identity.

  by TarheelDem on Thu Sep 23, 2004 at 06:56:35 AM PDT