Tim Griffin is an Army Reservist.

As far as I know, he's only done ONE tour of duty, ever. For Griffin fans, that would be the time just before he took over from Bud Cummins.

Is he getting special treatment? Why has the guy only done one tour, when most Reservists are on three, four or five?

Does the country's need for oppo skills outweigh the country's need for soldiers?

Did McCain hire Griffin away from Clinton?

You'd have thunk J. Timothy Griffin fought the Iraq War singlehandedly if you read his bio at the Arkansas USA website. The jerk even listed medals that are handed out like candy in the military.

The truth was a lot different.

"Boo-Hoo" Griffin served from 9/05 to 9/06 as a JAG reservist. For the first eight months, Boo-Hoo was a Special USA (SPUSA) in the Western District of Kentucky and Middle District of Tennessee.

Although Boo-Hoo claimed to have prosecuted more than forty cases, the actual number is closer to three and all three cases were pleaded out.

From Richard L. Fricker's 4/3/07 Consortium News story, "Did Rove's Protégé Puff Up Résumé?":

The 38-year-old Griffin claims on his official Web site that he prosecuted 40 criminal cases while at Ft. Campbell, where he was stationed from September 2005 to May 2006. But Army authorities say Ft. Campbell’s records show Griffin only serving as assistant trial counsel on three cases, none of which went to trial.

Griffin didn’t agree to be interviewed about his claim of 40 criminal prosecutions versus the Army’s confirmation of three cases, all of which were settled as plea bargains. But Cherith Beck, a Griffin spokeswoman, suggested that Griffin’s higher number might refer to all cases he worked on in any capacity.

“Just wanted to clarify, make sure you had an understanding that prosecuted means it’s a case he handled while he was there; it doesn’t mean that it went to trial necessarily,” Beck said. “Prosecuted means he handled those cases in one form or another.”

In other words, if Boo-Hoo read a case file, he counted it.

Boo-Hoo's big case was the one against Private Mikel. Mikel was a dope who took three potshots at his commanding officers one morning because he was pissed off and missed. Big deal. But if you read Boo-Hoo's account, the Mikel case was of national prominence.

After reading about the case, I think Private Mikel had the bad luck to be prosecuted by a Republican hack looking to boost his legal credentials. It looked to me like Mikel got hit with a trumped up attempted rape charge to ensure that he would pead guilty.

Mikel was sentenced to 25 years after the judge threatened him with a 50-year sentence.

Lieutenant Colonel Gary Solis at Military.com wrote about the injustice suffered by Mikel in an excellent essay, Military Justice?" dated 11/16/06.

What Boo-Hoo did when he "served" four (or less) months in Mosul Iraq remains a mystery. His online bio stated what unit he served with but not what he actually did.

I've long suspected that Boo-Hoo's JAG service was arranged by the White House to enhance his resume and was scheduled at Griffin's convenience.

The timing allowed Griffin to participate in the '04 election, spend the next four months visiting England and getting married while working as a highly paid consultant (for who, I don't know). He then spent four months working at the WH before he was "called up".

And Boo-Hoo had the nerve to cry about getting no respect. Weasel.