POLICE PROBE WHETHER BUSH TWINS TRIED TO BUY BOOZE

AUSTIN, Texas - Police are investigating whether President Bush's twin
daughters tried to buy alcohol at a Tex-Mex restaurant.

The 19-year-old sisters just finished their freshmen years in college. The
incident Tuesday comes less than a month after one, Jenna, pleaded no
contest to underage drinking.

The manager of Chuy's restaurant called police shortly after 10 p.m. to
report that some minors were trying to buy alcohol. The legal drinking age
in Texas is 21.

At the restaurant, police were told that Jenna tried to buy the alcohol
using someone else's ID card. Her sister, Barbara, was present but did not
show any identification. Officers then questioned the twins in the restaurant.

"As no offense was witnessed by (police) officers, following routine
procedures, further investigation is required to determine if any charges
will be filed," a police statement said.

Using false identification to buy alcohol is punishable by up to a $500
fine in Texas.

Earlier this month, Jenna was ordered to perform eight hours of community
service and to take an alcohol awareness course after she pleaded no
contest to charges of being a minor in possession of alcohol. Police had
found her drinking a beer in an Austin bar.

The restaurant's manager referred all questions to company headquarters in
Austin. Officials there could not be reached for comment.

President Bush and his wife, Laura, were aboard Air Force One, flying to
Washington from California, when news of the incident broke. Bush aides had
no comment.

"I just don't talk about dealing with ... a private matter," spokesman said.

Secret Service spokesman Marc Connolly declined to comment. Asked whether
agents try to prevent possibly illegal behavior, he said it is the agency's
job only to "create a safe, secure environment" for those it protects.

Traditionally, agents responsible for minors don't interfere with their
activities unless there is a direct threat to their safety. If agents tried
to control teenagers' behavior or report them to their parents, the
thinking goes, the teens might try to give the agents the slip, leaving
them vulnerable to harm.

Austin is known for a thriving bar scene and has a reputation for cracking
down on underage drinker state law, a bar or restaurant can lose its liquor
license for up to 60 days the first time proprietors are caught selling
alcohol to a minor.

Chuy's is a popular restaurant in south Austin, one of eight in Texas.
Students report the restaurant has a reputation for being tough on underage
drinking, which is typically treated as a minor offense similar to a ticket
for a traffic violation.

Jenna is a student at the University of Texas-Austin; Barbara is a student
at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. Those who know the twins say their
personalities mirror those of their parents.

Barbara, named after her paternal grandmother, is quieter and more
studious, like her mother. Jenna, named for her maternal grandmother, is
more of a free spirit, like her dad.

The president was known for rowdy hijinks when he was a student at Yale in
the 1960s. He was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in
Maine in 1976, when he was 30.

After news of that arrest was leaked to a reporter just before Election
Day, candidate Bush said he had kept it a secret because "I didn't want to
talk about it in front of my daughters."

Bush quit drinking when he was 40. His aide Karen Hughes explained in
November that Bush knows, as a parent that his drinking "did not set a good
example."

In his autobiography, A Charge to Keep, Bush admitted that he "engaged in
some of the excesses of youth" and did things he wouldn't have wanted his
mother to know about. He said they were the sort of things "I don't want my
own daughters to do, yet worry they probably will, before age and maturity
help counter the sense of invincibility that comes with being young and the
life of the party."

------------------------------------ Contributing: Mimi Hall, Judy Keen
and Donna Leinwand in Washington
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