ELDER BUSH THINKING OF TAKING LEGAL ACTION OVER DISCREDITED BOOK

Former President Bush has considered legal action against a
discredited book that claimed he attempted years ago to quash a drug
arrest of his son Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, the front-runner for
the Republican presidential nomination.

In an interview taped last week and aired on Fox News Sunday, the
former president said he was "so outraged" by the allegations in the
book that he consulted his attorney, "something I seldom do."

The interview was apparently taped before St. Martin's Press
took action against its book Fortunate Son: the Making of an
American President by J.H. Hatfield. On Thursday, St.
Martin's halted distribution of the book and on Friday
ordered all copies to be returned so they could be destroyed.

The publisher's action came after aides at the Bush campaign said the
governor was seeking advice on legal moves that could be taken against
the book.

Hatfield, in a final chapter that St. Martin's said was added at the
last minute, said that in 1972 the younger Bush was arrested in Harris
County for possession of cocaine. He said the arrest was expunged
after the elder Bush arranged through a friendly Republican judge to
have his son perform public service.

Both Bushes vehemently deny the allegation, and Hatfield's account has
several factual problems, including that there were no Republican
judges in Harris County in 1972 and that the law allowing arrests in
Texas to be expunged was not enacted until later in the 1970s. Carol
Vance, a Democrat who was district attorney in 1972, said the
allegations are baseless.

St. Martin's, without commenting directly on Hatfield's allegations,
moved against the book after learning that Hatfield had been convicted
11 years ago of hiring a hit man in an unsuccessful car bombing
against his boss.

The elder Bush said his attorney, whom he did not name, made further
legal inquiries, although the former president did not make clear if
the contact was with representatives of the author or publisher or
both. At any rate, he said: "They just brushed us off."

"I may not be finished with this yet, even though I'm a public figure.
It's outrageous," Bush said. He referred to a legal standard that
makes it more difficult for public figures to sustain a libel action
unless they can prove that false statements were made with malicious
intent.

Bush said the book was "a fraud and ugly."

"You know," Bush said, "I debated whether to say anything, but
frankly, that book accused me of being anti-Semitic. It accused me of
obstructing the justice system by going to a judge and having a
narcotics charge dropped and have George do community service.

"It's a lie. It was a vicious lie. And I'll tell you, it's one of the
things that makes a lot of people stay out of public service. Who
wants to have books written that are totally false?

"Oh, yes, he had three sources. Who are they? He couldn't say. Who was
this judge who supposedly was bribed by me? Well, he couldn't say.

"And yet a printing company went forward with this
book."