FIRST IMPRESSIONS

TRUE COMPASSION

It is hard not to conclude, given his recent stumbling about on the
issue, that at some point prior to his 30th birthday Governor George
W. Bush used cocaine. There is no evidence of this, and there are no
charges, only vague rumors which the governor has said he will not
address. Will Bush succeed in halting media and political speculation
on the topic? if you think so, then you have been asleep during Bill
Clinton's presidency.

Is this any way to run a democracy? Well, actually in this case, it
is. It is appropriate and, indeed, essential that the media examine
the past conduct of public officials and candidates for office, when
that conduct has a direct connection to public duties. Whitewater
qualified: Monica did not. The Justice Department had a legitimate
reason to investigate possible criminal behavior by Bill and Hillary
Clinton related to Whitewater real estate project. As it turned out,
special prosecutor Kenneth Starr concluded that none of the Whitewater
allegations could stick - a conclusion he quietly reported to the
Congress during his far more sexy pursuit of the Monica Lewinsky story.

Sexual conduct between consenting adults that has no bearing on public
duties is not the business of either the media or the public. But the
use of cocaine by a public official at any point in his or her life is
a Iegitimate public concern. By refusing to discuss whether he used
drug's prior to the age of 30, Bush has left himself open to the
charge that he is dissembling. And consider the fact that, if Governor
Bush is one of the many Americans who once used hard drugs, then he is
a governor and a possible future president who managed to escape
punishment for a felony

ln recent years, as legislators have tried to outdo one another in
being "tough on crime," they have passed harsh drug laws that offer no
room for the rehabilitation of first-time, non-violent drug users.
Federal judges are given little Ieeway in sentencing. Federal
guidelines require that anyone caught with more than five grams of
crack cocaine must serve five years in prison. Sixty percent of
federal prisoners are serving time for violating drug laws.

Most of the 70 million Americans who have tried illegal drugs have
escaped incarceration, and some of the lucky ones, like Republican New
Mexico Governor Gary E. Johnson, have even made it into public life.
When Johnson, 46, entered politics after a career as a business
executive, he revealed to voters that he had used hard drugs earlier
in his life. That revelation did not stop the citizens of New Mexico
from electing Johnson governor in 1994 and reelecting him in 1999.

As a result of his own experience, Johnson has become a strong
advocate of reforming drug laws, The governor knows that young
offenders who serve mandatory prison terms are deprived of education
and the opportunity to build family and community ties.

Rehabilitation, not punishment, as Governor Johnson has demonstrated,
is not only a more compassionate response but a more effective one.

Governor Bush insists that since a 1985 talk with Billy Graham he has
repudiated his sinful past. But in his redeemed state, Bush is unduly
harsh on those who continue to sin. As governor, reports New York
Times columnist Maureen Dowd, Bush signed "a punitive law" that
allowed judges "to put people convicted of possessing less than one
gram of cocaine in jail." Very much in the mode of Prince Hal, who
became Henry V when he succeeded his father as king of England,
Governor Bush appears eager to demonstrate his piety by displaying no
compassion for fellow sinners.

In Shakespeare's rendering of Henry V's move from wild youth to
national leader, the king repudiates not only his previous conduct but
also those who sinned with him, most notably Sir John Falstaff, whom
he dismisses with the cruel rejection; "I do not know you, old man."
Not even Falstaff's plaintive cry of earlier comradeship, "but we
heard the chimes at midnight," can shake Henry's determination to show
no mercy to fellow sinners. Where Bush differs from Henry V, however,
is the fact that all of England knew the details of young Hal's early
carousing.

Either Bush used hard drugs in his early years or he didn't. If he
did, then it's essential that, like Governor Anderson [sic] he make
his confession, and give thanks that he was one of the lucky ones. The
American public will be far more forgiving of a confession of past
mistakes than it will be of a continued evasiveness.

Hannah Arendt once wrote about the practice of lying by government
officials: "Lies are often much more plausible, more appealing to
reason, than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of
knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear. He
has prepared his story for public consumption with a careful eye to
making it credible, whereas reality has the disconcerting habit of
confronting us with the unexpected for which we were not prepared."

Governor Bush need only look at previous campaigns to realize that, if
he doesn't tell the full story, it's very likely someone claiming to
be a former supplier of drugs or a fellow user of drugs will sell his
story to the tabloid press and confess to "my decade of drugs with
George W."

Whatever his dealings with drugs, Bush should listen to conservative
columnist Arianna Huffington, who has called on him "to prove his
compassionate conservatism" by leading the fight against this nation's
punitive and destructive drug laws. That would show presidential
leadership. Dissembling on the subject is merely politics as usual.