BUSH - SON `RAMBUNCTIOUS' AS YOUNGSTER, NO SIGN OF DRUG USE

WASHINGTON - Former President Bush says son George was a
"rambunctious" youngster who never gave his parents reason to believe
he used drugs and is right not to answer further questions about the
issue.

The elder Bush is not advising George W. Bush's 2000 presidential
campaign -- "I don't want to always be in the game anymore." He also
hopes Americans elect someone who can live up to "the very high
standards" for the White House that Bush said Bill Clinton has failed
to meet.

The former president, defeated by Clinton in 1992, discussed varied
topics in a television interview from his family home in
Kennebunkport, Maine.

A transcript was released before its scheduled broadcast Monday night
on the Fox News show "The Edge with Paula Zahn."

"All this stuff about George's totally irresponsible past, we never
saw it," the ex-president said. "Barbara and I never saw this. We knew
he had some problems but -- that he faced up to, but no different than
most kids."

The younger Bush, the Republican governor of Texas, was "a
rambunctious little guy" and his father recalled an episode when the
youngster tried to hit him.

"I just held him at arm's length -- he was about nine -- just flailing
away at me," Bush said. "He didn't like some decision I had made, a
leadership decision, I'm sure."

The younger Bush has acknowledged that at one time he drank heavily
and that he made "mistakes" in his youth. No evidence or even credible
allegation has been made that he ever used cocaine or any other
illegal drug.

When pressed, he has said he had not used illegal drugs in the past 25
years.

His father said he is upset how the media have questioned his son
about rumors of cocaine use, and believes it is right for him not to
answer more questions on the subject.

"I do feel strongly about that, about gotcha politics, about
intrusiveness," Bush said. "And I think I'm very proud that he's with
that position and let the voters decide."

The former president said he has not asked his son whether he ever
used drugs.

"I wouldn't even consider to do that," Bush said. "I think what he's
doing is correct and he has my full support."

Barbara Bush said last month she and her husband never asked their
eldest son if he used cocaine. "We had no need to," she said.

The former president said that while offering sympathy, he has tried
to avoid giving political advice to his sons -- even shying away from
public comments on some topics lest his opinions cause them trouble.
Another son, Jeb, is governor of Florida.

"I had my chance on those issues," Bush said. "I still read up
everything, try to stay up to date, but I don't -- I don't want to
always be in the game anymore."

He did discuss next year's presidential election in general terms: "I
just hope and believe that the American people are going to want to
see standards very high."

"I just have a great respect for the office itself. And I'm afraid
President Clinton hasn't lived up to very high standards in that regard."

The former president has been working on a book of his letters, to be
published in October and titled "All The Best."

It will include personal letters such as the ones he wrote to his
family as a World War II Navy pilot. Others have historical
significance -- to the late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping at the time
of the Tiananmen Square massacre and a farewell when Soviet President
Mikhail Gorbachev left office.