ADMIT TO YOUTHFUL EXPERIMENTATION, LET RACE GO ON

Ennui.

How is it Cole Porter put it in the refrain from I Get A Kick out of
You? Oh yes, I remember:

"Some get a kick from cocaine.

I'm sure that if I took one sniff

That would bore me terrific'ly too ... ''

But apparently the Republicans still get a kick out of George W. Bush.
Opinion polls indicate 80 percent of them don't give a hoot if he
snorted the nose candy before he was 28.

In evading the question yet another time the other day, Bush took it
upon himself to lecture his fellow baby boomers to raise their
children drug-free. Since 78 million boomers admit using some
recreational drugs, it would seem that they will be telling their kids
to do as they say but not as they did.

But parents have been facing this contradiction since the beginning of
time. Role-modeling certainly ain't for sissies. But in Bush's case,
his advice may be a touch hypocritical.

Still, something good may come from all this. Now that other
Republican candidates are coming out of the closet to admit youthful
indiscretions with drugs, we may be on the threshold of a new attitude
about drug abuse.

Some Republicans are speaking openly of decriminalizing some drugs. If
Bush did use cocaine, that makes him a felon. And if he is elected
president, should he pardon the tens of thousands of other cocaine
felons from prison? Is what's good for the goose also good for the
gander?

It is my opinion that the problem is not so much about cocaine as it
is about the addictive personality. It is obvious that most people who
have "experimented" with cocaine do not become addicted to it. I have
an old friend who was addicted to cocaine and booze.

Finally, after years of drug abuse, he went cold turkey on both, and
he is now drug- and booze-free. It was a struggle, but to his great
credit, he made it. He told me it was much more difficult to give up
booze than it was to end his cocaine habit.

We are all addictive one way or another. President Clinton was
obviously addicted to sex, or maybe just to ejaculation. I was once
addicted to tobacco and booze. I kicked them both, but found quitting
smoking tougher than quitting booze.

This is not to say that I don't miss them. I would love to have a
martini right now, right here. But I know that one would not be enough
and that there would be two and then three and then oblivion.

My addiction now is less self-destructive. I just can't get enough
Dove dark-chocolate vanilla ice cream bars.

And so I think Bush would be well advised to own up to a little
cocaine experimentation in his youth. The Republicans would go ahead
and nominate him anyhow. Paraphrasing again from Cole Porter:

''My story is much too sad to be told,

But practically (ev'ryone) leaves me totally cold.

The only exception I know in the case

Where I'm out on a quiet spree

Fighting vainly the old ennui

And I turn and suddenly see

(George's) fabulous face."