A WHITE KNIGHT STUMBLES INTO DRUG QUAGMIRE

As Republican Presidential Contender Governor George W. Bush Stumbles
Over A Cocaine Row, The Race For The White House In 2000 Suddenly
Looks More Open, Writes Joe Carroll, Washington Correspondent.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"The sharks are circling but there's no blood in the water. He's not
only not going to falter, he's stronger today than he was before this
happened."

This is the confident prediction of Ralph Reed, a Republican Party
strategist who is advising George W. Bush on his bid for the White
House from which his father was dismissed by the voters in 1992.
Republicans are still brooding over this loss to a brash Bill Clinton,
who went on to tarnish the honour of the presidency over his dalliance
with a young White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

It would only be right and just for George Bush jnr to reclaim the
presidency for party, the family and the country and restore honour
and integrity to the Oval Office, the Republicans argue. That was
until last week, when the White Knight from Texas suddenly stumbled
when asked about rumours that he sniffed cocaine, a hard drug the use
of which can send you to jail even for a first offence in the
Governor's home state.

Republicans who have poured an estimated $50 million into Mr Bush's
campaign coffers for an election still over a year away are dismayed
at how their hero is suddenly floundering. Outside the overheated
political atmosphere of Washington and the pundits on the chat shows,
the country at large is taking a wait-and-see attitude.

Among Republicans in New Hampshire - where the first primary contest
takes place next February - Mr Bush's support is still 40 per cent
plus and well ahead of his nearest rivals, Elizabeth Dole and Senator
John McCain.

In national polls, Mr Bush leads the likely Democratic candidate,
Vice-President Al Gore, by 17 percentage points - so the cocaine issue
is not hurting seriously so far.

This could change if it refuses to go away. There's too much riding on
Mr Bush for Republicans, hungry to win back the White House, to let a
disaster to happen now. The Al Gore camp, struggling with media
dismissals of his campaign as "boring", can hardly believe its luck
while feigning indifference to the travails of its main rival.

President Clinton has been drawn into the controversy following
charges last week by Gennifer Flowers, with whom he has admitted
having an affair, that he had told her there were times "he did so
much cocaine at parties that his head would itch".

A White House spokesman replied: "The president has never done
cocaine. That applies to his entire life." Some Republicans have mixed
feelings at the mishap of George Bush jnr whom they see as a political
lightweight, who calls Greeks "Grecians" and who is trading on his
father's name and the goodwill it carries among the party faithful.

Mr Reed has his suspicions that the cocaine rumour, which is not new,
is being stirred up by some of these rivals, especially the camp of
multi-millionaire publisher, Steve Forbes, who is courting the
Christian conservatives. "A number of journalists have indicated to me
that some of the things that happened this week were being encouraged
by some of the other campaigns, and particularly the Forbes campaign.
I think that's terribly unfortunate," Mr Reed said.

Regardless of who is stirring up rumours - and no one has produced any
proof of cocaine use - Mr Bush has made a mess of dealing with them.
Even newspapers which would normally be sympathetic to Republicans are
losing patience with what are now being called the "Clintonesque"
evasions from the man who is promising to restore honour and dignity
to the office of president.

If Mr Bush has never taken cocaine, why does he not say so? Instead,
he insists on his right to "privacy" and says "I'm not going to talk
about what I did as a child". What he did 20 or 30 years ago is
"irrelevant", he says, and while he "made mistakes" he has "learned
from them". He has volunteered however that he has never been
unfaithful to his wife and that he gave up alcohol at the age of 40.
Why then won't he answer questions on whether he ever took illegal
drugs?

Mr Bush is in a similar dilemma to President Clinton last year, when
the latter was being urged to admit he had committed perjury so that a
mollified Congress would be content to censure him rather than impeach
and dismiss him. Such an admission would have left him wide open to
being indicted by Independent Counsel, Mr Kenneth Starr, for perjury
and the risk of a criminal trial which would destroy his presidency.

If Mr Bush admits to taking cocaine, he is confessing to a felony,
whereas marijuana for personal use to which Mr Gore has admitted in
the 1970s is a misdemeanour. For Mr Bush, admitting to a felony for
which he has helped to put young people in Texas jails might destroy
his presidential bid.

He has a huge problem on his hands if he cannot or will not deny the
cocaine rumours. His supporters, who now include most of the
Republican establishment, point out that no one has produced any proof
of cocaine use and that the media in all fairness must drop the issue
unless there is some evidence.

However, in the space of two days, the media found a way to move Mr
Bush from his refusal to answer any question about drugs to saying
that he could have passed the drugs check used for security clearance
in "my daddy's" White House.

This implies that he is in the clear from the age of 28. Inevitably,
he will be pressed on filling in the missing years from 18 to 28. He
is getting conflicting advice on whe ther he should "fess up" if his
"mistakes" during these youthful years included cocaine. His own
position is that he has no more to say about the matter. Those with
long memories recall what happened to presidential hopeful Gary Hart,
in 1987. When faced with charges of womanising, he challenged the
media, saying: "If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They'd
be very bored."

It did not take the Miami Herald long to turn up Donna Rice as the
model whose company Senator Hart shared on a cruise to the Bahamas on
a luxury craft called Monkey Business. End of the Hart bid for the
presidency.