TEXAN TWO-STEP

Bush Can't Avoid Answering Questions On Drug Use.

The federal government reported last week that 78 million Americans have
used illegal drugs at some point in their lives. But most of the media's
attention on drug use focused on a single citizen: Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

Since he became a presidential candidate, Bush has tried to deflect
questions about whether he had used cocaine by saying that when he was young
and irresponsible, he did irresponsible things. But as a tactic to quell
media curiosity, his strategy of "don't tell, you shouldn't ask" has served
only to keep the questions coming. Admitting that he was young and
irresponsible invites the obvious follow-ups: How young? How irresponsible?

As a result, Bush in the last few days has performed a kind of public strip
tease, first saying Wednesday that he had not used illegal drugs within the
last seven years, then Thursday expanding the window to 25 years. By not
denying outright that he used cocaine, he has created the impression that he
was a drug user but has gotten no credit for being honest and forthright
about it. It is a performance that even some of his own supporters describe
as Clintonesque.

After several years of wallowing in the Clinton mud bath, the country is in
no mood to immerse itself again in the mire of examining and judging
politicians' private lives. But it is hard to put allegations of illegal
cocaine use entirely in the category of private life.

For one thing, unlike marital infidelity, possession and use of cocaine is a
felony in most places. (Bush himself supported a law in Texas requiring jail
time for possession of less than a gram of cocaine.) Unlike marijuana, on
which many voters are willing to accept the everybody-did-it defense,
illegal cocaine use has never been as common.

Many voters will be prepared to give a pass to Bush, as they did with
Clinton, for past personal mistakes. Many have already welcomed his
forthright admission that he was once a heavy drinker and admire him for
having acknowledged and defeated the problem. They would undoubtedly feel
the same thing about cocaine use.

But a presidential candidate's illegal drug use unavoidably intersects with
issues of drug policy. For example, if cocaine use can be brushed aside as
simply a youthful indiscretion when the user is a wealthy presidential
candidate, the question obviously arises as to why we treat today's
"youthful indiscretions" as criminal offenses subject to imprisonment
instead of bad personal judgments and medical conditions to be remedied by
treatment and counseling.