BUSH AND DRUGS: THE BEST THING TO DO IS ANSWER THE QUESTION

The media frenzy over whether George W. Bush did or did not ever use
cocaine probably won't derail the Texas governor's juggernaut campaign, but
his handling of it sure raises some questions about his presidential timber.

Bush seems to want it both ways. He wants voters to understand that he was
a hard-drinking hellion in his younger days who saw the error of his ways
around age 40 and just said "no more." Oh, and he never strayed from his
marital vows, for all those of you fed up with that philanderer from Arkansas.

But Bush gets all bent out of shape about the "politics of personal
destruction" when reporters take questions about his past to a logical next
level. Did he ever use cocaine? Bush came of age as an affluent young man
at a time when marijuana use was almost socially acceptable and cocaine was
certainly popular among his fellow high-rollers. His own admissions beg the
question.

Now, times change and people do, too. Bush says he has.

But someone who presents himself as possessed of the character and
leadership ability to be president -- most days the most important person
on Earth -- cannot simply say he has made mistakes in the past, that's all
you need to know, no more questions allowed.

The other candidates -- schooled by Bill Clinton's ridiculous "didn't
inhale" -- have answered the cocaine question. Bush alone says he stands
for an end to such invasive media coverage, and Bush alone thus invites
more speculation about his past.

Is there another lesson from Clinton about not trying to fudge your way
through an uncomfortable question? Yes, there is: Deal with it and move on.

Bush may be skittish because of the tough cocaine laws he has signed as
governor of Texas. But there's a strong case to be made for converts as the
best preachers -- if he has been there, if he has sampled the evil and seen
its destructive force, then he understands. And, unlike Clinton, he has
learned from his mistakes.

By late Thursday, Bush had hedged his way up to saying he could have
cleared a White House background check, including drug testing, as far back
as when his dad was president, 1989-92. A spokeswoman later said Bush has
been clean since 1974, when he was 28. Nothing more specific has been offered.

If Bush really expects to be president of the United States, he must
understand that every facet of his life is going to be questioned. It's a
huge sacrifice that comes with the territory of a huge job.

"What matters is who I am today," Bush has said.

True, and who each of us is today is due in large measure to who we have
been in the past -- and how we account for it now. A lot of our past isn't
pretty, but a lot of people aren't running for president.