BUSH STONEWALLING SHOULD COME DOWN IN FAVOR OF HONESTY

George W. Bush could learn a thing or two from the governor of New
Mexico.

Gary E. Johnson is a second-term Republican who has not only faced up
to his former drug use, he's embraced it head-on.

"I smoked marijuana in college; that was something I did," Johnson
told a reporter for The New York Times last week.

"I used cocaine on a couple of occasions. It was not something that
anybody would have ever known. But I knew if I was going to run for
office, I should 'fess up. And if I didn't win, so be it."

Contrast that with G.W.'s stance, pretending to draw the line in the
sand by refusing to comment on his past drug use, specifically whether
he ever used cocaine.

This after opening the door to questions about his personal life:
talking about his newfound sobriety at the age of 40, crowing about
the fact he's never cheated on his wife.

He teased a ravenous pack of political bloodhounds hungry for a big
story and then acted surprised he got caught in the briar patch.

Johnson, 46, has been elected governor twice since admitting his
previous drug use to voters, which may just be a regional aberration.
(Who knows what they're smoking in Albuquerque?)

But emboldened by the reaction to his honesty, he's leading the call
for the decriminalization of most illegal drugs in America. Johnson
believes the war on drugs is a costly plan that has left our court and
prison systems overwhelmed over a relatively small amount of recovered
drugs.

His openness on the issue raises the question why so few other elected
officials from the baby boomer generation are candid about growing up
in an America during a time when many illegal drugs were socially acceptable.

By the time many boomers were teenagers or older, marijuana had
evolved from its more sinister image of "reefer madness," a wacky weed
smoked only by jazz musicians and spaced-out hippies, to something
widely accepted in most social circles.

So acceptable, otherwise respectable people smoked it freely in public
places, at concerts, the movies, even at picnics in the park.

It was no big deal.

That was twenty years ago, before a wave of crack cocaine created a
social plague of devastation all over the country, before the coming
of AIDS and other deadly diseases transmitted through drug use.

As a result, we've drastically reconsidered the wink-and-nod
acceptance of drug use many had in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, the
urgent need to teach young children about the dangers of drugs has
created a unified front that may be hypocritical but is probably necessary.

It's like what cult comedian Eric Bogosian said once: "The thing about
taking drugs, you're having such a good time, you don't realize what a
bad time you're having."

The current flap over Bush's use or non-use can be described as a game
of "Gotcha!" written large, a continuation of the politics of personal
destruction unleashed by Republicans during the Monica
Lewinsky/Clinton impeachment hearings.

It's designed to hurt or hinder Bush on his seemingly unstoppable
march toward the Republican convention and perhaps his party's
nomination. And it's working.

It's amusing to see the contortions the national press has twisted the
guy into: "I'm not going to answer that," "I haven't used in seven
years, no, make that 25 years. . . ."

If Bush, 53, just admitted he used drugs in his youth, a majority of
fair-minded Americans would probably be able to relate and give him
the benefit of the doubt.

If he's worried about sending the wrong message to children, he ought
to think about the much more valuable lesson he would provide young
folks by talking more freely about his "wild" days, even if they
included illegal drugs.

You can always overcome the mistakes in life, but you can't make them
go away.