OH NO, NOT AGAIN

Dubyah's 'Gotcha' Game

Like countless other Americans, I have been trying to figure out what to
make of George W. Bush's reluctance to answer the cocaine question.

Although "Dubyah," as the Republican front-runner has become widely known,
has been quite forthcoming about some aspects of his wild and woolly youth
before age 40, he has repeatedly brushed off questions about whether he ever
used cocaine. He refuses to play that "Washington game" of "gotcha," he has
said.

During the Iowa Straw Poll weekend, for example, he said on CNN's "Evans,
Novak, Hunt & Shields" that "the game of trying to force me to prove a
negative and to chase down unsubstantiated, ugly rumors has got to end."

But it did not end there. In a matter of days after Iowa, Bush began to look
as though he was playing a few games of his own.

One of them is the bait-and-switch game. It is a spin game in which the
players are perfectly happy to talk only about what they want to talk about,
not what you want to talk about.

Bush did not play it very well. He talked freely of his personal triumphs,
such as having replaced wild drinking and partying with religious values at
age 40. He also has declared, while castigating Oval Office sexual
shenanigans, that he has remained faithful to his wife. Then he tried,
without much success, to draw the line on further questions.

In a twist on another old political game, "blame the messenger," Bush tried
to dismiss the cocaine question and, by connection, the questioners. His
personal life doesn't really matter, he said.

But personal life does matter if it conflicts directly with one's public
positions. Time magazine essayist John F. Stacks lit a fuse after the straw
poll. He pondered how the possibility that Bush tried cocaine squares "with
his support of Texas legislation putting those caught with less than a gram
of the drug in jail?"

Within days the controversy over Bush's character seemed to shift. It was no
longer the morality of Bush's possible drug use that raised eyebrows. It was
the hypocrisy of his refusal to answer drug questions that others who seek
important state and federal positions are required to answer.

When a Dallas Morning News reporter asked Bush on Wednesday how he would
answer the drug questions asked of every federal employee who seeks a
high-level security clearance Bush's resistance cracked. Not in the last
seven years, which is all that the current form asks "as I understand it,"
Bush told the newspaper.

A day later he expanded that to say he could have passed a background check
going back to 15 years before his father took office in 1989. That meant the
53-year-old Bush has not done illegal drugs at any time since 1974, when he
was 28.

That didn't end the controversy.

As the Chicago Tribune reported the next day, if Bush were a Cabinet nominee
or an applicant to be a Marine or an FBI agent he would not be able to avoid
answering detailed questions about past drug use. If he refused to answer,
he would be denied the job. Suddenly, Bush was caught in just the sort of
trap he hoped to avoid. His best hope may be to go for broke. When all else
fails, try telling the truth.

He should try the contrition game. He should sit down with Oprah Winfrey or
Ted Koppel the way Bill and Hillary Clinton did with Steve Kroft on "60
Minutes" during the 1992 campaign. Then Bush should confess whatever needs
to be confessed, laying his past on the altar of public scrutiny.

An appearance in the national network confessional offers a lot for both
political sides to like. Conservatives, especially religious conservatives,
have great respect for confession, as long as the contrition is genuine.
Liberals would appreciate Bush's confession, too, as evidence of how the
drug problem, particularly powder cocaine, is much more of a problem for
wealthy whites than media-promoted stereotypes usually show.

Instead of trying to hide behind glib sound bites, Bush could do the
nation's drug debate a lot of good by using his personal situation as an
example to others on how to beat nasty addictions and straighten up one's life.

American people are forgiving if they think you're being straight with them.
They will even defend you, up to a point, against political enemies and
media probes, as long as you don't look like you are playing a game.

Instead, Bush is caught up in the ridiculous game too many of us voters
demand of our candidates. We expect them to hide their past mistakes instead
of confronting them. As the present White House occupant has shown,
presidents are human. Their past mistakes are important, but what's more
important is how well they avoid making the mistakes worse.