BUSH HAS MORE TO ANSWER THAN THE DRUG QUESTION

Of all the questions Gov. George W. Bush hasn't answered definitively
in his bid to become president, the one about past drug use that is
causing such pandemonium in the press does not rank at the top.

Bush has created a frenzy with his refusal to answer the question of
past drug use. It would be a watershed in American politics if his
reticence to answer questions about military spending or Social
Security reform elicited a fraction of the interest that his silence
on drug use prompted.

The relentless grinding away at Bush over the question of whether he
ever used cocaine is this year's example of the press' inability to
stay sober and substantive. An accumulation of serious questions about
Bush is being lost in the braying about drug use.

Like the drunk with a killer hangover, the national press promises
after each presidential election to reform. Never again will they
pursue the cheap and easy, they swear, only substantive coverage from
now on. But as with the drunk who falls off the wagon as soon as the
pain of the last hangover passes, the promises of the past fade into
the ether.

But does anyone believe that if Bush answered yes, the questions would
stop and the frenzy would come to an end?

Of course not. The next questions would be when and how much and where
and with whom. Bush has never held himself up as a saint and these
constant demands that he fess up in detail about the past smack of
voyeurism.

As American-Statesman columnist Dave McNeely wrote this wek, if the
answer to the drug question were no Bush would have said so long ago.
He's not holding his tongue in allegiance to a higher principle. He's
answered the other questions about his past and personal life.

The pack hounding Bush argues that a presidential candidatets past is
prologue, that if Bush did drugs he's a hypocrite because Texas
prisons are brimming with inmates convicted of drug crimes. But that's
only cover. This is just another round of Gotcha, the most popular
game in Washington.

Pinning Bush down on the exact details of past drug use wouldn't be
much help in determining his fitness for the Oval Office. We have
learned that drug use, marital infidelity, psychological counseling
and Viagra don't determine presidential timber, but apparently we
can't remember that fact.

But there are questions Bush should be answering for the voting
public. What would he do about Medicare? Military preparedness? How
would he lead the nation? What should America do about Russia? How did
he make all that money? What was his role in the Texas Funeral
Commission scandal?

Bush says he has been clean and sober for more than a decade, and from
all indications he has. He says he can meet the federal standard of no
drug use in the past seven years. That should be candor enough even
for a presidential contender.

Pestering Bush about past drug use and his service in the Texas Air
National Guard are distractions. They detract from the important
questions he should be answering as he pursues the White House.