SOME RIVALS URGE BUSH TO ANSWER DRUG QUESTION

WASHINGTON - As questions about past illegal drug use continue to dog
Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, some GOP rivals said
yesterday that he should answer them directly and get the issue behind him.

But his competitors and supporters maintained that past indiscretions,
including possible use of illegal drugs, should not disqualify the Texas
governor or anyone else from becoming president.

Noting that Bush has addressed the issue partially, Sen. Orrin Hatch,
R-Utah, said Bush should "just answer the darn question . . ."

"If there wasn't anything here, then George Bush should have just said there
wasn't," Hatch said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"If there was, I think he, at this point, should answer it, get it behind
him, because the polls show most of the American people are forgiving,"
Hatch said.

There has been no evidence or credible allegation that Bush has ever used an
illegal drug, although he has admitted to formerly drinking heavily and
making "mistakes" as a youth. Questioned repeatedly on the drug issue last
week, Bush said he had not used illegal drugs within the past 25 years, but
he did not elaborate.

"He has a right to privacy," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a GOP
presidential contender, who declined on CNN's "Late Edition" to say whether
Bush should address the issue further.

Conservative GOP presidential contender Gary Bauer said the candidates will
"have to answer questions that go to law breaking."

Former Vice President Dan Quayle, another rival for the GOP presidential
nomination, said on ABC's "This Week" that he admired Bush for trying to
draw a line by not discussing his private life, but that "he now sort of
opened the door a bit" and should go further.

Still, Quayle called the issue of Bush's past indiscretions "a sideshow" in
the campaign.

Some Democrats agreed.

"It's whether or not he committed a crime. . . . The voters are entitled to
weigh what he (Bush) did and make a decision on that," said Geraldine
Ferraro, former New York congresswoman and Democratic vice-presidential
candidate in 1984.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said that the drug questions
were legitimate but that Bush did not have to be compelled to provide answers.

"I do think that the American people ought to hear a lot more about his past
and about his positions," Daschle said on CNN. But Oklahoma Gov. Frank
Keating, a Republican and strong Bush supporter, said his colleague had
sufficiently answered the questions about drug use.

"I don't care what somebody did in college as long as he didn't kill
somebody," Keating said.

Except for Bush, all of the GOP candidates have said unequivocally that they
never have used illegal drugs. Democratic rivals Vice President Al Gore and
Bill Bradley both have admitted to experimenting with marijuana during their
youth.

Republican Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico, who has acknowledged having used
marijuana and cocaine while in college, said the question of past drug use -
even if true in the case of Bush - is irrelevant in the presidential campaign.

"I see an incredible hypocrisy here," Johnson said on NBC. He added that he
didn't think the 78 million Americans who have tried illegal drugs would
"want to disqualify themselves from serving in public office."

Meanwhile, Lincoln Chafee, a U.S. Senate candidate and son of a stalwart
Republican, admitted yesterday that he used cocaine "several times" while a
student at Brown University in the early 1970s. Chafee, the mayor of
Warwick, R.I., is the only Republican running for the seat being vacated by
his father, John Chafee, who is retiring from the Senate. Chafee, 46, said
he made the disclosure in part because of the media pursuit of Bush.