QUESTION BUSH ABOUT HYPOCRISY

Every once in a while, I have one of those 93I wish I wrote that94
moments. That's precisely what happened when I read a Time magazine
essay by John F. Stacks about whether Texas Gov. George.W. Bush should
be compelled (how?) to reveal whether he ever used illegal drugs,
particularly cocaine. Until I read Stacks, I would have said 93No!94
and followed it with an impressively erudite disquisition on the need
for even public figures to have some private space. Now, though, I
want to know.

My reason 96 Stacks' reason - is that using cocaine is a crime for
which many go to jail. The issue is not so much what Bush did in the
past, but whether he is a hypocrite in the present. He is tough as
nails on drugs, having supported state legislation mandating jail for
anyone caught with less than a gram of cocaine. Would a bystander
with the hearing of a German shepherd have heard him murmur, 93There
but for the grace of God go I?94 It would be nice to know.

I happen to think Bush is a Fifth Amendment cokehead. If he had not
used the stuff, he would certainly say so. After all, it's not as if
he is such a reticent fellow. He has told us much about his past -
his drinking, his carousing, his lost youth, his meandering career
path and how he gave up booze and found God. This is a stirring tale
and I am moved every time I hear it.

But to quote another magazine (the National Review), 93If politicians
want us to respect their privacy, they will first have to respect it
themselves.94 This, clearly, Bush has not done. He tells us, for
example, that he never committed adultery, but becomes indignant when
the pesky press asks about cocaine use. It is an inconsistent
position and leaves us all a bit in the dark: What, if anything, has
Bush learned from the life he once led?

Why, for instance, does he think that people who use cocaine
recreationally ought to go to jail? What about marijuana or, for that
matter, heroin? Does he think that if - just if - he once used
marijuana or cocaine that he should have done jail time? Can he
empathize with others or, possibly, has his own experience taught him
the deterrent value of jail? Should 600,000 people be arrested
annually for breaking the marijuana laws? We would like to know.

I concede that coming clean is not tantamount to coming to your
senses. Bill Clinton and Al Gore admitted to some familiarity with
dope (Clinton, you will remember, did not inhale), and yet they lack
the political will to institute a sane drug policy. Bush is a
conservative, albeit a compassionate one. Just as Richard Nixon could
go to China, so Bush, as a hard-liner on crime, might question the
nation's drug policies. As Texas governor, he has presided over the
execution of 98 people - even, with some admirable insouciance, a
pious woman (Karla Faye Tucker). He has the requisite body count to
do something useful.

It would be good, too, to hear from Bush about his parents and their
values. Incessantly, the lack of values gets mentioned whenever a
child goes astray. And sometimes some very astute lawmakers - Georgia
Republican Congressman Bob Barr comes to mind - deduce the connection
between bad behavior and the refusal of governments to tack the Ten
Commandments to the walls of public buildings. Bush was a
self-acknowledged youthful debaucher and we would like to know if,
perhaps, the Ten Commandments were not posted in his house or if his
parents, the former president and first lady, failed to instruct him
in essential values. Bush might want to say something about that.

I don't really expect Bush to say anything terribly original or bold
about the lessons he has learned from his life. Party doctrine
insists that all social issues be buried under mounds of goopy
bromides, and Bush seems to be the sort of person who avoids
reflection. He has said he's 93made mistakes94 but that he's learned
from them. 93What matters is who I am today,94 he has said.

I could not agree more, especially when it comes to the strictly
personal matters that he has already talked about. But there can be
no such disconnect between the past and the present. When Bush says,
93What I did 20 or 30 years ago, in my judgment, is irrelevant,94 he's
not just turning his back on who he once was, but on others who may
now be doing what he once did. It seems compassion begins - and ends
- - at home.