DEFENSIVE BUSH LEARNS 'POLITICS CAN BE UGLY'

AKRON, Ohio -- George W. Bush, still fending off questions about whether he
used illegal drugs, said yesterday that parents should "share the wisdom of
past mistakes" with their children but refused to say what he has told his
own daughters.

During a news conference after his tour of a homeless shelter that, among
other things, treats drug users, the Republican presidential front-runner
said parents should warn their children about drugs and alcohol.

"One of the interesting questions facing baby boomers is, have we grown up?
Are we willing to share the wisdom of past mistakes?" Bush said. "And I
think the message ought to be to all children 'Don't use drugs. Don't abuse
alcohol.' That's what leadership is about."

But Bush refused to say if he has been forthcoming with his 17-year-old twin
daughters on the issue.

"I'm going to leave my daughters out of the campaign," said Bush, although
later the governor warmed up the crowd at an Akron fund-raiser with a quip
that he didn't know whether it was tougher to raise his daughters or run for
president.

Asked what he had learned from an intense 48 hours of questions about
whether he had used drugs, Bush said, "I've learned that politics can be
unnecessarily ugly, and I'm trying to purge the system of ugly politics."

Bush would not expand on answers he gave earlier this week about whether he
had ever used illegal drugs.

A majority of Americans -- 84 percent -- said that if Bush used cocaine in
his 20s, it should not disqualify him from being president, according to a
Time-CNN poll released yesterday. Eleven percent said it should disqualify
him.

Fifty-four percent said they were aware of the "allegation that . . . Bush
might have used cocaine." Of those, 50 percent thought the governor had done
a good job handling it. Twenty-nine percent said he had done a poor job,
while 21 percent were not sure.

A majority -- 58 percent -- said journalists should stop pursuing the drug
question; 36 percent said Bush should be asked.

The poll of 942 Americans age 18 or older was conducted Thursday. The margin
of error was plus or minus 3 percent. The question to those who were aware
of the cocaine allegation had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent.

After first refusing to answer questions about whether he used drugs, the
53-year-old Texas governor said Thursday he had not used drugs in the past
25 years. A day earlier, Bush said he had not used drugs in the past seven
years.

At the fund-raiser, which raised $365,000, Bush mentioned the drug issue
only in passing. "It's important that we must pass the responsibility
message on to our children. It's important for our children to hear a
unified message that drugs will destroy you," he said.

Earlier yesterday, accompanied by Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, Bush toured Haven of
Rest Ministries, which treats drug users and provides shelter, education and
child-care services to the homeless and low-income people. The shelter is
non-denominational but is run by a Baptist minister and is funded by
donations.

One reason for the resonance of the drug issue has been Bush's claim to
success in fighting crime and drugs as governor. In 1997 there were 26,436
arrests for possession of cocaine in Texas, and by 1998, the last year for
which data are available, cocaine arrests had increased to 28,158, Mike Cox,
the spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said yesterday.

In the state's prison system, 13,501 inmates are being held on various
cocaine charges.

About 90 percent of first-time offenders caught selling or possessing one
gram or less of illegal drugs are given probation, said Tony Fabelo,
executive director of the State's Criminal Justice Policy Council, a state
agency. Bush secured passage of a law that gives judges the option of
probation or jail; previously, probation was required by law.