SNOW JOB: BUSH TRIES NOT TO INHALE

George W. Bush Should Have Seen This Coming.

If you're going to run for president as the anti-Clinton, you should know
that Democrats and their media friends will do whatever it takes to make
you look Clintonian.

This is the key to understanding the flap over Mr. Bush's refusal to admit
or deny any past cocaine use. This newspaper has spent weeks pursuing the
coke-sniffing rumors without finding an ounce of evidence. But the
questions won't go away because Democrats are desperate to define
Republican deviancy down to Clinton levels. The ugliness is just getting
started.

Until this week, Mr. Bush figured he could dodge the issue the way his
predecessor as Texas governor, Ann Richards, did in 1990. But the scrutiny
is higher for the presidency, especially after the Clinton years. The most
deceitful president since Nixon is paradoxically defining standards of
ethics and candor back up for other candidates, at least for Republicans.

All the more so because Mr. Bush's lead in the polls is so clearly based on
the American public's desire to take a shower. In the latest "Battleground"
survey, the GOP edge over Democrats on "restoring moral values" is an epic
41 percentage points. In Iowa last week, the only certain applause line
from every Republican candidate was a version of, "I will restore dignity
and honor to the Oval Office."

As the son of a president and first lady admired for their personal
probity, George W. has benefited from this impeachment backlash more than
anyone. He is the character candidate. Every Bush supporter I spoke with in
Iowa explained that (a) he could win, and (b) he'd govern with integrity.
No one cited his education or tax plans.

Democrats know this too, which is why Tom Daschle goaded the media to probe
Mr. Bush's cocaine use earlier this month. The normally super-cautious
Senate Democratic leader knows that if Mr. Bush can be cut down to
Clinton's moral size, Democrats can run on peace and prosperity and keep
the White House. He also knows many reporters don't mind exposing someone
else's drug use as a way of justifying their own.

Republicans are right that there's a double standard here. Marijuana use
was fatal to Douglas Ginsburg's Supreme Court nomination but not to Mr.
Clinton, who was also never seriously probed about cocaine use. The same
reporters willing to forgive Mr. Clinton for lying under oath while he was
president want to make a federal case about possible illegal drug use more
than two decades ago.

But this is a fact of modern political life. Republicans can't get away
with the same things Democrats can. Even if the underlying behavior is no
different, the Republican will always be scored for "hypocrisy" because he
represents the party of personal responsibility.

Which is why Mr. Bush's cocaine non-answer is so puzzling, not as a matter
of principle but as simple politics. In one sense it's refreshing to see a
politician try to draw a line on personal privacy. But then he has to be
consistent about all private matters. Mr. Bush has already been willing to
say he never cheated on his wife, so why not say whether he ever broke the
drug laws?

What should especially disturb Republicans is Mr. Bush's political
judgment. If there's bad news to get out, Politics 101 says release it as
early as possible. The time for Mr. Bush to get the cocaine rumors past him
was last fall, while or just after he was cruising to a landslide in Texas,
but before Republicans made him their next star.

My guess is that Mr. Bush would still be the front-runner even if he'd
acknowledged using coke. He'd at least have gotten credit for honesty. Gov.
Gary Johnson, the New Mexico Republican, admitted in 1994 that he'd sniffed
the stuff but has since won election twice.

Mr. Bush is now going to be hurt no matter what he does. Either he looks
like he has something to hide, or he'll look like he's caving under
pressure. This week his line of defense has moved from neither
confirming-nor-denying cocaine use, to denying use in the last seven years
(in order to pass an FBI security clearance), to (yesterday) denying it for
the last 25 years.

Now the first thing many Americans will learn about Mr. Bush, other than
his family name, is that he may have used illegal drugs. Or worse, that he
sounds like Bill Clinton, evasive and self-justifying. Mr. Bush is also
making himself vulnerable to any future accusation of drug use, whether
true or not. He is fulfilling Tom Daschle's fondest wish.

None of this speaks well about a candidate whose major selling point to
Republicans is that he "can win." The Bush campaign says it plans to say
nothing more on the subject. But the Texan owes Republicans the candor of a
cocaine answer now, before they vote on a nominee, and long before Gore
campaign manager Tony Coelho can spring something on the country in May of
2000.

Republicans--and Americans--may forgive a presidential candidate who used
cocaine as a "reckless" youth. What they won't tolerate is another reckless
candidate.