BUSH SHEDS SOME LIGHT ABOUT DRUG USE AMID INTENSE MEDIA PRESSURE

WASHINGTON (AP ) -- Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush said
Thursday he has not used illegal drugs in the past 25 years, declaring that
if voters object to his refusal to reveal more "they can go find somebody
else to vote for."

Under mounting pressure, Bush has abandoned his strategy to dodge
have-you-ever questions and -- for two straight days -- has tried to
establish a political statute of limitations for drug usage. The Texas
governor said he could pass White House anti-drug standards set by President
Clinton and his father, former President George Bush.

Far from putting the issue to rest, Bush's parsed replies raised more
questions that his campaign team in Austin, Texas, said he won't answer.

"I was asked what I thought was a relevant question about whether or not, if
I became president, I will have background checks for the people that work
for me at the White House. And if I did, could I pass the challenge of a
background check. My answer is absolutely," Bush said during a news
conference in Roanoke, Va.

"Not only could I pass the background check and the standards applied to
today's White House, but I could have passed the background check and the
standards applied on the most stringent conditions when my dad was the
president of the United States -- a 15-year period," he said.

Spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said Bush had effectively denied drug usage in a
period beginning 15 years before his father took office in 1989 -- or since
1974, when the 53-year-old Bush was 28.

A day earlier, Bush told The Dallas Morning News that he had not used drugs
in the past seven years -- the time frame used in normal FBI background
checks. Bush said Thursday his father's White House had the FBI apply a
15-year test to his employees.

Bush, confronting the first contretemps of his front-running campaign, may
have inadvertently exposed himself to questions about drug use into his
teens by saying he could "pass the background check and the standards"
applied at the White House today.

The Clinton administration requires the FBI to ask White House applicants
about drug usage since their 18th birthdays. Tucker said Bush would not
answer that same question.

According to Tucker, the campaign had been told that the Bush White House
disqualified applicants who had used drugs in the 15-year time frame, while
the Clinton White House does not. Therefore, she said, the current White
House has no "standard of disqualification" for Bush to follow.

C. Boyden Gray, the top lawyer in the Bush White House, said in a telephone
interview there was a 15-year statute of limitations but he suggested that
there was some discretion about applying it.

"Of course it was not disqualifying," he said. "There were legions of people
in the Bush administration who had used illegal drugs, but for whom it was
not disqualifying because it was in the distant past."

Bush was not asked if he could have met the 15-year standard when his father
was vice president, from 1981-89 -- which would require a denial dating to
at least 1971. Arthur B. Culvahouse, the top lawyer in the last months of
the Reagan presidency, said applicants were asked about drug usage in the
previous 10 years.

Tucker said he won't answer that question. Bush said he needs to draw a line
somewhere.

"I believe it is important to put a stake in the ground and to say enough is
enough when it comes to trying to dig up people's backgrounds in politics,"
said Bush, when peppered by reporters later Thursday in Ohio.

Yet he did respond to a question about possible drug usage during his stint
in the Texas Air National Guard from 1968-73. "I never would have done
anything to endanger myself," he said.

Defending the change of strategy, a senior Bush adviser said the governor
felt the background check question was relevant -- and said it gave Bush the
opportunity to define what he means when he says he was "young and
irresponsible."

Trying to keep GOP followers from getting jittery, the Bush campaign shipped
"speaking points" to the offices of several lawmakers and governors. "Let's
be clear," the memo said. "What you are talking about is ALL rumor, gossip
and worse."

But consultants in both parties said Bush has opened the door to endless
questions.

"If I was working for him, when he came back from that news conference I
would have wrung his neck," said Democratic operative David Brown of
Washington. "He should have stuck with, `I'm not talking about it."'

Ed Gillespie, a GOP consultant who doesn't work for Bush, said, "He's proven
his early statement -- that once you engage, it doesn't stop the questions
- -- was right. His initial instincts on this were right."

A Republican consultant who advises Bush, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said the governor should have stuck to his guns. The adviser said
Bush may be forced to deny ever using illegal drugs or admit that he did --
and explain why.

Refusing to take part in what he called the "politics of personal
destruction," Bush told reporters Thursday, "I am going to tell people I
made mistakes and that I have learned from my mistakes. And if they like it,
I hope they give me a chance. And if they don't like it, they can go find
somebody else to vote for."

Bush has said parents don't want political leaders discussing past mistakes,
because it might give children an excuse to make the same errors.

As governor, Bush endorsed several anti-drug measures, including laws
toughening penalties for people caught in possession of illegal drugs.

His answers this week have been as ambiguous as those given by Clinton when
he was Arkansas governor seeking the presidency. For years, Clinton dodged
questions about drug use until an interviewer asked if he broke any
international laws; Clinton replied that he smoked marijuana, but didn't inhale.

Clinton's consultant at the time, James Carville, said Bush will face drug
questions throughout the campaign but the issue won't hurt him -- especially
after Clinton survived the Monica Lewinsky affair.

"If all that didn't matter, I can't imagine what Bush might have stuck up
his nose 20 years ago will move people one way or another," Carville said.