BUSH, IRKED AT BEING ASKED, BRUSHES OFF DRUG QUESTION

HOUSTON -- Fresh from his victory in the Republican Presidential straw poll
in Iowa, Gov. George W. Bush today held what was supposed to be a routine
news conference in Austin, Tex., to introduce his state education
commissioner. He took a handful of questions on state issues until a
reporter began to ask him about persistent questions that he had once used
cocaine.

And then Bush got agitated.

"You know what happens, somebody floats a rumor and it causes you to ask a
question," Bush said, interrupting the questioner in a rising voice, a tape
recording of the news conference and a transcript provided by Bush's office
showed. "And that's the game in American politics, and I refuse to play it.
That is a game, and you just fell for the trap, and I refuse to play."

Pressed to answer if he thought such rumors were "being planted," Bush said:
"Do I think they are being planted? I know they are being planted, and they
are ridiculous and they're absurd and the people of America are sick and
tired of this kind of politics and I am not participating."

If the exchange today was surprisingly heated, Bush's response was not
unexpected. Since he defeated the incumbent Democrat, Ann Richards, in the
1994 election for Texas governor, Bush has walked a fine line as to which
personal questions he will answer. In particular, he has refused to say if
he has ever used illegal drugs, often offering the same wry reply: "When I
was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible."

So far, the issue seems to have had little effect on Bush's standing, even
in a conservative, law-and-order state like Texas, where he has pushed for
tougher penalties against drug users.

But as the early front-runner for the Republican Presidential nomination,
Bush is finding that his stock response has not doused the questions,
unfounded or not, but has seemingly done the opposite. Earlier this month,
the Hearst Newspapers quoted Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, the
minority leader, as challenging news organizations to check rumors of
cocaine use by Bush, rumors thus far unsupported by facts. But Daschle
quickly denied issuing such a challenge.

Gary L. Bauer, the Christian conservative who finished fourth in the Iowa
straw poll on Saturday, criticized Bush's stance. "I think it would be wrong
for any possible Republican Presidential nominee to refuse to say clearly
and distinctly that they've not used drugs," Bauer has said.

Earlier this month, The New York Daily News asked 12 Presidential hopefuls
if they had ever used cocaine. All said no, except Bush who did not reply to
the question.

"The issue is not going to go away," Earl Black, a political scientist at
Rice University, said. "With the response he is coming up with, the national
media isn't buying it."

Nor, however, has the press or anyone else come up with anything to
substantiate the rumors. In May, The Wall Street Journal dedicated an
article to the proliferation of the rumors and the absence of any proof.

Scott McClellan, a Bush campaign spokesman, today characterized the issue as
"baseless allegations and ridiculous rumors." But McClellan added: "What he
may or may not have done in the past is not the question we should be
asking. It is, 'Has he learned from his mistakes?' and the answer is yes."

Bush and his campaign staff have admitted that he made what they have
described as youthful mistakes. In several profiles, the Governor has
admitted that he drank too much beer and bourbon until swearing off alcohol
on his 40th birthday. Although he has refused to answer questions about
drugs, Bush has said without equivocation that he has remained faithful to
his wife, Laura, throughout their marriage.

"The important facts that people deserve to know about have to do with how
he has fulfilled his duties as father, husband, governor and employer,"
McClellan said. "These are the relevant questions about how he will fulfill
his responsibilities."

But as Governor, Bush has taken the lead on several anti-drug efforts,
consistent with his own law-and-order philosophy. In November 1996, after
receiving reports of increased drug use among teen-agers, Bush said, "We
must speak with one clear voice to warn children and

grown-ups of the dangers of drugs."

In 1997, he signed into law a measure that toughened penalties for people
convicted of selling or possessing less than one gram of cocaine. State
sentencing guidelines previously required that a judge give mandatory
probation in such cases, McClellan said. The new law allows judges to
sentence such offenders to jail.

In 1995, Bush signed into law a measure increasing the punishment for anyone
arrested for selling or possessing illegal drugs within 1,000 feet of a
school or a school bus.

In broad terms, he has been answering, or not answering, accusations about
illegal drug use in much the same way since he was the Republican nominee
for governor in 1994. Black, the political scientist, notes that the race
pitted Bush against Ms. Richards, herself a recovering alcoholic who in the
Democratic primary faced unsubstantiated accusations of cocaine use.

Black said Ms. Richards consistently dismissed the cocaine questions as
irrelevant, a precursor to the stance taken by Bush. Perhaps the closest
that he has come to answering the question was in a May 3, 1994, article
published in The Houston Chronicle beneath the headline, "Drugs 'irrelevant'
to race, Bush says." Asked whether he had ever used illegal drugs, Bush replied:

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. What's the relevance? How I behaved as an
irresponsible youth is irrelevant to this campaign. It does not matter what
I did, nor (what) Ann Richards did. What matters is how I behave as an adult."

In October 1998, Bush told Newsweek magazine that he had declined to itemize
his "irresponsibility" because he wanted to set a proper example for
teen-agers. "The question is: Have you learned from your behavior?" Bush
said in the interview. "The answer is yes. If I were you, I wouldn't tell
your kids that you smoked pot unless you want them to smoke pot. I don't
want some kid saying, 'Well, Governor Bush tried it.' "

Bush struck a similar chord a month earlier in a profile in The New York
Times Magazine. "I'd be the first to admit that I did irresponsible things
when I was young and irresponsible," he said. "I've assumed the mantle of
being a Governor and a father in a responsible way, and the signal we ought
to send to our children is that in spite of what happened in the 60's and
70's, we have learned some lessons. And the lesson ought to be, don't be
using drugs and alcohol. Learn the lessons from the past."

But in recent weeks, as the rumors have percolated into public on Sunday
morning talk programs, Bush has begun to frame his refusal to answer as a
stand against what he calls "the politics of personal destruction."

Appearing on the CNN program "Evans, Novak, Hunt & Shields," Bush said such
politics sent "a signal to people that politics is ugly, and therefore I
don't want to participate."

"And I understand that by not -- by refusing to play the Washington, D.C.,
game of gossip, people may draw certain conclusions about me," he said.

But, he added, "it's time for some politician to stand up and say enough is
enough of this."

Black is not so certain. "Maybe he gets some credit for drawing a line about
the private lives of politicians in their youth," he said. "But at the same
time, if you're running for President of the United States, you're going to
get asked all kinds of things."

But McClellan, a Bush spokesman, repeated a variation of a line his boss
often uses. "What Americans want to know is will he uphold the dignity and
honor of the office," McClellan said. "He will."