While many of us wish that the media would stick to the important
issues when covering political campaigns, it seems a bit disingenuous
for fiftysomething Gov. George W. Bush to respond to a reporter's
question about possible marijuana or cocaine use, "I'm not going to
talk about what I did as a child. It is irrelevant what I did 20 to
30 years ago."

When a person is seeking the highest office in the land, nothing is
irrelevant from his past as we have witnessed in the press coverage
(and uncovering) of presidential candidates' lives. The dictionary
defines "child" as any person between birth and puberty. OK, let him
off the hook for what he did as a child, but anything after, say age
14, is fair game unless the rules change in covering all candidates.

Michaelyn Jackson,
Austin