POLITICS: THE WIDOW OF SONNY BONO WISHES SHE HADN'T SAID ANYTHING ABOUT HIS
PAINKILLERS.

Los Angeles-Rep.Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs, says she's learning the hard way
that she can sometimes be "too honest."

Yes, she told The Associated Press on Friday, her husband, the late Rep.
Sonny Bono, did have a prescription drug problem. "A reporter asked me a
direct question, and I answered it," Mary Bono said. "In hindsight, I wish I
hadn't said anything."

The reporter worked for TV Guide. Its Nov. 28 issue quotes Mary Bono as
saying painkillers contributed to her husband's death last January, when he
skied into a tree. "What he did showed absolute lack of judgment," she told
the magazine. "That's what these pills do."

Since those statements were publicized, her telephone never stops ringing,
she said during a phone interview from her parents' home in North Caroline.

Among her callers has been a reporter from the tabloid National Enquirer, to
whom she expressed remorse for answering such a personal question about her
husband of 12 years.

"If you ask anybody who knows me, I am honest to a fault," said May Bono, a
Republican elected to Congress in April to fill her husband's seat and
reelected in November to a full term.

For years, the former pop singer who entered politics consumed Valium and
Vicodin for chronic neck and back pain, his widow said. His dependency was
known to others, she said.

This past 11 months have taught her plenty, Mary Bono said. A 36-year-old
mother of two, she has faced death, running for office, a public scolding
from her mother-in-law for leaving her children in California, criticism for
dyeing and cutting her hair, and stage fright at being the most junior
member of the House Judiciary Committee during televised hearings to
question independent counsel Kenneth Starr.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst