COED'S D.C. DREAM GOES TO POT

AN outstanding Miami political-science student's dream of becoming a
White House intern has gone up in smoke after she admitted she had
smoked pot. Heather Gordon was honest when she filled out her White
House application: Yes, I have smoked marijuana, she wrote.

Described as a natural leader, the 23-year-old Heather knows all too
well that Bill Clinton smoked pot while a student at Oxford (but
claims he didn't inhale) and that Al Gore says he toked up in college
and in Vietnam. Initially accepted into the program, Heather was
turned down for the job when the feds refused to grant her a security
clearance.

The irony of all this isn't lost on me, said Gordon, now a graduate student
at George Washington University. I know people who are there as White
House interns- and lied about smoking pot. Heather says the White House
official who telephoned to say she was dumped, was not allowed to tell
me what the problems were. But she was told that the fact that she
answered in the affirmative to a yes-or-no marijuana question could be a
reason. Says Heather: This is so frustrating and upsetting.

I'm no pothead. Smoking marijuana is not something I'm proud of. It
was illegal and wrong.

Heather says she wonders if there were other reasons - like her
travels abroad and her recent time spent in Russia. Perhaps it was a
recent article about her initial acceptance into the program, by Miami
Herald columnist Joan Fleischman, that did her in. Heather's friends
are all encouraging her to reapply.

I won't, she says. Echoing another White House voice she says: I want
it over with.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry