cannabisnews.com: The Cover Up - George W. Bush's Real Scandal The Cover Up - George W. Bush's Real Scandal Posted by FoM on November 05, 2000 at 14:07:08 PT By Clarence Page Source: Chicago Tribune Supporters of George W. Bush were quick to point fingers at Democrats for revealing the Texas governor's 1976 drunk-driving arrest during the last days of the presidential campaign. But the governor must know that he really has no one to blame but himself. As the old post-Watergate adage goes, it is not the initial scandal that gets you into deep trouble; it's the cover-up. To err is human, to cover up is to raise suspicions about what else you might be covering up. Didn't it occur to the governor that somebody in Maine might react to his candidacy by thinking, say, "Didn't we arrest that Bush boy on a DUI back in the mid-1970s?" Maybe not. So far, Bush has been giving nothing but vague answers to questions about his reputed wild and wooly younger days, including widely reported rumors that he used cocaine, and he has been getting away with it. When he was asked in October, 1996, if he ever had been arrested for drinking, he said only that "I do not have a perfect record as a youth." When he was asked in August, 1999, if he ever used cocaine, he would say only that he had not used drugs "within the last seven years," which is the requirement on federal questionnaires given to federal employees seeking high-level security clearances. Other than that, he has mostly dismissed such questions as part of the Washington game of "gotcha." Then a few days before Election Day, a "gotcha" got him. How does Bush and his campaign react? They point fingers at the Democrats. The Bush campaign handlers team didn't have any proof at the time, but what if they did? What is the charge? Revealing the truth? What a novel charge for Republicans to lodge against their opponents! Bush claimed he didn't reveal the arrest earlier because he was reluctant to be seen by his teenaged daughters as a bad role model. If so, I sympathize. It is never easy to tell your kids something about yourself that you wish your own parents did not know. Nevertheless, he should not feel embarrassed. It is better to have a candid heart-to-heart talk with your kids about your earlier mistakes and how you improved your life than to pretend that you are more perfect than you are. That's the trouble with modern politics. Politicians have inflated their own standards to higher levels than many of them are able to meet. The public is not nearly that naive. The public's reaction to President Clinton's scandal surrounding Monica Lewinsky showed how Americans can capably separate a decent job in public office from a sleazy private life. If anything, Clinton's indiscretions helped give some moral cover to Bush supporters. Sure, they can say, so what if their guy was a menace to public safety in the 1970s? At least he wasn't seducing an intern and lying about it in the 1990s. Bush missed a good bet by failing to spill the whole story of his whoopee days when he appeared on the show that has become our national confessional, "Oprah." The depth of his plunge into alcoholism and the personal heroism of his recovery could have been a fine example for many people to follow. Instead, he's ducked and hidden from the drugs and booze questions like a fugitive on the lam. I have never thought candidates should be disqualified from public office for mistakes they made as party animals years earlier. If we did, we wouldn't have many candidates left. Some 76 million living Americans have smoked marijuana at some time in their lives, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Include among them many members of the generation to which Bush and I belong. Two of them were Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Clinton has admitted only to trying marijuana as a student in England. Gore has disclosed he smoked weed back at Harvard and in Vietnam when he served there in the late 1960s. Bush's own running mate, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, has not confessed to pot smoking but he revealed during his interview for the slot that he had two drunk-driving arrests when he was in his 20s. You might say that makes Bush and Cheney our nation's first all-DUI ticket. So, no, it is not the private lives, but the public lives of public officials by which we should judge them. We Americans are a forgiving nation, but before we forgive we like to hear some confessions. The confession is important not because we want to punish private behavior but to give us a better idea of how it influences their public behavior. I am only disappointed when politicians who admit to making illegal mistakes in their youth find nothing but the hammer of harsh criminal penalties to offer as a response to the indiscretions of youths today. Not all young people who make mistakes are lost causes. We should find ways to help them recover. Some of them might even grow up to be president. Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)Author: Clarence Page Published: November 5, 2000Copyright: 2000 Chicago Tribune Company Address: 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611-4066Contact: ctc-TribLetter Tribune.com Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/ Forum: http://www.chicagotribune.com/interact/boards/ Related Articles & Web Site:NORMLhttp://www.norml.org/Bad Boy Bush? http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7562.shtmlThe Death of Outrage http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7554.shtmlBush Confirms '76 DUI Arrest: 'I'm Not Proud of That'http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7540.shtmlThis Is Two-Tiered Justice http://cannabisnews.com/news/2/thread2607.shtmlWhy the Story Mattershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/2/thread2588.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #11 posted by JohhnyD on December 01, 2000 at 18:55:04 PT: that's spelled H-Y-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y It really irks me that GW's reason for non-disclosure of his youthful indiscretion was that he didn't want to be seen as a bad role model to his kids. What does he think happens to someone nowadays who commits the same indiscretion and is subject to the laws he supported in Texas? The penalties now are much more severe than they were in 1976, so the luxury of insulating your family from your misdeeds has been effectively erased. How convenient for him that he was busted in a more elightened age, before the law enforcement community turned into the "morality police". [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by DRWE on November 08, 2000 at 17:35:55 PT: WHAT DAMN DOGS LOOK AT THE MAN HE STILL SMOKES IT I MEAN SHIT IF HES GOT A PAST OF DRUGS OF COURSE HES GATA BE DOWN, I NEVER HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT GORE GETTIN ARRESTED FOIR SHIT HES A GOODY BOY [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by FoM on November 06, 2000 at 17:03:59 PT Lee Puffing For Dubya Hi Everyone, I found this news brief a little earlier and posted it on the Political Board of http://www.cannabis.com/ and thought I'd post it in this thread to let you all decide if it could be true or not. I just don't know. I would like to see a few more larger articles for me to really take it seriously but anything this close to election should be posted I think that is why I am.Peace, FoM!Lee Puffing For DubyaNewsHawk: http://www.cannabisnews.com/Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)Author: Jack Todd, The GazettePublished: November 6, 2000Copyright: 2000 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.Contact: letters thegazette.southam.caForum: http://forums.canada.com/~montrealWebsite: http://www.montrealgazette.com/http://www.montrealgazette.com/sports/pages/001106/4817386.htmlBill Lee knows who he wants to see in the White House. The lefty, who once pitched for the Expos and the Boston Red Sox, is pulling for George W. Bush all the way. That's because the Spaceman happens to know that the guy they call "Dubya" is one very human dude. "Back in '73, we rolled a couple of doobies and smoked them together," Lee said while we were doing the Mitch Melnick show on CJAD Thursday night, repeating a statement he made on television earlier in the American presidential campaign. "And I can tell you, he definitely inhaled." http://cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/messages/31/31274.shtml [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Idiot on November 06, 2000 at 13:34:23 PT DREW must learn how to READ CAUSE DOESN'T THE ABOVE ARTICLE SAY THAT GORE (AND CLINTON) ALSO SMOKED MJ. By your lights boy we should vote for Bush if we want to legalize blow and drunk driving [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by dddd on November 06, 2000 at 03:10:29 PT What a ham,DREW All I can do,is hope that Drew was hoping we'd get a good laugh out of his triplicated comment. If it was not a joke,DREW probably has the receipt from when he purchased London Bridge...... [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by dddd on November 06, 2000 at 02:57:41 PT What a ham,DREW All I can do,is hope that Drew was hoping we'd get a good laugh out of his triplicated comment. If it was not a joke,DREW probably has the receipt from when he purchased London Bridge...... [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Jeaneous on November 05, 2000 at 21:18:21 PT: uhhh... I sure don't see G.W. legalizing anything. If anything he would increase the penalty.... remember this is the man that as a young adult used drugs, then when elected Governor toughened the laws on drug use (the same drug he used) to include children as young as 14 to be tried as adults.Voting for Bush is a step backwards in any progressive issue, such as legalization and women's rights. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by DREW on November 05, 2000 at 18:19:05 PT GEORGE W BUSH FOR MARIJUANA IF YOU GUYS WANT SOMEONE TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA A PERSON WHO HAS PREVIOUSLY USED DRUGS IS THE # 1 PIC THEN VOTE FOR GEORGE W BUSH IF YOU WANT TO EVEN HAVE A CHANCE AT LEGALIZATION [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by DREW on November 05, 2000 at 18:17:45 PT GEORGE W BUSH FOR MARIJUANA IF YOU GUYS WANT SOMEONE TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA A PERSON WHO HAS PREVIOUSLY USED DRUGS IS THE # 1 PIC THEN VOTE FOR GEORGE W BUSH IF YOU WANT TO EVEN HAVE A CHANCE AT LEGALIZATION [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by DREW on November 05, 2000 at 18:13:15 PT GEORGE W BUSH FOR MARIJUANA IF YOU GUYS WANT SOMEONE TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA A PERSON WHO HAS PREVIOUSLY USED DRUGS IS THE # 1 PIC THEN VOTE FOR GEORGE W BUSH IF YOU WANT TO EVEN HAVE A CHANCE AT LEGALIZATION [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on November 05, 2000 at 15:01:13 PT: Related Article Bush Avoided Rehab After DUIhttp://cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/messages/31/31206.shtml [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: