Pubdate: Fri, 20 August 1999
Source: Herald, The (WA)
Copyright: 1999 The Daily Herald Co.
Contact:  http://www.heraldnet.com/
Author:  Julie Muhlstein, Herald Columnist, BUSH SHOULD COME CLEAN ON DRUG USE, AND MOVE ON

Yes, I smoked pot. Yes, I inhaled. I didn't like it because it made me hungry.

No, I never snorted cocaine. I never saw anyone else do it, either.

Yes, I tried those hallucinogenic mushrooms. (Don't try them, they can
poison you.)

No, I never cheated on my husband. We did live together before marriage, though.

These are answers to questions I haven't been asked and to which I don't
have to respond. But then, I'm not running for president. I never will run
for president, mostly because the idea is ridiculous, but also because there
are some questions I do not want to be asked.

George W. Bush is getting questions he never wanted to be asked. He is
starting to answer, after chastising the press and saying Wednesday that he
refuses to play the game.

Too late. He is in the game. The new rules say if you want to play you have
to answer.

He shouldn't forget what happens when others answer for you. Doesn't he
remember Gary Hart? Or our current leader, who told us he did not have sex
with "that woman"?

Whatever the truth is, Bush should tell it now, tell it once, tell it all
and move on.

He'll spare himself and the rest of us a lot of ugliness. I don't know about
you, but I'll admire him a lot more for it, regardless of what his answers are.

On Thursday, the Republican presidential candidate from Texas brought
swirling questions about illegal drug use into focus when he said he had not
used them in the past 25 years. He also said he could have passed stringent
background checks when his father was president, from 1989 to 1993.

According to The Associated Press, Bush said Thursday that "over 20 years
ago, I did some things ... I made some mistakes and I learned from those."

I think he's still making a mistake. He's being vague. Did George W. Bush
use cocaine?

By answering a simple yes-or-no question, he can stop tabloid rumormongers cold.

I find it odd that there are questions none of these candidates are ever asked.

Did they ever cheat on their income taxes? Did they ever drive drunk? Did
they ever smack a child?

Every one of those behaviors is worse, by my reckoning, than trying some
drug, and many of us would have to answer yes if asked about one or more of
them.

The Bush drug story is already bigger than it ever needed to be.

Contact columnist Julie Muhlstein via e-mail at  write to her at The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206, or call
425-339-3460.

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