Bush Admits 1976 DUI Arrest;
Dem Delegate Made Disclosure
foxnews.com
Fending off a last-minute bombshell dropped with the help of a
Democratic Party activist in Maine, George W. Bush said late
Thursday night that he did not previously disclose his 1976
arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol because he didn't
want his twin teenage daughters to emulate his behavior.
"I made a decision as a dad — I
didn't want my girls doing the
same things I did. I didn't want
them to drink and drive," the
Texas governor said at a
seven-minute news conference
during which he repeatedly called
attention to the timing of the
revelation. Bush was 30 years old
when the arrest occurred in Maine.
He added that the Sept. 4, 1976,
drunk driving incident, first
reported nationally by the Fox
News Channel but discovered by
a reporter from a Fox affiliate in
Maine, should not be shocking, considering how "up front" he has
been about his less-than-exemplary youth.
"I have been straightforward with people that I used to drink too
much in the past and I don't drink now. I think that's an interesting
question ... why now four days before the election ...?"
The record of the arrest, buried in courthouse documents, was
disclosed by a Democratic lawyer and delegate from Maine to the
2000 Democratic National Convention. Chris Lehane, a spokesman
for Al Gore, denied that the vice president's campaign team was
involved in the disclosure. "We had absolutely nothing to do with
this," Lehane said.
Portland Fox affiliate reporter Erin Feahlau said she was at the
Cumberland County Courthouse covering a story Thursday when a
police officer told her she overheard a lawyer and a judge talking
about Bush's arrest 24 years ago.
Feahlau said she made calls for two hours but could not get any
information because the case was so old that no computer files
existed and the paper documents had been archived.
At about 2:30 p.m., Feahlau caught up with the lawyer, who offered
to provide her a docket number and other information that he said
was at his law office.
Feahlau says the lawyer indicated he had obtained the docket
number and additional documents after he and a judge had heard
rumors of a Bush DUI arrest. The docket number and additional
information made it possible to retrieve documents at the
Kennebunkport Police Dept. and from the Maine State Dept. of Motor
Vehicles.
Feahlau does not believe she was set up or that the story was
planted, but she acknowledged a series of coincidences. She had no
explanation as to how or why a Democratic activist was able to obtain
documents that were unavailable to the media.
Feahlau would not name either the lawyer or the judge.
A second reporter from an NBC affiliate said he, too, was tipped to
the story.
Driving Under the Influence
Aides said Bush was pulled over near his family's Kennebunkport,
Maine, summer home after visiting a bar with friends and a family
member during the Labor Day weekend in 1976.
Spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said Bush, who had been drinking beer,
paid a $150 fine and lost his driving privileges in the state of Maine
for a short period. His driver's license in Texas, where he lived at the
time, was not revoked or suspended, she said.
Bush, the driver, failed a road sobriety test and a second test in the
police station, registering a 0.10 blood-alcohol level — the legal limit
at the time, arresting officer Calvin Bridges said.
Asked about Bush's demeanor, the retired officer said, "The man
was, and I say this without being facetious, a picture of integrity. He
gave no resistance. He was very cooperative."
Bridges, 51, said Bush was accompanied by two women and a man.
Bush spokeswoman Karen Hughes said they were Bush's sister
Dorothy, the Australian tennis star John Newcombe and his wife.
The station also quoted Bridges as saying that while working a detail
in 1993, former President Bush and his wife Barbara "thanked me for
the way I handled it." They said it was "part of the learning process"
for their son, he said.
Bush, 54, has refused to answer questions about "youthful
indiscretions," including whether he used illegal drugs in the 1960s
and early 1970s. He continued to avoid specifics Thursday night.
Bush has said he quit drinking the day after his 40th birthday on July
6, 1986.
Alcohol "was beginning to compete for my affections," he told an
interviewer in September.
Bush's running mate Dick Cheney, 59, also was arrested twice for
driving while intoxicated — in 1962 and 1963 when he was in his
early 20s, spokeswoman Juleanna Glover Weiss confirmed. Cheney
disclosed the incidents privately in 1989, when President Bush
nominated him to be secretary of defense.
Both Bush and Vice President Gore will campaign in the battleground
state of Illinois on Friday.
— Fox News' Carl Cameron and the Associated Press contributed to
this report |
