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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: swisstrader who wrote (77951)	11/16/2000 1:37:56 PM
From: Mao II	Respond to of 769670

Express-News: Columnists Guerra: Dubya's DUI raises bigger questions San Antonio Express-News Let's be realistic: The brouhaha over Dubya's DUI isn't about a 24-year-old drunk-driving bust. It's about how little American voters know about this man and the many questions about him that remain unanswered. When Gov. George W. Bush first hinted about a presidential run, the presidential scion was applauded for his candor about "his troubled youth." But questions about details were answered with "when I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible," a mantra that won him a bye on critical matters. Bush flatly refused to answer questions related to cocaine, though he was eager to talk about the redemption that led him to quit alcohol at age 40. Now we learn that when Bush spoke about seeing the light, he never mentioned that it was a flashing red one 10 years before he supposedly stopped drinking. In 1996, when he was called for jury duty, his attorney (whom Bush later made Supreme Court Justice Al Gonzales) argued that since the governor might be asked to grant clemency, the potential conflict should excuse him. And on his prospective juror form, Bush skipped questions about his criminal record. Once off the pool, reporters asked Bush about his own arrests, and the Washington Post quoted him saying: "I do not have a perfect record as a youth. When I was young, I did a lot of foolish things." In 1998, Dallas Morning News reporter Wayne Slater specifically asked Bush about his arrest record after information surfaced that he was arrested for disorderly conduct in 1966 when, as a student at Yale, he was busted for snatching a Christmas wreath in New Haven, Conn. "Asked whether he had been arrested on anything 'after 1968,'" Slater wrote, "the governor replied, 'No.'" Slater recalled that Bush seemed ready to change his response when Karen Hughes, his spokeswoman, stopped the conversation. After a Maine TV reporter broke the DUI story Thursday, Bush initially questioned the story's timing before Hughes stepped in to tell reporters that Dubya had been totally open about his past and hadn't spoken of this bust because he wasn't asked. When Slater disputed this, Hughes first said that his 1998 interview was off the record, but Slater denied that too, Jake Tapper reported for Salon.com. Hughes then said that since Slater's interview hadn't been reported, the governor was still clean. But Slater's account was reported in a New Republic bio of Hughes. Hughes finally defended Bush's truthfulness, Tapper added, by saying that since Slater "was left with the impression that there had been some sort of incident — an accurate — a truthful impression that there had been ..." another arrest. Come on. The truth is that Bush's warts and blemished past have been shielded by an overzealous staff quick to loudly denounce any unwelcome questions as personal intrusions. Before Tuesday, Bush should fully explain this and any other arrests and flatly deny or admit his use of drugs. Bush should also answer charges detailed by the Boston Globe that while in the Texas Air National Guard he was missing for at least a year before he was given an early honorable discharge. He is, after all, interviewing for the job of president and commander-in-chief. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave a message for Carlos Guerra, call 250-3545 or e-mail cguerra@express-news.net 11/04/2000 hearstnp.com