A chink in his armor — George Bush faces questions

SALISBURY POST

The surprise is not that George W. Bush drove after drinking in 1976 and was arrested for it. Rather, it’s that the Republican GOP presidential nominee and two-term Texas governor kept this bit of history quiet for so long. You’d think the Bush family’s political foes would have combed through Kennebunkport police records long ago.

The 1976 incident came two years before George W.’s first run for public office, when he ran unsuccessfully for one of Texas’ congressional seats. It would also have happened before he met his future wife and settled down, and before his father became Ronald Reagan’s runningmate in 1980.

The drinking-and-driving charge occurred just a few years after an incident described in Bill Minutaglio’s book, “First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty” — an incident that hints at George W.’s drinking habits and his attitude at that stage of life, in his 30s:

“That night, he’d been drunk, and he was out driving with his 15-year-old brother, Marvin. After he had rammed through the garbage cans with his car and walked in the front door of the house ... he was ready, if it was going to be that way, to fight his father. He was from Houston, Texas, he was beery, he had no real career, it was late, and for most of his life he, more than anyone in the family, had been measured against his father, his grandfather, the Bush legacy. That night, he’d stood against his father, in the den, and asked his father if he was ready to fight.

“ ‘I hear you’re looking for me. You want to go mano a mano right here?’ ”

Ten more years passed before George W. Bush faced himself in the mirror one morning and declared an end to his drinking days. He might embarrass his father, he told close friends. And that was it.

Bush’s heavy drinking in his younger days has been well documented. He himself has admitted to drinking too much in the past, and the public has been willing to forgive him for it. People may even admire him for recognizing the problem and quitting. Too many of us live in glass houses to reject a candidate over mistakes that happened nearly a quarter of a century ago.

But while he was owning up to his past behavior, it would not have hurt to mention his criminal record and get it over with. Bush’s story about wanting to keep the story from his daughters —who knew of his drinking history and surely figured out that he had to have a way to get from place to place as he drank —is so much hogwash.

Voters have been equally forgiving of Vice President Al Gore’s marijuana smoking during and shortly after his stint in the Army during the Vietnam War. But if Gore had a hidden drug conviction in his past —or even a hidden driving-under-the-influence charge —his opponents would jump with both feet on the credibility issue again.

On the truth-telling meter, this revelation deserves an eye-opening pause. Bush has painted himself as totally honest and forthcoming, while hammering his opponent on issues of credibility and character. This should help both voters and Bush realize that he’s not quite as perfect as he seems. An old drunk-driving charge incurred back when the nation was much more lackadaisical about such things is not enough to condemn a presidential candidate. But it clearly shows there are deeper chinks in the Bush armor than he has led the country to believe.