Posted on 10/15/2005 7:53:37 PM PDT by Nevadan
Son of former president may run for Senate seat
RENO -- The son of former President Jimmy Carter who is considering a U.S. Senate run in Nevada admits he was discharged from the Navy 35 years ago for smoking marijuana and claiming other drug use.
"They came around and asked people if they had ever done drugs before, and I told them I had," Jack Carter told the Reno Gazette-Journal in a story published Friday. "I didn't lie about it. I told the truth."
Carter's discharge garnered little attention at the time. He talked about it in a June 2003 oral history interview with the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, excerpts of which were posted this week on a Las Vegas blog, www.votegibbonsout.com.
Carter, 58, lives in Las Vegas and is considering running against U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev. He is scheduled to be in Elko today to meet with local Democrats and community leaders.
Carter joined the Navy in 1967 and served one tour in Vietnam. After Vietnam, he was attending a nuclear power school in Idaho Falls, Idaho, when he and 52 classmates were caught in a marijuana raid.
Carter said he wasn't caught with drugs in his possession, but answered yes when Navy investigators asked if he had smoked pot.
He was given a general discharge and left the Navy in December 1970.
In the oral history interview, Carter said he took care to make sure the Navy had enough evidence to justify a discharge.
"Nobody actually caught me," he said. "Some people had said that I had actually smoked marijuana with them. And when they came to ask me if that were true, I said that it was. Because it was.
"And also, threw in that I had had a couple of LSD tablets and some THC, just to make sure that ... if I was on the borderline, to make sure I got out," he told the interviewer.
Alfredo Alonso, a Reno political consultant, said Carter's past likely would hurt his Senate ambition.
"I'd like to think that 35 years later, you wouldn't still be paying for your indiscretion as a youth," Alonso told the newspaper.
"However, running for the U.S. Senate, I think people tend to hold you at a higher standard. It will hurt him."
But Mike Sullivan, a Democratic political consultant, said voters would be understanding.
"Will he lose the campaign because of that issue, no," Sullivan said.
The nut never falls to far from the tree does it?
This was during a war and Jimmy's spawn wants out. Great family.
God Help Us!
Carter had a son?!! I never knew that. Or did Amy get a sex change.
"And also, threw in that I had had a couple of LSD tablets and some THC, just to make sure that ... if I was on the borderline, to make sure I got out," he told the interviewer.
that says it all.......nothing further is necessary.
I'm sure.
Jack Carter...a loser. Like father, like son.
He and Rosalynn had three, and then they had Amy. (You're bad. Heh.)
The peanut
I was offended by his father's presidency. Does that mean I should run for office? I don't think so!
How about his father's mishandling of the Iranin hostage crisis? Why did it take too long for the Carter administration to rescue the hostages?
But seriously, the biggest question I have is how often Jimmah was getting into Jack's stash.
"And also, threw in that I had had a couple of LSD tablets and some THC, just to make sure that ... if I was on the borderline, to make sure I got out," he told the interviewer.<<
IIRC Idaho Falls is where they train Nuclear Power Operators. Pot, Acid, and Thai sticks...mixed with nukes.
That's a youthful indiscretion?
DK
Hard to tell if this is a lie just to get out of the Navy.
Carter has a son?
I wonder what part of america HE wants to give away.
Yet another fine prospect for a Democrat candidate.
Makes uncle Billy look like a school kid.
"And also, threw in that I had had a couple of LSD tablets and some THC, just to make sure that ... if I was on the borderline, to make sure I got out," he told the interviewer.
Oh great, let's vote for this goldbrick then. NOT!
Do they grow peanuts in Nevada?...
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