Posted on 02/27/2005 7:50:54 AM PST by rface
No reporter ever asked the Texas governor why all those other people deserved to serve five or 10 or 20 years in prison, when their crimes were no different from what everyone knew he had done, whether he admitted it or not.....Joe Conason wonders why the president is punishing drug users for offences he has also been linked to.
On the audiotapes of George W. Bush recorded secretly by his erstwhile confidant Douglas Wead in 1999, the future president revealed how much he feared candid discussion of his personal use of marijuana and cocaine. As quoted in The New York Times, Bush vowed that no matter what rumours and facts circulated about what he did or might have done, he would doggedly decline to answer forthrightly.
His natural urge to protect his privacy evokes sympathy, however quaint his expectations might be at this point in our political history. But in justifying his refusal to talk about his foolish youth, he appealed to a higher purpose. "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions," he told Wead. "You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
For many American parents of a certain age, that self-serving yet poignant response must strike an empathetic chord. Concern that children will mimic parental misbehaviour is universal, and so is the impulse to conceal embarrassing truths. Bush rightly worries that children imitate adult models in the belief that they, too, can escape the consequences.
When Bush uttered those words, he was in his second term as governor of Texas and on his way to the White House. After all, if he could drink too much, smoke those forbidden herbs and perhaps even snort illegal powders and nevertheless become a successful politician, then "some little kid" might reasonably assume he or she could sin likewise without undue risk.
Any such assumption would be terribly mistaken, of course, unless the kid happened to belong to a wealthy and well-connected family like the Bush clan.
Prisons and jails across America are crowded with non-violent drug offenders whose lives have been ruined and whose families have been damaged or destroyed by the same punitive legal system that never touched young "Georgie," except to issue him a drunk-driving summons.
The poor and the black are incarcerated for using pot and coke, while the rich and the white lie to their kids (and occasionally to the voters) about those same transgressions.
Certainly that was how the justice system worked when Bush and Wead had their candid chats. The Texas politician couldn't reassure his friend that he hadn't used cocaine, let alone marijuana, but as governor he was imprisoning young people unlucky enough to be arrested in possession of those narcotics, often for draconian mandatory-minimum sentences. He always cherished his image as a tough, swaggering, law-and-order politician who didn't hesitate to imprison teenagers. But that isn't what happens to people from good families.
His niece Noelle Bush went through a drug-rehab program and was released two years ago. His friend Rush Limbaugh went through rehab and has returned to berating the less fortunate on the radio, without doing one day of time.
The lopsided cruelty has only escalated since Bush entered the White House. Federal agents have cracked down on medical users of marijuana, depriving them of a substance that eases their sickness and keeps them alive.
The human and economic costs of the drug war continue to swell. So burdensome are those costs that many conservatives, including such Bush tutors as former secretary of state George Shultz, have publicly pleaded for saner policies.
Despite his claims to be a "compassionate conservative," Bush has ignored those pleas. He seems to feel that if he overcame his substance-abuse problem, then nobody else really has an excuse.
No reporter ever asked the Texas governor why all those other people deserved to serve five or 10 or 20 years in prison, when their crimes were no different from what everyone knew he had done, whether he admitted it or not.
No reporter will ask the president that question today, either, although it is just as pertinent in light of his revealing conversations with Wead.
Indeed, Bush not only avoided public responsibility for his own past mistakes but found a clever way to turn those wayward years to political advantage. He brandishes his late return to sobriety as a symbol of his Christian faith.
It is hard to tell what Bush learned in his recovery from sin, except that other people got caught and he didn't.
That would be enough to make anybody smirk.
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Joe Conason is the author of The Hunting of the President:The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Then what do you suggest we do?
To everyone - For the record:
critisizing GW Bush is not a difficult game to play - and anyone has the freedom to do just that, but I can think of nobody I'd rather have in the WhiteHouse now. I am more loyal to W, in spite of his flaws, than I am to the GOP -
Excellent argumentation. :-)
That vile book, that made the cocaine charge, wasn't reprinted. People of a certain ilk have a tendency to go into "it might be false but it's accurate" mode when the game is to hurt someone they see as a threat. How likely is it that this guy minded the Rather-memogate fraud, other than that it didn't work?
You need to read the thread. I don't like repetition. And you think I care what you believe because?
you are correct it looks more like 2.5 personal services to 1 operating expenses. I guess my 6 year old info is no longer the case. I stand corrected.
gees how long will that take. so far you have only shown an unwillingness to believe a persons own statements about their own behavior. So what are we to learn from your naivete?
Your absence of belief is not proof the other person lied. Sorry, but nice try.
How would a "real" war on drugs be different from what the government's been doing under that name?
I don't get it. The President is a non-factor after 2008, but until then he is firmly cemented as President and here to stay. You would think liberal efforts could be better spent elsewhere rather than focusing on someone of relevant irrelavance. In other words, continuing to attack him makes not a wit of difference. But I guess that is to be expected from half-wits...
Issue the death penalty for the sale and distribution, then carry it out. Problem solved. Malaysia is a good example. No drugs, no users. Practically no crime, either.
Lets research this authors articles and see if he ever pursued rumors that bill clintoon "has a nose like a vacuum cleaner" (source of that quote: his brother roger)
I don't want my country to be like Malaysia ... do you?
RED HELICOPTER ![]() LOONEY LEFTIES ![]() |
WOW, that's very good looking. Red and black really stand out! I like the fire, the 'flames of hell' are reaching for the Looney Lefties.
He's REALLY good friends with Sidney Blumenthal and Gene Lyons!
You can safely bet your house that those three are behind all these nasty Bush bashing stories.
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