FAMOUS STONERS IN HISTORY II
Bush Admits to Smoking Marijuana
(and maybe to snorting cocaine, too)

From the New York Times, courtesy of a post on Eschaton comments, originally culled from Kos:

Mr. Bush, who has acknowledged a drinking problem years ago, told Mr. Wead on the tapes that he could withstand scrutiny of his past. He said it involved nothing more than "just, you know, wild behavior." He worried, though, that allegations of cocaine use would surface in the campaign, and he blamed his opponents for stirring rumors. "If nobody shows up, there's no story," he told Mr. Wead, "and if somebody shows up, it is going to be made up." But when Mr. Wead said that Mr. Bush had in the past publicly denied using cocaine, Mr. Bush replied, "I haven't denied anything."

He refused to answer reporters' questions about his past behavior, he said, even though it might cost him the election. Defending his approach, Mr. Bush said: "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."

Click here for the rest.

For starters, I have to observe that this is quite different from Clinton's situation--old Bill only toked up in England, and, therefore, broke no American laws. Bush, on the other hand, got high, apparently, right here in the good old US of A. So this is a unique situation in our history: a sitting President, with the power to pardon any criminal he wants to pardon, is currently allowing tens of thousands of citizens, who did exactly what he did, to rot in prison. If George had any moral character at all, he would immediately release all pot prisoners right now, and immediately begin to reform drug laws such that they actually deal with the very real problems of addiction, instead of bloating our prisons with people who, in all probability, ought not to be there losing large chunks of their lives.

Of course, the President, as far as I can tell, has very little moral character to speak of. I doubt he's going to come clean on this.

Go check out this article; these tapes have way more than just info on Bush's past drug use: there's a lot on Bush's attitudes toward the religious right, which makes extraordinarily clear the power these evangelical Bozos wield within the GOP, and, consequently, US politics. Creepy, really.

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