cannabisnews.com: Three Support Bush Arrest Denial 





Three Support Bush Arrest Denial 
Posted by FoM on October 20, 1999 at 08:31:30 PT
'70s friends know of no drugs 
Source: Arizona Central
George W. Bush did work at a Houston inner-city youth program in the early 1970s, but three people familiar with the program said they never heard that Bush performed the work to erase a cocaine-possession infraction from his record. 
Even so, the author of a new biography of Bush reasserted Tuesday that credible sources told him the Texas governor performed community service at the P.U.L.L. program to work off a drug arrest. The author, J.H. Hatfield, says a judge covered up Bush's arrest at the behest of Bush's father, George Herbert Walker Bush, who then was ambassador to the United Nations and later served as president of the United States. The Texas governor called the account "ridiculous" during a campaign stop in Phoenix on Monday. On Tuesday, his father also called the accusation groundless. The story was also discounted by three P.U.L.L. observers. Ernie Ladd, a former Houston Oilers football player who co-founded P.U.L.L. with fellow Oiler John White, said White never mentioned that the younger Bush's service was in any way linked to drugs. "If this would have been true, John White would have told me, and John White has gone to his grave and he never told me about it," Ladd said. White died in 1988, and the P.U.L.L. program ended that year. White's widow, Otho Raye White, also said she never heard that Bush was forced to work at P.U.L.L. in connection with a drug arrest. She said she recalled no adverse rumors about Bush, but does remember that he was "very attached to some of the kids." Linda McCarthy, an art instructor for the program, said she did wonder why a young man from a wealthy, prominent family was working there. She thought it might have been for personal fulfillment. "It seems like he was an open person with a genuine concern for the children," she said. Former President Bush, in a statement issued by his Houston office, criticized Hatfield's use of anonymous sources. "He has insulted our son's character, and my character, and I resent it," the senior Bush said. "This kind of nasty, groundless attack is the reason that many good people are unwilling to enter politics." A spokesperson for the Houston Police Department said the department is checking its records to see whether it has any information that bears on the accusation. The latest cocaine furor surrounding George W. Bush, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, centers on the afterword to Hatfield's book, Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President. Bush has declined to say flatly that he never used cocaine but has denied using it in for a period stretching back 25 years. In the book, published by St. Martin's Press, Hatfield quotes three anonymous sources said to be close to the Bush family who allegedly told him that Bush's father interceded with a judge who expunged a 1972 cocaine-possession arrest from George W. Bush's record when he successfully completed service with P.U.L.L. Hatfield said he wasn't able to document those allegations but had checked out other information from the sources and said they had proved to be reliable on many matters. However, another Bush biographer has a different explanation for Bush's stint at P.U.L.L. Dallas Morning News reporter Bill Minutaglio says Bush's father "referred his son to Project P.U.L.L. after an incident in which George W. drove drunk with his younger brother Marvin in the car." Hatfield, who worked as a journalist in Texas for many years but moved to Arkansas five years ago, says he still believes his version of the story is correct. A spokesman for Bush's campaign said Hatfield's account isn't credible because one of Hatfield's sources described the judge who helped Bush as a Republican, though there were no Republican judges in the county at the time. Hatfield said he has recontacted that source, who stands by his basic account while admitting his memory may not have been precise. "He says, 'My memory there was that they (the elder Bush and the judge) were good friends, I may have had the political affiliation wrong, but . . . it doesn't matter,' " Hatfield said. Hatfield said his sources, to preserve their anonymity, still are declining to identify the judge or the arresting officer in the case. Barry Neville, Hatfield's editor at St. Martin's, which published the biography, said Hatfield told him the identity of one of the three sources and appeared to be a careful researcher. Neville said that on one occasion Hatfield dismissed one rumor about Bush (which the editor declined to describe) after hiring a private investigator to check it out and working hard to verify it himself. "He was always so scrupulous about everything," Neville said. "It helped build a sense of trust between us."  By Charles Kelly and Kris Mayes The Arizona Republic Oct. 20, 1999 Copyright 1999, Arizona CentralRelated Article:Book: Bush was Arrested for Cocaine in 1972 - 10/19/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3342.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by Ray Buffer on November 03, 2000 at 00:52:23 PT:
DUI
And now he has a DUI!. Does anyone do a criminal history check on presidential candidates or is that reserved only for security guards? Duh......
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Comment #2 posted by Mouse on November 02, 2000 at 22:38:08 PT
Pssst,..... in your rules posted below,
It's spelled "flaming", not "flamming". You might wish to correct it, so as to give a more professional appearance to your page.
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Comment #1 posted by Tom Paine on October 20, 1999 at 14:59:10 PT
Like father, like son!
*http://www.mapinc.org/bush.htm ...The Adventures of George Bush,Cocaine Cowboy. Like Father, like Son. From the statehouse to thewhitehouse to CIA Chief to Contra Cocaine to Colombian DeathSquads today! MAP Search URL. Pass URL on widely!|---http://homepages.go.com/homepages/m/a/r/marthag1/links.htm*HUGE list of Drug-War, Death-Squad links exposing the CIA, DEA,FBI, etc. here and abroad, in Colombia, Latin America, etc.| And:http://www.cannabis.com/linkscgi/#politicalhttp://www.cannabis.com/linkscgi/#research
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