>Sender: >To: >X-Original-Message-ID: <065501bf19fc$1d302250$9acf69cf@pacbell.net> >From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: Bush arrested for cocaine in 1972 >Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1999 23:35:16 -0700 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Book: Bush was arrested for cocaine in 1972 >Texas author J.H. Hatfield claims the Republican front-runner did community >service at a Houston center. > > >- - - - - - - - - - - - >By Salon Staff > > >Oct. 18, 1999 | A new book by Texas author J.H. Hatfield claims that George >W. Bush was arrested for cocaine possession in 1972, but had his record >expunged with help from his family's political connections. In an afterword >to his book "Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American >President" (St. Martin's), Hatfield says he took a second look at the Bush >cocaine allegations after a story in Salon reporting allegations that Bush >did community service for the crime at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community >Center in Houston's Third Ward. > >The center's executive director, Madgelean Bush (no relation to George W. >Bush), had told Salon News and others that Bush did not do community service >there, and the Bush campaign likewise denied the allegation. But the Texas >governor had admitted to working at Houston's Project P.U.L.L. in 1972, and >Hatfield says he began to wonder if that was actually the community service >sentence. Hatfield says he confirmed those suspicions with three sources >close to the Bush family he had cultivated while writing his biography, >which publishes Wednesday. > >Bush's campaign denied Hatfield's allegation Monday. > >By contrast, "First Son: George W. Bush and the Family Dynasty," by Dallas >Morning News reporter Bill Minutaglio, says George Bush Sr. 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. > >But Hatfield quotes "a high-ranking advisor to Bush" who confirmed that Bush >was arrested for cocaine possession in Houston in 1972, and had the record >expunged by a judge who was "a fellow Republican and elected official" who >helped Bush get off "with a little community service at a minority youth >center instead of having to pick cotton on a Texas prison farm." > >Hatfield quotes a former Yale classmate who told him: "George W. was >arrested for possession of cocaine in 1972, but due to his father's >connections, the entire record was expunged by a state judge whom the older >Bush helped get elected. It was one of those 'behind closed doors in the >judges' chambers' kind of thing between the old man and one of his Texas >cronies who owed him a favor ... There's only a handful of us that know the >truth." > >Another source named only as "a longtime Bush friend" described the >situation this way: "Say you get a D in algebra ... and now you're going to >be required to repeat the class the following year, but your teacher says if >you promise to be tutored during the summer by a friend of hers who's good >in math, she'll change the D to a C. You spend a few hours a week during the >summer vacation learning all about arithmetical operations and >relationships, and then the teacher issues you a new report card, replacing >the old one on file in the principal's office ... Something akin to that >scenario is what happened with Bush in 1972." > >Hatfield also says that when he asked Scott McClellan to comment on the >allegation of a former Yale classmate of Bush's that the presidential >hopeful was arrested for cocaine possession in 1972 and had his record >expunged in exchange for community service at Project P.U.L.L., the Bush >campaign spokesman said, sotto voce, "Oh, shit," followed by, "No comment." > >McClellan denies that the exchange ever occurred. "I never spoke to the guy, >and I'm not aware that anyone at the campaign has spoken to him," he told >Salon News. > >"This guy should have stuck with writing science fiction," said Bush >campaign spokeswoman Mindy Tucker. "He's obviously trying to sell books with >something absolutely untrue." > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------