THE “burning” Bush has to be extinguished – and Republicans have got to fire up the peace pipe instead of being part of the rumor campaign directed against the Texas governor, George W. Bush.
If, as The Wall Street Journal reports, “the ugliness is just getting started,” it’s time for the beauty treatment.
In 1995-96, I watched in horror as Republican contenders left the floors of the various primaries awash in their own blood.
If they had observed the time-honored commandment of “speak no ill of another Republican,” we may have been spared the experience of having the White House transformed into a boarding house-turned-passion pit.
Now we are in the second week of an eruption over whether things go worse with coke – and the character issue is threatening.
It is here where George W. could turn the tables on the rumor mongers.
“Character is not about perfection,” former presidential contender Rep. John Kasich (R-Ohio) said yesterday on “Meet the Press.”
“The matter of character is whether we overcame the sins of the past.”
Using Kasich’s recipe, George W. could answer the cocaine question straight up or straight down and emerge victorious.
If the answer is yes, he could lecture a nation of voters and kids about how and why he overcame an idiot aberration of youth.
Here is a man who hasn’t touched a beer in 13 years after being a heavy drinker – and there are millions out there who would like to have his blueprint for success.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) had it right: “Judge people on what they do today, not what they have done in the past.”
Clearly, George W., with a few words, could turn a hot potato into a cold potato salad.
In the past, 78 million Americans have experimented in one way or another with drugs.
These are not my figures but those of New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson. He knows a little about this, having admitted trying cocaine when he was in college and he had no trouble winning voters.
I’ve known former cocaine users who not only don’t touch the stuff anymore but don’t touch the addiction of booze or tobacco – and their battle for abstinence was a character-builder of monumental proportions.
The people fueling the Bush rumor are not only the usual battalion of leftist guerrillas, they are also people in his own party, and this is pure suicide.
This is the time for Bush to not “put a stick in the ground” to use his own words, but to pick up the banner and unite his party.
And when the coke question inferno is doused, I have a novel idea for that unity. George Bush could put the civil war to an end in his own ranks by simply announcing his GOP Dream Team:
Liddy Dole, former secretary of transportation and labor and veteran of the campaign trail, for vice president.
Colin Powell, an amazing military man with impeccable history, for secretary of state.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Vietnam hero, for secretary of defense.
Steve Forbes, a genius in the world of finance, for secretary of the treasury.
Gov. George Pataki, a self-described gentleman-farmer, for secretary of agriculture.
Gary Bauer, of Family Resources and a passionate supporter of family values, secretary of health and human services or education.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who has proven to be a rock on the Judiciary Committee, attorney general.
Allan Keyes, former naval hero and former ambassador, for White House chief-of-staff.
And while were at it, bring Pat Buchanan back as press secretary to fire up those press briefings with a bit of straight talk.
Now how’s that?
We just can’t afford to have Gore the bore with the keys to the White House in his manicured fingers.