Word: babbittism
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...sickly and got skewered all night for his promise-them-everything-including-a-balanced-budge t program. Reaganomics with a bow-tie, Gephardt said. And DuPont, fresh from an endorsement by the wacky but influential Manchester Union-Leader, is the only guy more annoying to listen to than Bruce Babbitt. When he speaks, the preppified former Delaware governor and Napalm-heir sounds like a Kennedy gargling mouthwash...
...Moines for the Iowa Democrats' Jefferson- Jackson Day dinner, ready to discuss the issues. That same day Douglas Ginsburg's nomination to the Supreme Court went up in marijuana smoke, and the politicians were forced to hack through thickets of have-you-ever interrogation. Two (Al Gore and Bruce Babbitt) volunteered that they had. When it was Richard Gephardt's turn at the pressroom ritual, he restated his lifelong purity concerning controlled substances. Then a question shouted from the back row: Why didn't you smoke marijuana? If he could not be nailed as a pothead, then he would...
...fitness for the White House, however much the public might view the story as Peeping Tomism. Further, though he knew that he in particular would get close scrutiny, Hart practiced his high-risk life-style after becoming a serious candidate. The occasional use of pot by Gore and Babbitt years previously, when it was common among young people, may have been a legal infraction. But no one has argued that these offenses say anything at all about their qualifications or character today...
...marijuana use wrong? Most of the penitents who have rushed to confess to smoking dope have agreed that it is. "It was a mistake," said Babbitt. "I wish I hadn't," said Gore. "I hope that the young people of this country, including my own daughters, will learn from my mistake," said Ginsburg, withdrawing. Conversely, Columnist Tom Wicker, in a biting critique of the phony moralism and "sudden piety" of Ginsburg's attackers, felt compelled to preface his remarks about marijuana smokers by assuring his readers that "I am not now and never have been one of them...
...high office, but polls don't make politics. Not many Americans would disqualify a presidential candidate for a bit of plagiarism either. That didn't help Joe Biden. It remains to be seen how much damage the marijuana issue will do to presidential candidates like Albert Gore and Bruce Babbitt. But there is no doubt what would happen to the latest Supreme Court nominee if a joint or two turned up in his background. He'd be finished...