3 days to go, 24-yr-old charge stalks Bush Jr

WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 3: Republican candidate George W.Bush's White House bid wobbled over a 24-year old drunk driving charge as the US Pre...

WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 3: Republican candidate George W.Bush’s White House bid wobbled over a 24-year old drunk driving charge as the US Presidential election campaign entered the final 100 hours with the verdict in balance.

The American media went into paroxysms of excitement following the revelation that Bush had pleaded guilty in 1976 to "Driving Under Influence" â€“ or DUI in motorese â€“ when he was a not-so-youthful 30 year old in Maine, where his family owns a summer home. Drunk driving is a pretty serious indiscretion in a country that takes its traffic laws seriously.

Although the charge is more than two decades old, Democrats immediately launched a whisper campaign about Bush’s ability to lead the country given his hazy youth. The Texas governor has acknowledged in the past that he has had some wild times in his youth, including problems with excessive drinking.

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But he says he has sworn of alcohol since 1986.Following Thursday’s unexpected disclosure, which happened when a television reporter in Maine was tipped off by a police officer who had overheard a courtroom conversation, Bush stepped up to the cameras to acknowledge the 24-year old charge but repeatedly wondered why the story surfaced only five days before the election.

“I am the first to say what I did was wrong,” the Republican presidential nominee told reporters. “I’ve oftentimes said that years ago, I made some mistakes. I occasionally drank too much, and I did on that night.”

Bush was grilled by reporters wanting to know what he had been drinking (Beer, he said) and how much he had drunk (enough to get charged, he replied). The candidate said he had been drinking with former Australian Davis Cupper John Newcombe. He had not spoken about it publicly because he did not want his twin teenage daughters to know about it, he said.

Bush said he had his `suspicions’ about why the story broke now, but did not directly blame the Gore camp. The Gore camp denied it has anything to do with the story, although the lawyer who confirmed the story to the reporter was a delegate to the Democratic convention.

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The general feeling among pundits is the story will not effect Bush’s chances at this late stage, although the Democrats will try and contrast Gore’s career with Bush’s in the next few days. At the time Bush was indulging himself, Gore was already a young Congressman.

But Bush’s campaign got a boost last night when he was endorsed by Ross Perot, the Texan maverick who started the Reform Party and gathered a significant chunk of vote in the past.

Most opinion polls now show that Bush is leading by 3 to 4 per cent in terms of popular votes.