if former friend doug wead had taped george w. bush stopping short of candidly admitting he never used drugs, it would be a much bigger story.  no matter how straightforward and morally valued his supporters may believe him to be, if they wouldn't happily sell the family cow for some magic beans, they either have enough magic beans already or they simply aren't that naive.
  
it's not that he exhibits any of the so-called telltale stoner symptoms, although his public speaking style does seem  to have been more influenced by tommy chongs  'dave's not here' oration than any other model of elocution (ironicaly, tommy has only 5 months to go before he's off probation--not for smoking dope but for  “glamorizing the illegal distribution and use of marijuana”  in such a way as to  “trivialize law-enforcement efforts to combat drug trafficking and use.”  according to the john ashcroft proxy who prosecuted chong). 
 
just so yall don't get the wrong idea here, i not only have no problem with the future president's previous drug use--whether or not he just smoked some pot or used cocaine  (his vehement insistence to wead that he hasn't denied doing blow leads me to believe he did).  if anything, i'm convinced he quit using dope too soon for anyones benefit, especially his own. 
 
although this may eventually change, since the story broke, sympathy seems to be  the most prevalent  reaction to the whole sordid story of bush's betrayal by doug wead (the religious right's answer to dr phil).  totally undeserved sympathy, too, in my opinion.  not because i don't think it was a rotten thing for wead to have done, but because if you're gonna surround yourself with snakes, you don't deserve a lotta consolation when you wind up snakebit.  
 
despite his no longer being with us, goldwater's innate wisdom continues to shine on in his absence.  when good ol doug wead ran for congress in 1992--loudly proclaiming himself one of barry's heirs-- goldwater not only refused to support him, but actually endorsed wead's democrat opponent. 
 
(karl rove is another one, but that's no big secret).

anyway the really deplorable thing about all this--once again in my opinion--is how badly moral values have been devalued by those who attribute them to themselves while lying into the camera--in collusion with those who accept those lies at face value.  shining it on by claiming to expect lies from politicians leads to a place where antispyware software developers intentionally permit some scumware to thrive on your computer, gay escort entrepreneurs impersonate journalists as well as females and someone in the whitehouse feels comfortable in committing treason by publicly outing a cia agent, betting on the public's refusal to say shit while gulping it down.