Word: babbitt
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...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...
...Babbitt's van races through Iowa under a steely sky, he gazes out the window and sighs. For a moment there is a lingering wistfulness, a remote sadness, for all the missed meals and family separations. But no one is forcing him to continue. In the end, there is only one reason why he made the painful decision to miss for the first time going trick-or-treating with his sons. There was the distant hope, still visible to him on the Iowa horizon, that he would have to miss Halloween only one more time -- next year, as he heads...
...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...