The Hemmer-Beaumont Family Blog

This is another great article by Marc Fisher, a man who seems to agree with me on most things. Today's topic is the recent drunk-driving arrest of the Alexandria City School superintendent, Rebecca Perry. Fisher argues strongly that Perry should be fired for her offense, not because it was such a heinous crime, but because the school policy in force is one of "zero tolerance".

Zero tolerance policies in schools had their genesis during the late 80s and early 90s when the "just say no" campaign was still running strong & the only war that America was fighting was the ghostly War on Drugs. The idea was that if you bring drugs to school, even once, you are expelled. Unfortunately, reality proved to be a problem with these policies. For example; headache medicine - bring one in your backpack and you're out of school. The same goes for things like cough drops, PMS pain meds or a half-dozen other benign medicines that kids used to take to school with no problem. Now, in order to bring in something like cough drops, a student must supply a doctor's note and have it on file in the office. One mistake, an "oops, I left that in my bag" results in the same punishment as the kid who is bringing pot to school to sell to his friends - expulsion.

Fisher argues that we must hold our adult role models in the school to the same high standard we set for our students & therefore Perry must be fired. Of course, what he is really trying to say is that the whole concept of Zero Tolerance is foolish, punishing those that make a mistake once & would not be likely to repeat it. One would hope that this incident could open up a dialog between students and administrators to determine the best level of sanctions for various offenses rather than the one-size-fits-all approach that they currently employ. Unfortunately, there seems to be a double standard at work here (how surprising) as last night the board announced that they had voted 7 to 1 to keep her on as superintendent. That's not to say that there will be no consequences for Perry - the board took away one year from her $168,000/year contract (although they have the right to extend the contract later if they choose) and Perry must attend mandatory alcohol counseling. And...oh wait that's it. How embarrassing for all of us.

PS In a related note that I couldn't work into the essay, one board member said: "I think a lot of people drive after having a few drinks," she said. "With Mrs. Perry, there just happened to be a policeman there." Good deal! Way to go Ms. Rationalization!




Zero Tolerance -- For Mistakes or Second Chances (washingtonpost.com)

Virginia Legislators finished writing up their bi-annual budget yesterday after more than 100 extra days of wrangling between the three parties that have emerged, Democrats, Republicans, and No-Tax-Republicans. The argument that kept these groups from coming up with a comprehensive plan was that the No-Tax group would not even consider any increase in taxes.

This argument goes way back to 1998, when a new Governor, James Gilmore, came into office on a promise to rescind the state's hated Car Tax. This tax, which was charged on every car in the state every year, was considered one of the most hated. Gilmore had campaigned hard against the tax, saying that the revenue each locality received could be made up by the state government. After a solid win, Gilmore backed off, stating that he did not have access to all the financial data when he made his promise...but that the tax would go away...eventually. So, he made the decision to "phase out" the car tax over a number of years. The way he figured it, it would only cost maybe $650 million each year when complete. He was wrong. Current estimates put the cost of complete car tax repeal at 1.5 billion dollars.

Needless to say, the complete phase out never happened, and now never will. What legislators don't seem to understand is the mentality of the taxpayer - we are ALWAYS paying too much tax. If you campaigned seriously on a "no taxes at all" platform & you could back the plan up with numbers that showed that the quality of life for normal people wouldn't suffer you would be swept in to office in a snap. What was realized halfway into the tax cuts was that spending was increasing while revenue was going down. The next time that the budget came up, cuts had to be made, otherwise taxes would have to be raised. This cycle continued for years with Virginia's services being slowly eroded while many taxpayers were still angry that they were paying the car tax. After all, they were told that it was not a necessary stream of revenue.

What happened in Richmond yesterday with the signing of the budget is a good sign. Many of the Anti-Tax people are going nuts, saying that they will have the heads of those Republicans who "defected" and voted for the increase. What I think the "defectors" understand that the others don't is that Virginians have had it with cuts to programs in which they are involved (e.g. education, libraries, public safety, etc) and are willing to pay a bit more tax to fund these things. Personally, I see this much as I see charity work - I have and others do not, therefore it is my responsibility to do what I can to help where I can. Some Republicans say that this tax plan means that a typical family will pay much more. For me and my family, this means that if we decide to buy a Playstation this year that it will cost 208.95 instead of 207.95. Seems like a fair deal to me. Del. William Janis said that in his district that there would be at least a $100 a year increase in taxes for a typical family. And by typical he means his family, who own a Lexus and a new Jeep. Are we sure that these people understand what "typical" really means?

Tax Plan Boosts Programs, Offers Less Relief (washingtonpost.com)

Vote Quiets Anti-Tax Clarion Call in Virginia (washingtonpost.com)

As part of my media blitz every day, I peruse the online edition of the Washington Post. Today's Tell Me About It (which used to be subtitled, advice for the under 30 crowd, but was authored by a 40ish woman, go figure) was about changing names when getting married. Here's the bit:

Dear Carolyn:

I kept my name when I got married. I know that my in-laws- -- especially my mother- and father-in-law, along with my brother- and sister-in-law- -- disapproved. My problem is that when they send things to my husband and me, they address them to us as if my last name is my husband's (and theirs). I find this completely disrespectful. They know what my name is and that I did not change it. What do you think is the best way to handle this and/or say this to them?

Name Game

Ignore them. Yes, they are being completely disrespectful, not to mention petty. But if this is their idea of a victory, imagine how petty you'll feel if you even bother to wrest it from them.

Good advice, IMHO. What is really interesting to me is the frequency this happens to me as a man who has changed my name. For some reason, this really upsets some people who wouldn't get upset if it were G who changed her name (and who had done so for 10 years!) Much of the backlash I receive is from Women! For all the moving forward we have done with Sexism and Bigotry in this country, I find it interesting that those who used to be discriminated against and minimized in society are now looking to do the same to others.

Anyway, if you want to read the whole article, even though the rest wasn't great, click the link below.

TELL ME ABOUT IT (washingtonpost.com)

"NAPLES, Florida (CNN) -- President Bush has seen the photographs of caskets of slain U.S. military personnel returning from Iraq and was "moved" by them, according to a White House spokesman, who defended the policy against making such pictures public."

MOVED??!! That reaction sounds as if he's suprised that people he's sending over to Iraq are coming home in boxes, as if he's unaware of the consequences of his decision to pursue his own personal vendetta with the armed forces of our country. Gonna have to put a countdown clock on the site till Nov 4th.


CNN.com - Bush said moved by casket photos - Apr 23, 2004

Working hard at writing Something everyday-it's tough. So sittin' here on the couch watching a re-run of last night's Survivor. The kids Love that show! Saw this article in the Post this morning. I was going to send it to G this AM, but she is so afraid of these things... Here's a synopsis:


When buzzing hordes of 17-year cicadas rise from the earth next month, some people will marvel, some will cower, some will shrug their shoulders.

Jacques Tiziou, a Frenchman-turned-American who lives in a tree-fringed colonial in Northwest, will gather as many as he can, eating a few right away and saving the rest for later. Silver-bearded and gentle of disposition, he speaks in accented English that makes even bugs sound irresistible.

"You're going to grab one and put it in your mouth alive," he says with a twinkle in his eye. "You have to."

Tiziou offers a guest two ways of consuming a few of the cicadas he still has in his freezer from 1987, the year of their last emergence in the Washington area. Some he sautes, leaving them enrobed in parsley and butter. And some he presents plain, black things about as big as the top half of your pinky, wingless but still leggy, on a little white saucer.



Cicada: The Other, Other White Meat (washingtonpost.com)

If this happens, I will be moving to France, as I can't vote for this guy. What a jerk Warner has been for our state...

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - Is Gov. Mark R. Warner a possible vice presidential running mate for Sen. John Kerry?
Warner was asked that question Wednesday by a student at the University of Virginia, where he spoke about the state budget.

"I haven't spoken to John Kerry since the Virginia primary," Warner said of the presumed Democratic nominee for president. "Some people in his campaign have talked to me. ... But I've got more than enough to say grace over in the state of Virginia."

Warner spoke to about 500 students attending Larry Sabato's introductory class to politics. Sabato, a well-known political expert, was much more blunt than Warner.

"He's on the list," Sabato said after the speech. "I've been told by Kerry's people it's a relatively short list."

A Classic. The word "Gravitron" is probably the number 1 search phrase that leads people to our site! There is actually another recent incident with this ride, but it ended with people being flung about the fairgrounds. Not at all amusing, so it will not be posted. Here's the original:

By Steve Hunt

Riders on the “Gravitron” got more of a ride than they expected Saturday night at the Springfield Days carnival at Springfield Plaza

The rapidly spinning ride, which forces people against the wall by centrifugal force, had to be shut off by Fairfax County police after the operator inside could not get it to stop about 10 p.m., according to FCPD Major Tyrone Morrow, commander of patrol division III which includes the Springfield area.

Morrow said the operator, who sits in the center of the ride, had only been doing the job for a few days and in addition to not being able to stop it, had no way to contact anyone outside the ride.

After about 30 minutes, Morrow said a person on the ride was able to use their cell phone to call 911 and contact authorities.

Morrow said police shut off the power to the ride to get it to stop.

About 30 people were inside the ride at the time and about half of them reported feeling ill afterwards, Morrow said. Eight people were taken to the Inova Springfield Medical Center for treatment, he said.

In addition to the problem with the Gravitron, Morrow said another ride, which has boats going around in a circle, also broke loose when one of the boats came loose.

Morrow said both rides were shut down and re-inspected.



Apparently an emergency brake failed on the Gravitron, said Morrow.

Another Post from the "Clips" section.

Tom Verrducci

Monday was the first day of the supposed redemption of Pete Rose. It did not go well. The Hit King whiffed.

Rose thought it would be enough to open the door to reinstatement if he made a public admission that he bet on Reds games while he managed the team. What Rose didn't understand, however, is that an admission, especially one that follows 14 years of brutal lies, gains him no quick favor without real sincerity, honesty and a changed life attached to it. And so as difficult as it was for Charlie Hustle to admit that he's been lying all these years, now that concession may blow up on him.

As the first print journalist to read the entire Rose book, I can tell you that Pete Rose: My Prison without Bars is an excellent read. Rose has always been an engaging storyteller, and the book succeeds on that level. His youthful days spent with his father at the racetrack make for instructive, entertaining reading. The chapter about his five-month prison stay is rich with anecdotes, some of which are unintentionally funny and sad at the same time. While Rose seems proud of his rules-skirting ways, the word "incorrigible" should come to every reader's mind.

Rose seems way too comfortable around his fellow felons, believing all of them, too, got a raw deal from people on the outside. Rose's co-author, Rick Hill, did a splendid job of capturing Rose's voice. It is stubborn, defiant, vulgar, off-key. (Rose, for instance, writes of an event leaving "a sour taste in my gut.") But the authors had to know that Rose's standing in baseball was on the line in this book. Why, then, didn't Hill and Rose venture a few steps down the path of contrition? Why isn't there some real acknowledgement about the harm Rose has done to the game?

There are mentions that pass for weak apologies. Rose, for instance, says he's sorry that "it" (the scandal of his own making) hurt so many people. But he noticeably does not say "I'm sorry." Indeed, he seems incapable of even uttering those words, just as he is incapable of admitting he is a compulsive gambler. Instead, what comes naturally for Rose is to attack. He attacks the Dowd Report, the baseball investigation that nailed his gambling habits 14 years ago. He attacks the bookies and runners and who turned on him. He attacks the late Bart Giamatti. He is, however, shamelessly complimentary of commissioner Bud Selig.

Rose waters down his own culpability by blaming others who helped bring him down, blaming the dopamine in his brain chemistry, blaming baseball drug users as sinners of a worse kind, blaming baseball for not giving him due process, and on and on and on. The searchlight shines everywhere but into his own conscience.

The initial media reaction to Rose's admission was generally scathing. And remember, those reactions were only to the excerpts released by Sports Illustrated and the portions of an interview with Rose conducted by ABC, not the whole book. The silence from Milwaukee made a profound statement. Selig smartly had nothing to say. He is waiting to see how the book, and now the publicity tour, play out across America before he takes a position. The most valuable asset for Rose toward his reinstatement has been his popularity. But now Rose has jeopardized the very best thing he had going for him. He has made those supporters who believed him all these years into fools, and left those who want to forgive him baffled when it comes to finding the sincerity in him that forgiveness requires.

The next few weeks are crucial for Rose to do some damage control. He has to go places in his publicity tour where he did not in his book: introspection, self-awareness and an understanding of the damage he caused the game as one of its iconic players. Even that, however, may not be enough. The impact of a book has much more permanence than interviews with a television station, a national baseball writer or a late-night talk show host. Rose spent more than two years on this book. It was done willingly and with deliberation.

Whether Rose has the savvy to sell himself, not just books, on this tour is far from certain. He can be charming, especially in the avoidance tactic he likes to use when he dismisses delicate topics with a one-liner or funny story. But he is, at heart, a fighter.

The other downside to Rose's admission is that it re-opened the ugly file on his life and the characters that crawl through it. There is Tommy Gioiosa again, telling the Boston Herald that Rose discreetly culled inside betting information from other managers, such as Sparky Anderson and Tommy Lasorda, by placing telephone calls from the clubhouse. There is Fay Vincent telling The Washington Post that Rose twice tried to smuggle suitcases of undeclared cash into the United States from Japan.

What else will we learn? Rose, for instance, mentions that his gambling on sports "finally" rolled into baseball while he managed the Reds in 1987. But in an earlier chapter had written about betting on the 1986 baseball playoffs. Was that the beginning? Or, as Dowd suggested, did it begin earlier still?

All the while, Selig is watching, listening and measuring. Remember, Rose confessed to Selig about betting on the Reds 14 months ago and he's still on the ineligible list. Selig has always insisted on a probationary period if he were ever to bring Rose back in any form, but these 14 months have turned into a de facto probation. And that probation will continue for many months. Selig is in no hurry. The only significant timetable is December 2005, when Rose's chances of getting on the baseball writers' ballot for the Hall of Fame run out. (After that, the grumpy old men of the Veterans Committee would love the opportunity not to vote for him.)

Rose wrote that he left his November 2002 meeting with Selig with "every reason to believe that I would be reinstated to baseball within a reasonable period of time" and that Selig said it would take a "nuclear bomb" to make him change his mind. Rose is the same man who was placed on the permanently ineligible list and considered it a suspension with the right to get back after one year. He gives new meaning to Rose-colored glasses.

The court of public opinion, which matters so much to Selig, is now in session. It is easier to buy the book than it is to buy Rose as someone worthy of sympathy. The book is well done, painting a detailed portrait of a man so driven by "action" and money that he recalls the birth of his son by the joy of hitting on the Bengals-Steelers Monday Night Football game that night. You will know Pete Rose much better upon reading the book. You will like him not a bit more.

This was part of the short-lived "Clips" section of our website. Perhaps this is a better forum. Then again, perhaps not. In any case, this is a facinating article that talks about the Bush Girls.

By Ann Gerhart

Adapted from "The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush," by Ann Gerhart, by Simon & Schuster

The armored black limousine glides to a stop near a U.S. military jet at Andrews Air Force Base early one morning in May 2002. Laura Bush is about to embark on her first solo trip as first lady, a 10-day visit to three European nations, where she will speak out for Afghan women's rights.

An aide opens the door, and Mrs. Bush slides her legs carefully out and steps onto the tarmac. By this point, she knows her part well: Pause to smile, wave and let the photographers dutifully record the image. The small press corps knows its part, too, and watches the routine preflight maneuver with no expectations. Suddenly, one leg in worn corduroy, then the other, swings off the smooth leather limo seat. Jenna Bush stands up to follow her mother into the plane for this spring fling, and the reporters go on alert. It's the rowdy twin, the one who has been busted twice in four weeks for underage drinking, who has run her Secret Service detail ragged, who was captured in the National Enquirer falling down, a cigarette in her hand.

The corduroy jeans are ratty at their too-long hems, where Jenna has ground them into the pavement too many times. She is wearing a short black T-shirt, and her exposed tummy pooches out over the low-riding waistband. Flip-flops are on her feet. Her blond hair has been pinned carelessly up with a plastic clip. Sunglasses cover her eyes. Hoisting a backpack, she clomps up the plane stairs and disappears.

She hardly looks appropriately presidential daughterly, but then again, she has time to get herself together before the entourage lands in Paris, where French and American officials will greet Mrs. Bush and hand her flowers. The girl is hardly flying coach: Her mother has a hairdresser and a makeup artist on board the military plane, and there's a lovely wide bed and full shower.

But upon arrival 71/2 hours later, while her ladylike mother smiles and embraces the waiting welcomers, Jenna appears at the plane door looking exactly the same. The flip-flops still on the feet, the belly still exposed, the hair still not brushed. Suddenly, she darts back inside. The twin has spied the telephoto lenses of several French photographers far away, behind a fence. For a few moments, nothing happens, and then the limousine trunk floats open by electronic remote. A White House valet retrieves one of Mrs. Bush's Neiman Marcus garment bags, carefully laid out in the trunk, and he carries it back up the plane's steps. The reporters watch in wonder. While he holds it aloft, Jenna slips behind it, and he walks back down the stairs, shielding the first daughter from the prying eyes of all media, foreign and domestic. Only the top of her blond head, bobbing up and down, and those flip-flops are visible.

Jenna is hiding, literally, behind her mother's skirts.

There are only two possible explanations for what the reporters have just witnessed. Either, A) Laura Bush has asked her 20-year-old to please make herself more presentable, more fitting as a representative of the United States using taxpayer dollars on an official visit, and her daughter has adamantly refused, or B) Laura hasn't even bothered to ask. Blessed Ambivalence

There is plenty that the Bushes don't ask their daughters to do, that much is clear. They are college seniors now, 22, Jenna an English major at the University of Texas in Austin, and Barbara, like her father a Yalie, majoring in humanities. Both are considering graduate school, their parents say, but not before working first, perhaps as teachers.

Jenna and Barbara have not campaigned or reined in their adolescent rebellions. They have not appeared engaged in any of the pressing issues their generation will inherit, nor shown empathy for the struggles facing their mother and their father, the president of the United States. They have not treated with respect their Secret Service details, those highly trained men and women who literally would take a bullet for them. They don't show their faces at the White House often. So far, they have shown little inclination to embrace the life of public service modeled by their parents, uncle and grandparents.

They are girls born rich, blessed with intelligence, good looks, trust funds, loving parents, boundless opportunities, freedom from many of life's daily vexing challenges. Yet they persist in seeing themselves as victims of daddy's job. In this attitude, they have been subtly encouraged by their mother. Laura Bush would never permit herself to feel victimized by her husband's decisions. She regards herself as a full partner who embraced his ambitions because she wanted for him what he wanted for himself. His happiness has been as important to her as her own, or greater. No, any victimization she might have felt has all been transferred onto her girls. Once George sought political office when his girls were 12, Laura's guiding principle in mothering became "they didn't really ask for this," as if the life that followed for Jenna and Barbara was some disastrous, bumpy detour from the normal smooth path toward adulthood.

"They just want to do like every other teenager does," the first lady has insisted often. This declaration is dead opposite from most parents' insistence, which is, of course, "I don't care what the 'other' kids do. You are not other kids."

Laura Bush left her career as teacher and librarian at 31. By the time the twins were born in 1981, Laura was 35. The couple hadn't been sure they would ever be able to have children of their own, and then Laura nearly lost the babies late in her pregnancy, so she and George felt doubly blessed. Their gratitude was so deep and persistent that over time, it seems to have turned into indulgence.

Growing Pains
In many ways, the Bush twins were excellent candidates to make a good transition to life as children of a political figure. It was the family business, after all, and the twins' parents entered it only after they had addressed their concerns about what it would mean for family life, they told the Dallas Morning News in 1995. "She was the last one to sign on, the most reluctant," the president said of Laura. "Our girls were so little," she said. But the timing was good: After their father became governor, Jenna and Barbara were able to go to high school in the relatively laid-back town of Austin. By the time their parents landed in the White House, they were away at college.

When the Bushes first moved from Dallas into the governor's mansion, Barbara and Jenna went to the private St. Andrew's Episcopal School and later the public Austin High, and their mother worked hard to integrate her life as a mother with her duties as first lady. Even as the couple traveled around the state, Laura insisted that at least she or George be home by 4 in the afternoon, to help with homework. The four of them ate dinner together most nights. "You'd see them at back-to-school night, just like all the other parents, sitting at the student desks in the classroom," said an Austinite whose kids were friends with the Bush girls. "It was no big deal. They were just part of the parent population."

There was plenty of staff and few chores. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers chauffeured the girls to and from school. Laura recognized she had been deprived of an excellent way to gather teenage intelligence. Being relieved of driving "is actually a wonderful luxury for someone who drove 20 carpools a week in Dallas," Laura said. "At the same time, you learn a lot about your kids when you have them captive in a car."

In interviews during the gubernatorial years, both Bushes referred again and again to how embarrassing their children found them. Always, they seemed to think this was perfectly normal behavior for teenagers.

Every time he went to one of Jenna's volleyball games, the opposing team would ask for an autograph and picture. "Jenna and Barbara's reaction, of course, was total humiliation," he said. Laura seemed resigned to being an object of ridicule for her girls. They made fun of her clothes, her shoes, her hair. "Mom," they would tell her, "your hair is so stiff it would stay put in a hurricane."

Rarely were the girls asked to come downstairs and say hello to dinner guests. "We've been very careful not to make them go to things or be in the limelight," Laura explained. "At this age, they don't even like to admit they have parents." Later, during the presidential campaign, Laura would return to this theme again. The twins were proud of their father, she said, "and they want him, of course, to do whatever he wants to do, but at the same time, they want the privacy that I think every senior in high school wants. You know, most seniors in high school don't want to even admit they have parents, you know, much less a parent who is a governor or a presidential candidate." The Clinton Model

Partly out of respect for their privacy, mostly out of sensitivity toward their distaste for their dad's high profile, Laura also asked photographers not to take the twins' pictures. Requests for a family portrait to illustrate a magazine or newspaper story were routinely denied. "The girls would be totally humiliated having to do a photo," said Laura.

When, at 16, the twins demanded separate cars, their mother assented, and their father disagreed. "You can share one car," he said, "and learn to work together." It was one of his rare victories in an attempt to impose some limitations.

As the family began to discuss whether George should run for president, the girls were adamant in their opposition. Both would be in college before the election. They would never have to live in the White House or attend school in Washington, as Chelsea Clinton had done from age 12. But that calculus didn't move them. To Jenna and Barbara, it was clear that their emancipation from the strictures of living at home would coincide exactly with the arrival of a Secret Service detail to their college dormitories.

The Bushes were heartened by the way the media had been protective of Bill and Hillary Clinton's only child. "We felt like the press had given Chelsea Clinton the opportunity to have privacy, to have a private life," Laura said. And they determined that they would not burden their girls with heavy expectations about their role as Bushes. The only lesson they wanted to impart to their children, Bush said during the presidential campaign, was "that I love you. I love you more than anything. And therefore, you should feel free to fail or succeed, and you can be anything you want in America."

When inauguration day arrived, Jenna and Barbara dressed to be noticed in trendy expensive outfits by Texas-born designer Lela Rose and sexy stiletto-heeled knee-high Jimmy Choo boots. When the moment came for the actual swearing-in, the 19-year-old girls fidgeted toward the edge of their chairs, then stood up, unsure how to behave. It fell to President Clinton, who gave each of them a gentle nudge toward their parents, and still they stood there, shoulders slumped, looking at their toes. Finally, their grandmother Barbara Bush, seated behind them, had seen enough. In one swift, practiced gesture, she reached forward to her granddaughters, first one, then the other. She put her thumbs between their shoulder blades and used her fingers to pull their shoulders up and back. The message was clear: Stand up straight! Remember who you are! We are Bushes, and Bushes stand up straight. Agent Provocateurs

The mainstream press honored the administration's request to not pry into the girls' lives. Their respective campus newspapers primly refused to cover them. But the tabloids had become intrigued. Jenna and Barbara, people quickly surmised, were not like the preceding first daughter.

During her years in the White House, rather than fleeing political life, Chelsea had seized it. She called her father's secretary and asked for a ticket to his State of the Union address. When her mother embarked on a tour of the most disadvantaged spots in India and Africa, she wanted to go along. Chelsea went to parties and drank and had boyfriends just like many other teenagers -- which is what Jenna and Barbara craved -- but Chelsea had a gift for keeping her mishaps out of the public eye. She cultivated the protection and support of other adults in the White House, and she treated her Secret Service agents with respect. Accordingly, they were more inclined to protect her when she got herself in jams.

The twins, meanwhile, seemed to have decided that their agents were their enemies -- and their chauffeurs, bellhops and valets.

It only took a month after their dad became president for Jenna to land in the headlines, with news that she had used her Secret Service detail to spring a male friend from a Texas jail after he was arrested for public intoxication. The White House refused to comment about the incident, and so did the Secret Service when a spokesman was asked about the propriety of using agents to spring drunk kids from the county clink.

It was the first of many conundrums the Bushes would face as their daughters traversed their last years of being underage. Should they reveal the particulars of an incident to prove that nothing improper had happened, or maintain the no-comment policy and allow questions to bloom into controversy? Within weeks, the National Enquirer had printed a full-page photo of Jenna laughing and holding a cigarette, crashing to the floor atop a giggling female friend, and Barbara had given the slip to her Secret Service detail as she and some fellow Yale students drove to Manhattan to a World Wrestling Federation match, according to an article in the Yale magazine Rumpus. Using an electronic pass to go through a tollbooth, the car in which Barbara was riding then speeded up and left the agents, who were paying their toll in cash, behind.

Even when Laura was confronted with evidence that her girls were deliberately and dangerously evasive with their agents, she seemed unwilling to correct them. The agents were told to back off. The press was blamed for the reports. The unofficial position was that the twins were just singled out for unfair attention, even after Jenna was busted for underage drinking twice in four weeks. That summer of 2001, Jenna sat in a crowded bar and tried to sweet-talk the bartender into breaking the law and serving her, but he lost his nerve when he saw the guys with the earpieces and asked her to leave. Jenna, according to an account in U.S. News & World Report, was furious. She yelled at her agents, then fled down a back alley. They gave chase, said the magazine, and when they caught up with her, she taunted them: "You know if anything happens to me, my dad would have your ass."

But when she called her father to complain that her detail was interfering with her drinking, he sided with her agents. Not so her mother. Laura didn't want her girls to feel constrained, and the agents were ordered to pull back from traditional methods of coverage, according to the magazine's account. A few months later, when the Secret Service scrambled to grab all presidential relatives on Sept. 11, 2001, the agents couldn't find Jenna for hours.

The Fake ID

In Austin, in May 2001, Jenna was cited for underage drinking and appeared in municipal court, where she was fined and given community service. A few weeks later, at Chuy's restaurant in Austin, she and Barbara and three friends slipped into seats about 10 at night and ordered tequila shots and margaritas. The bartender immediately recognized the president's daughter, according to the account he later gave police. "The blonde in the pink halter top is Jenna Bush," he said. "You'd better card the whole group." When Jenna tried to use a Texas driver's license with a picture that didn't look anything at all like her, the waitress refused to serve her, but set down on the table the drinks and shots, which were drained.

The restaurant manager called 911. When Austin officer Clifford Rogers asked to see Jenna's identification, she burst into tears.

"Please," she implored, according to the officer's account in the police report. "She then stated that I do not have any idea what it is like to be a college student, and not be able to do anything that other students get to do."

Both twins were charged with misdemeanors. Jenna was booked with misrepresenting her age to buy booze, a charge complicated by the citation already on her record. She faced far stiffer penalties for the second offense, under Texas's tough "zero tolerance" policy, which her father had signed into law in 1997. Barbara was charged with being a minor in possession of alcohol. Barbara pleaded no contest and got the eight-hour community service and an order to attend alcohol-awareness class. Jenna was fined $600, lost her driver's license for 30 days, had to do more community service and attend alcohol-awareness class.

Again the White House refused to comment. "If it involves the daughters and their private lives, it is a family matter," said spokesman Scott McClellan. This episode seemed egregious enough to demand some spin, however. A senior administration official let slip to CNN that a "not happy" President Bush had called Jenna from California, where he was talking up a park preservation program. There would be no word from Laura, however. Asked if she had spoken to her daughters, aide Ashleigh Adams said, "If she did, that would be private. Out of respect for the girls' privacy, we don't comment on them." In the days that followed, press secretary Ari Fleischer repeatedly lashed out at reporters who tried to ask questions about the incident.

When they finally turned 21 on Nov. 25, 2002, White House aides breathed a huge sigh of relief. Mom threw the girls an elaborate party at the Crawford family ranch on Nov. 30, and busloads of revelers arrived dressed in costumes according to the theme, which was cowboys and Indians. Jenna insisted on celebrating her actual 21st birthday, however, at the scene of her original crime, Cheers Shot Bar, where she insisted staff cover the windows with black paper to prevent news crews from seeing inside.

As Other Teens Do

In the spring of 2002, while on that European trip, Laura Bush was asked if her girls had gotten more used to the limelight. "No," she said, "I would have to say not. They're going to be juniors in college. They just want to do like other teenagers do."

At the same time, those girls had gotten expert at exploiting the notoriety they had gained as the president's daughters. They popped up in Hollywood, where Jenna had an internship with an entertainment company, and danced the night away with a posse of 20. In St.-Tropez, Jenna partied with Sean "P. Diddy" Combs. In New York, the twins sent one of their Secret Service agents over to procure an introduction to rocker Chris Cornell, the frontman for the band Audioslave. The girls were not averse to showing up at places where controlled substances were enjoyed. At a Four Seasons Grill Room party for wunderkind designer Zac Posen that Barbara attended, the air smelled of pot, according to the New York Daily News.

In Los Angeles, they showed up at a Nike party, where they met movie star Ashton Kutcher, who ended up taking them back to his house, he told Rolling Stone. "So we're hanging out," he said. "The Bushes were underage-drinking at my house. When I checked outside, one of the Secret Service guys asked me if they'd be spending the night. I said no. And then I go upstairs to see another friend and I can smell the green wafting out under his door. I open the door, and there he is, smoking out the Bush twins on his hookah."

No comment, no comment, no comment, said the White House.

When she talks about her girls at all publicly, the first lady is given to making bland, nonspecific declarations of love and support. "I think they're a lot of fun to be with," she said. "I guess I would say that I'm engaged by them, with their personalities. . . . I think, like every parent, if your children are happy, then parents are happy. And if they're unhappy, then there's nothing more difficult for parents."

President Bush is slightly more revealing. "I love them a lot. I am impatient with them. I wanted them to be normal when they were teenagers, and I wanted them to be working ladies," he told Ladies Home Journal. "I've got to slow down. I've got to allow them to become the bright young ladies that they're becoming at their own pace, and not at mine.

"They are beginning to realize that they've got to take some responsibility for their own lives and beginning to think about their career paths," he said. "Laura chose her career path . . . early. I didn't choose mine until a little late. And uh," the president said, chuckling, "I never really was that worried about the career path."

The first entry for our new Blog. What to say...what to say...I've Got It!

Welcome to our Blog! It will be Blogtastic.

I suppose I'll work more on that later...