11/07/00 12:15 p.m.
DUI Redux
Bush’s arrest was first reported last summer, not last week.

By NR’s John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru

eorge W. Bush's DUI arrest shouldn't have been news last week — it was reported at least three times since July on a radio show hosted by Geoffrey Fieger, according to the Detroit Free Press. And where did Fieger get his information? "Fieger said he heard of it from sources in Washington, D.C., and Maine," says the Free Press, in a small item in buried in Monday's editions.

If Bush wins today, the DUI story will become a minor issue for his future biographers to deal with. But if he loses — and if he loses narrowly — the pundits may not be so quick to wave off the charges as they were over the weekend. The arrest will become a part of this campaign's lore.

The fact that Fieger had this information in some form months ago — as well as his admission that he heard about it from multiple sources, including at least one in Washington, D.C. — suggests strongly that the revelations of last Thursday were carefully orchestrated. This has been suspected from the start, but there's been no hard evidence proving it. Fieger's claim adds to the intrigue.

The Democrats, of course, have their fingerprints all over it. What is it with these failed Democratic gubernatorial nominees? Tom Connolly, the lawyer responsible for the stories last week, was Maine's Democratic candidate for governor in 1998. Fieger — perhaps best known as the former lawyer of Jack Kevorkian, a.k.a. "Dr. Death" — was Michigan's Democratic candidate for governor that same year. (Both men lost badly.)

Al Gore has denied any involvement with the stories. Yet suspicious connections exist, including the one reported in this space on Saturday: Connolly and Gore communications chief Mark Fabiani knew each other years ago as college debaters. That story may be read here.

In time, reporters may get to the bottom of it.

On the Site
Ramesh Ponnuru, on the road with Bush.