But I also think it's a true falsetto note of hypocrisy for Bush to sneer at Gore for being "a pathological liar" when Gore was honest about marijuana use and Bush hedged the issue, using the phony argument that he didn't want to be forthcoming and set a bad example for the kiddies. That's become the great all-American personal copout and political rationalization, claiming that your goal is to "protect the children."

[I]n his press conference [in November 2000], Bush said he had chosen not to disclose his arrest because "I made the decision that as a dad, I didn't want my girls doing the kinds of things I did...I didn't want to talk about this in front" of them. [Karen] Hughes said Bush had kept mum because he "had made a decision as a father that he did not want to set that bad example for his daughters or for any other children."