To print this page, select "Print" from the File menu of your browser salon.com > People August 25, 1999 URL: http://www.salon.com/people/col/reit/1999/08/25/geob Bush up to his arse in allegations! Sharp-toothed e-mail, killer bees and bags of worms. Will this hound hunt? - - - - - - - - - - - - By Amy Reiter This month started out calmly enough for Madgelean "Madge" Bush of Houston. But then all hell broke loose. After allegations about that other Bush (no relation) began making the media rounds recently, Madge was inundated with calls from as many as 50 news organizations. Many of these outlets had received the same tantalizing e-mail -- "News Tip: George Bush Drug Use." Now, as you might imagine, Nothing Personal has been getting plenty of tips purporting to reveal proof of George W. Bush's alleged drug use -- as well as e-missives vouching for Bush's drug-free integrity. However, this particular e-mail was buttressed with what appeared to be some meaty facts. It charged that, back in the late '60s or early '70s, George W. "was ordered by a Texas judge to perform community service in exchange for expunging his record showing illicit drug use" and that this service was performed at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Houston. The message also provided the name of and contact information for the center's executive director then and now, the aforementioned Madge Bush, who, the tipster claimed, "knows exactly why the young Bush was sent her way." The e-mail also included names, dates, locations and phone numbers. Any proof of drug use on the part of the Republican front-runner has eluded the rumor-crazed press thus far. So, in pursuit of the true grit on this latest charge, Nothing Personal got on the horn with Madge Bush. We found, not at all surprisingly, that we weren't the first. "Well, I'm glad someone contacted you and 50 other people and told them the same thing," said Bush with admirable sass. "I've gotten calls all the way from London," she said. The New York Times had called as well. "So, is it true or false?" "I'm not getting all bent to that bag of worms," she clucked. "You know Texas has some killer bees here? I don't want to be one of them. I'm not gonna be one of them, and I'm not getting all bent to this political fight." "I've never heard of him doing community services here at this agency, and I've been the only director for 31 and a half years," Bush continued, without entirely ruling out the Texas governor's possible past involvement with the center. "[I've] got too many people depending on this agency," she said, to get involved in the governor's messy media squabbles. The center, she told us, helps people from "a day old to 100 years old." "I have a criminal-justice program here out of the governor's office," Bush added. "I'm sure there are people who was with him regular, there are people who could talk to you," continued the director, who also serves as a Texas state executive committee woman, precinct judge and treasurer of the Harris County Democratic Party, "but Madge Bush is not gonna talk to you." Then she said: "Mr. Bush did his welfare reform from my office. That I will attest to." "What do you mean by that?" we asked. "When he announced what his welfare-reform program was going to be [during his gubernatorial campaign]," Bush said, "he did it from my office." "That's the only time he's ever been there then?" "I didn't say that. I'm not even getting off into what you're asking me about ... I've been called by over 50 people and I can't help it because I've been on this job for a long time and I know just about everybody in Houston and all the leaders in Texas. I'm not getting off into anything about George except he's the governor of Texas and during his campaign he did his welfare reform at my office. That's all I'm gonna say about George W. Bush." The Bush campaign refused to comment on the allegations. "We do not dignify false rumors and innuendos with a response," campaign spokesman Scott McClellan told Nothing Personal. "As a matter of principle, the governor refuses to play that game." It's the kind of thing, McClellan maintains, that keeps good people out of politics. The question now, as they say in Texas, is "Will this dog hunt?" David Weir contributed to this column. salon.com | August 25, 1999