The campaign of the leading Republican Presidential contender, Governor George W. Bush, is struggling to contain its first crisis over rumours he may have used cocaine as a young man.
Mr Bush (53) has been forced to abandon his initial strategy of refusing to answer any questions about alleged cocaine use, to now saying that he has not used any illegal drugs during the past 25 years. However, he is worrying his supporters by still refusing to give a straight answer to whether he ever used illegal drugs.
Supporters and critics are beginning to compare the Texas governor's evasiveness to that of President Clinton last year when he first denied and later admitted to having an affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky.
The New York Times in an editorial yesterday headed "Mr Bush's Drug Dodges" said he would be "wise to quit tiptoeing around the issue of drug use and to stop complaining that he is being unfairly questioned by the press". The editorial says that "If Mr Bush never used illegal drugs, he should say so. If he did, he should 'fess up. For one thing he might find that voters would forgive a youthful indiscretion". The drugs controversy has hit the Bush campaign just after his success in the Iowa straw poll and when national opinion polls show him far ahead of the other contenders for the Republican nomination and 14 percentage points ahead of Vice-President Al Gore.
Rumours of Mr Bush's alleged use of cocaine in his younger years have been around for over a year but no evidence has been produced. He has told reporters he gave up drinking alcohol when he was 40 and that he has remained faithful to his wife, but he denounced questions about possible use of illegal drugs as an intolerable intrusion into his personal life and a game of "gotcha" which he was not going to play.
The first indication he would end his silence on the issue was this week when he was asked by the Dallas Morning News whether, as President, he would insist that his appointees answer questions about drug use as part of the FBI background checks.
Mr Bush replied that "As I understand it, the current form asks the question `Did somebody use drugs within the last seven years?' And I will be glad to answer that question and the answer is no."
The next day, Mr Bush told reporters he could also have fulfilled the stricter standards of a 15-year drug-free period imposed when his father was President. This meant he had not used any illegal drugs since 1974, when he was 28.
However, it was then pointed out that the background checks under Presidents Clinton and Bush also asked appointees about any drug use since the age of 18. Those who admitted using illegal drugs in the previous seven years for the Clinton administration, or 15 years for the Bush administration, were normally disqualified.
Mr Bush, who has enforced tough anti-drug laws in Texas against young offenders, will now be asked questions about his behaviour up to the age of 28, but he has said that "it is important to put a stake in the ground and to say enough is enough when it comes to trying to dig up people's backgrounds in politics."
The Bush staff has sent out "speaking points" to some Republican members of Congress and governors emphasising that "What you are talking about is ALL rumour, gossip and worse."
President Clinton's former political adviser, Mr James Carville, who strongly defended him during the Lewinsky affair, has played down the impact of the drugs issue on the Bush campaign. If the President survived his troubles, "I can't imagine what Bush might have stuck up his nose 20 years ago will move people one way or another," Mr Carville said.