Or, as in the last dreadful case, the right to stay in public office. What we're talking about, in a word, is one word that has never before sullied a presidential campaign. The word is cocaine. For several months a rumour has been floating underground that only in the past week or two came to the surface. The rumour was that some time in the past, Governor George Bush of Texas, the overwhelmingly favourite Republican presidential candidate had used cocaine.
Nobody says when, how, for how long - in other words, no witnesses.
An important, perhaps a triumphant point in the minds of Governor Bush and his advisers. For all the charges against President Clinton had witnesses or friends to corroborate the victim's charges. He did not. He said it's time to say enough is enough and put an end to the destroying of people's reputation with gossip. That surprising response immediately set off an alarm bell in the press, and the rest of us.