[wordup] Bush twins invited to drink in Canada

[Adam Shand]

From: The Eristocracy <Eristocracy at merrymeet.com>
URL: http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,827599a12,FF.html

13 June 2001

EDMONTON (Reuters): A Canadian radio station has invited United States
President George W Bush's twin daughters, fresh from run-ins with the
Texas law over underage drinking, to head north for a weekend of legal
boozing.

Rock station 100.3 FM The Bear in Edmonton, Alberta, has even offered to
foot the bar tab and plane tickets for 19-year-old college students Jenna
and Barbara Bush. The legal drinking age in the western province of
Alberta is 18. In Texas it is 21.

"We're not fuelling up Air Force One, but I'll cover the tickets. Secret
Service can pay their own way," disc jockey Matt Mauler said on Monday.

"We have a pub-crawl route all mapped out. We have a presidential suite at
an unnamed hotel, which is ready to go. The mini bars will be unlocked,"
said Mauler, who extended the station's invitation along with afternoon
drive-time show co-host Jake Daniels.

The Bush twins have both been charged in connection with underage drinking
in recent months.

In the latest case, which happened May 31 at a Mexican restaurant in
Austin, Texas, Jenna Bush was charged with using someone else's
identification to try to buy a drink. Barbara, a student at Yale
University in New Haven, Connecticut, was charged with underage drinking.

Jenna pleaded not guilty and her case is set for a hearing on July 31,
while Barbara pleaded no contest and was given a form of probation,
required to take an alcohol awareness class and perform eight hours of
community service.

That was the same punishment that Jenna, a student at the University of
Texas in Austin, got when she pleaded no contest to the same charge just
two weeks earlier.

In April, she was ticketed after undercover police officers caught her
drinking beer at a bar in Austin's Sixth Street entertainment district.

The Edmonton radio station has informed the White House of its invitation
to the "first twins," but has yet to garner a response, Mauler said.