New Alcohol Inquiry for Jenna Bush

Authorities said Wednesday that they are investigating whether Jenna W. Bush, one of the president’s 19-year-old twin daughters, used someone else’s identification in an attempt to buy an alcoholic beverage--the second time in two months she has faced allegations related to underage drinking.

Police in Austin, Texas, said they received a call Tuesday night from the manager of Chuy’s restaurant, alleging that Bush and her sister, Barbara, had attempted to buy alcohol and that Jenna had presented an ID card that was valid but did not belong to her. Neither woman was ticketed or arrested, and the incident remains under investigation, police said.

Just a week earlier, Jenna Bush completed eight hours of community service--clerical work at an art museum--for an April run-in with Austin police, also related to underage drinking.

After she pleaded no contest to those charges--she had been ticketed by police after being caught drinking beer with friends at a local bar--a community court ordered Bush to attend six hours of alcohol-awareness classes, perform the community service and pay court costs of $51.25. She recently finished her freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin.

While Jenna Bush received considerable attention for the earlier alcohol-related incident in a state where the legal drinking age is 21, she is not unique among the tens of thousands of students in this college town, said Roy Hale, an enforcement officer with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

“We’ve got 10 state enforcement agents that work the Austin area, and probably 60% of their time is devoted to underage-drinking issues,” Hale said. “She’s not the only kid that has been cited more than once, I can tell you that.”

The Bush sisters are protected by the Secret Service. A Secret Service spokesman said that agents are charged with “creating a safe and secure environment” for children of presidents. But that does not necessarily involve being in the same room with them at all times or preventing them from acting up or breaking the law.

Carl Sferrazza Anthony, a historian specializing in first ladies who now is writing a book on presidential children, explained that there is a long tradition of Secret Service agents making sure that they are nearby but not in the way when these children attempt to lead their own lives--for better or worse.

The agents are there to protect them from threats, from physical harm, but not from trouble, Anthony said.

“Jackie Kennedy used to say they she didn’t want the agents to prevent her children from picking a fight with a kid or having a bully pick a fight with them, because she wanted her children to learn to protect themselves,” he said.

Jenna and Barbara--each named for one of their grandmothers--are fraternal twins and the only children of President Bush and his wife, Laura. After graduating from a public high school in Austin last year, they went their separate ways but reportedly remain close. Barbara spent her freshman year at Yale University.

Over the course of his political career, George W. Bush has let his daughters decide how much they wanted to be involved in his public life. Mostly, they have chosen to remain outside the spotlight. During last year’s presidential campaign, they rarely accompanied their parents, who implored journalists to respect their daughters’ privacy. Some have said that the Bush daughters were not thrilled to have Secret Service agents trailing them around campus.

The White House had no comment Wednesday on the Bush daughters’ outing at the restaurant.

“The president and Mrs. Bush’s daughters are both private people and should be allowed to lead private lives,” said Ashleigh Adams, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Bush.

Still, uncomfortable as this incident might be for the White House, the president may view it with a degree of understanding.

George W. Bush has acknowledged youthful indiscretions of his own, as well as alcohol-related problems that included an arrest for driving under the influence when he was 30. He has said that he gave up drinking after his 40th birthday.

While Jenna has also attracted media attention for her boyfriend’s alcohol-related arrest and another drinking episode, she and her sister have come across for the most part as typical teenagers enamored with the latest pop fashions and television shows. They occasionally questioned their father’s attire; they also appear to have a degree of social conscience.

As a junior at a public high school in Austin, Jenna worked on the school newspaper, where she wrote critically about a police bust of a teen drinking party: “Instead of confiscating the bunch of white kids with beers in their hands, the cops headed directly for the only black person in sight.”

Baum reported from Washington and Hart from Houston.