Bush Twins Are at It Again

They're at it again.

Just when you thought President Bush had ensured that those spunky, formerly much-publicized first twins, Jenna and Barbara Bush, would never again have their escapades captured in print — a Washington Post reporter catches them in the act at a local D.C. bar.

It's happened before — although not for some time — but this time the report cites party tricks and a noticeable lack of security, surprising for presidential daughters in a post-Sept. 11 world.

The Post reporter caught the 20-year-old pair in a Texas-themed D.C. bar called Stetson's, and claimed that multiple anonymous witnesses spotted them downing Budweisers and chain-smoking cigarettes.

The paper said its sources, afraid for their jobs to speak about the Bush twins (many of them purportedly government workers), saw one of the twins getting down on the floor to assist a drunk young man in executing a party trick in which he "seemed" to rotate his wrist 360 degrees. However, the paper's source said the performer of the party trick couldn't remember which twin was the helper because of the haze and he was "pretty drunk," although he thought it was "the light-haired one" (Jenna).

More surprisingly, the Post said the girls had no visible security watching over them, although they were with about a half-dozen unidentifiable friends.

The Post said it was unknown how the Bush twins managed to get served the beers or whether they presented fake IDS — and bar employees did not recognize them.

Texas police cited the Bush twins for violating state alcoholic beverage laws in May 2001, accusing Barbara of being a minor in possession of alcohol and Jenna of misrepresenting her age for allegedly trying to use false identification to buy alcohol.

It was the second offense for Jenna and the first for Barbara.

Austin Judge Evelyn McKee eventually dismissed the case, saying Jenna had fulfilled the requirements of her sentence by paying a $100 fine, serving 36 hours of community service and attending an alcohol awareness class with Mothers Against Drunk Drivers.

Austin Public Information Officer Linda Rivera said Bush served her community service time at the West Austin Youth Center and Community Association, "assisting with special events, planning youth services, that kind of thing."

Less than two weeks earlier, Jenna was charged with underage drinking at an Austin nightclub.  For that, she paid a $600 fine, served community service and attended an alcohol-awareness class.

Jenna Bush is a student at the University of Texas at Austin; Barbara Bush attends Yale University.

The White House has asked the media to pause before pursuing stories about the daughters' legal problems stemming from alleged underage drinking.

"I would urge all of you to very carefully think through how much you want to pursue this," press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters in May 2001. "... I would urge you to be very careful because any reaction of the parents is parental; it is not governmental. It is family. It's private and the American people respect that."

Bush himself has only alluded to the twins' troubles once, upon a visit to West Virginia.

Bob Kiss, D-Raleigh, the Democratic speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates, who himself has twins, said Bush told him, "I've been to war. I've raised twins. If I had a choice, I'd rather go to war."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.