Bennett Threatens to Resign if Congress Changes Bush’s Drug Plan

William J. Bennett, the nation’s top drug control official, bristled Friday at Democratic charges that President Bush’s drug control plan does too little and threatened to resign if Congress makes major changes.

“I don’t have to have this job,” Bennett declared at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

His outburst reflected growing tension as the Administration and congressional Democrats maneuvered to put their own stamp on a national strategy to address the top domestic concern cited in public opinion polls and an issue that could pay political dividends in next year’s elections.

In a prime-time television address last Tuesday, Bush outlined a $7.9-billion program calling for significant increases in funding for law enforcement and other programs to crack down on narcotics use at home and drug production abroad.

In responding to Democratic critics who called for more spending on law enforcement, education and other components of Bush’s proposal, Bennett told the Senate hearing: “If you go off in another direction, then somebody else is going to be accountable. It’s not going to be me.

“I’ll take the accountability, the President will take accountability for this strategy, not for somebody else’s strategy,” said Bennett, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

When Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) reminded Bennett that the Constitution requires him to “become accountable” if the Democrat-controlled Congress should force a program into law over Bush’s veto, Bennett responded curtly: “If I stay in the job.”

Biden: Let me clear that.

Bennett: I have represented to the American people that, if we do this, we will win.

Biden: Right.

Bennett: And my word is on the line. If I can’t live with that, I will not be here.

Biden: I understand.

Bennett: I don’t have to have this job.

The President, in New Orleans to continue campaigning for the anti-drug plan, took a more conciliatory stance, saying of Congress: “I understand that nobody’s going to do it exactly my way.” To think otherwise, he said, would be “closed-minded.”

In a session with reporters here, Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) called Bush’s proposal “inadequate to the task” and said that the Democrats would be coming up with their own program.

“We want to take the best elements of his plan and improve them,” Mitchell said.

At the Senate hearing, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) scoffed at the President’s goal of reducing illegal drug use by 50% over 10 years.

“If (that) is the best we’re going to do, this country is going to have an epidemic still,” Kerry said, “and we will not have come close in a 10-year span to what I think Americans’ expectations are going to be.”

Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on terrorism and narcotics, said that the Bush plan seriously falls short in funding for education, treatment and law enforcement programs. He said also that it should push for a multinational “strike force” to go after drug kingpins.

In denying that the plan’s goals and funding are too modest, Bennett said: “I think it’s important not to overpromise because, if we overpromise and don’t deliver and we have more disillusionment, that can lead to cynicism, and then the enterprise is finished. I think it’s better to promise what’s achievable . . . .

“Two months ago, a lot of editorials were saying there’s no way to win this war. Now,” he added, somewhat sardonically, “50% reduction is regarded as chicken feed.”

(The New York Times reported in today’s editions that large shipments of cocaine from Colombia to staging areas near the United States have slowed since the Colombian government began its crackdown on the drug cartels, creating the possibility of at least a temporary shortage of the drug and its derivative, crack, on big-city streets.

(However, the newspaper, quoting officials of the Customs Service and other federal agencies, said that large amounts of cocaine are believed to be stored in sites near the U.S. border and that only a long halt in new shipments would be likely to have much effect on long-term supplies.)

During the hearing, Bennett said there are no plans to send U.S. troops to Colombia or any other Latin American country to help track down drug traffickers. However, he noted that “we should not absolutely rule it off the table” in the event such assistance is requested.

Bennett expressed sympathy for Senate-passed legislation that would authorize the Customs Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Coast Guard to shoot down, after warnings, private aircraft suspected of smuggling drugs. The bill, strongly opposed by private aircraft owners and pilots, is expected to face stiff opposition from House negotiators in a conference on the defense authorization bill.

Staff writers William J. Eaton in Washington and David Lauter in New Orleans contributed to this story.