Helen Thomas

Once reluctant to engage in the political arena, First Lady Laura Bush and her twin daughters are joining President Bush's reelection campaign.

None of the first family's women were eager to participate in past political campaigns, but they apparently got the high sign that they are needed this year.

The Bush twins -- 22-year-old Jenna and Barbara -- will perk up the Bush campaign, giving it a youthful look and satisfying a lot of curiosity about them.

While there have been hints that the young ladies may not be as conservative as the president, it's doubtful their GOP handlers will let them drift from the administration line when they are out on the stump.

Jenna and Barbara have led sheltered lives -- courteously ignored by the Washington and Texas news media -- except when they faked their age to socialize in Austin, Texas, bars. Then they made news.

"Why can't we do what other kids get to do," complained Jenna.

Now that they have graduated from college -- Jenna from the University of Texas and Barbara from Yale -- they will be treated as celebrities. They are taking the initiative by giving interviews in coming months.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan recently told reporters that Bush's daughters had "expressed a strong interest in helping the president on his reelection."

At the same time, McClellan expressed the hope that the media would treat the daughters gently.

"We hope that the media will continue to show respect for the daughters and recognize they are the president's daughters. . . that they have their own lives . . . they are not the person on the ballot," he said.

Well, they will soon learn they can't have it both ways. Out to promote a candidate, they will be respected but also closely covered by the media.

As for Laura Bush, she vowed when she married the Bush family scion in 1977 that she would never make a political speech in his behalf.

But as the 2004 reelection campaign has heated up, Mrs. Bush has broken out of her quiet mold and become one of the leading fundraisers for the Bush war chest.

She explained: "I think I can tell stories" about her husband that "other people don't know or he can't tell about himself. So I love the chance to campaign for him."

Bush has acknowledged that his wife initially opposed the invasion of Iraq. But she overcame those feelings and now delivers hard-hitting -- even hawkish -- speeches, citing the strides the Iraqis have made after being "oppressed by fear and torture."

Her remarks also reflect the briefings she has had on the administration's foreign policy.

Asked what she would tell families who have lost someone in the war, she said she would assure them "that these deaths were not in vain" and that 'we're going to help countries in the Middle East to build democracies. . ."

In a May 1 speech to the troops at Winter Park, Fla., her words also had a familiar Bush ring: "America is safer" because of the U.S. military intervention in Iraq, she declared.

She avoids controversial issues such as abortion rights and gay marriage, being careful not to ruffle the president's conservative base of supporters. In the 2000 presidential race, she indicated once that she was for abortion rights but then suddenly became closed-mouthed on the subject.

It's not unusual for wives and children to hit the campaign trail. When he ran for the presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson's wife Lady Bird and daughters Lynda and Luci helped drum up votes for him.

The Nixon daughters, Tricia Cox and Julie Eisenhower, traveled to 36 states in 1968 in support of their dad's reelection.

In 1964, Lady Bird Johnson led a 4-day, 47-speech whistle-stop train trip through the South where homes displayed front-lawn signs that read "Sold on Goldwater," referring to Johnson's opponent, Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz.

The Johnson girls, who cut their teeth on politics, were at ease with the crowds.

Liz Carpenter, former press secretary to Lady Bird Johnson, said she believes the young Bush women should enjoy campaigning and "they will enjoy seeing the country."

Carpenter recalls the "toughest question" she got on the whistle-stop trip was, "Does Luci dye her hair?"

As for Mrs. Bush avoiding controversial issues, Carpenter explained: "She's trying to stand by her man."

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