ENNEBUNKPORT, Maine - As excited talk of George W. Bush's drunken-driving arrest radiated through political circles yesterday, many folks in Maine were left profoundly unimpressed.
Here in this well-heeled oceanside town, where Bush was pulled over 24 years ago on his way home from a bar, his neighbors were irritated by the idea that the lapse could affect the election. Others, a few towns away, said they'd heard about the incident long ago through the workplace rumor mill, but never considered it news.
And overwhelmingly, Mainers said Bush was getting a raw deal for a very human mistake.
''Around here, if someone gets an OUI, you've joined the club,'' said Peter Philbrick, a 31-year-old contractor, referring to an arrest for operating a vehicle under the influence. ''It's slow in wintertime. Everyone knows each other. The Police Department does its business.''
Bush's long-ago arrest is an old story at the Cumberland Department of Public Works, told over and over again for laughs in the garage's cramped back room. How Calvin Bridges, a former Kennebunkport police officer now working at the department, had once pulled over a 30-year-old drunk driver but didn't know it was a Bush. Bridges wondered if his career would suffer when he was later told, his friends said, but years later George H.W. Bush thanked him for teaching his son a lesson that night.
''We weren't keeping it a secret, but it was more of a story than news,'' said Ed Johnson, 23, a fellow Cumberland DPW worker. ''It was never a big deal.''
In Kennebunkport, by contrast, the long-ago arrest wasn't public knowledge before Thursday night. But neighbors in this town where Barbara Bush's family has vacationed for 100 years are fiercely protective of the clan who put Kennebunkport on the map.
Gibran, an Ocean Avenue souvenir shop, still sells postcards of the Bush house labeled ''The Summer Home of the 41st President.'' And there's a cutaway spot by the side of the road where people can stare at the Bush compound, Walker's Point, from a park bench.
To many, the real problem yesterday was the media. Pam Padget, who owns Alisson's Restaurant on Dock Square, said patrons all day had been fuming over news coverage, and the implication that Mainers had kept Bush's arrest under wraps. ''There's no inside story. There's never been any kind of coverup,'' she said.
But many added that Bush's was a garden-variety indiscretion, and hardly a shock. In fact, in a town where locals constantly marvel about how down-to-earth and regular the Bushes have always been, this seemed another indication that George W. Bush was just like everyone else.
''Who hasn't made mistakes in their lives?'' said Deb Bopsie, 46, a self-described Ralph Nader supporter.
So when they saw the TV news trucks parked by the side of the road, the men scampering across the street downtown with video cameras, most residents treated it with a yawn and a grumble.
At the Atlantic Cotton Company store, where a giant satellite truck parked outside the plate-glass window blocked the midafternoon light, assistant manager Robin Smith, 20, said the news made for a welcome diversion; she usually amuses herself by guessing where tourists are from.
And Bruce Victor, a longtime summer resident from Shrewsbury, Mass., stood outside the Christmas Presence waiting for his wife, and watched as at least five camera crews crossed his sightlines.
''We heard about it last night, and we figured that the town would be rife with journalists,'' he said. ''I just think, let a sleeping dog lie. It's bad politics four days before an election. Now there's probably something coming out on Al Gore that no one needs to hear.''
But whether or not townspeople believed there had been partisan news leaks, and no matter who they were backing on November 7, they concurred on one point: they hoped Bush's arrest would soon be yesterday's news. ''We both think it's ridiculous,'' said Marlene Raum, 56, crossing the street with her friend Anne Senese, 66. ''And she's a Republican and I'm a Democrat.''
Beth Daley of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.
