Alcoholic
43rd President George W Bush, by his own accounts, used to enjoy the occasional drink. According to disparate sources1 2 3, he also used to enjoy a drink and a drive, occasionally over a garbage can, with his 16-year old brother in the passenger seat. When in particularly high spirits, he also enjoyed dragging that garbage can all the way home and then challenging his father, 41st President and then-CIA chief George Herbert Walker Bush to go a few rounds, mano-a-mano. George is an enjoyable fellow.
(Bush himself was 26 during the above event; interestingly, when he was busted for a DUI -- see below -- he was 30, and he had his 17-year-old sister in the car with him)
(Further evidence of Bush's charming nature when he's had a few comes from former Newsweek reporter Thomas De Frank, who had the poor taste in 1986 to contribute to an article in which he suggested that the Republicans would not nominate Bush's father for the presidency in 1988. Eating in a Dallas restaurant some time after with his wife and 4-year-old child, De Frank found himself confronted by an angry and drunken George W., who yelled, "You no-good fucking son-of-a-bitch, I will never fucking forget what you wrote.")
 A 2006 photo of Bush not having had a drink since 1986. |
Although the mano-a-mano event is of some notoriety, as is a 1976 DUI acquired in the state of Maine, Bush declines the suggestion that he was (or is) an alcoholic, preferring instead to characterize his proclivity for imbibement as "drinking too much." This is apparently characterized by Bush's admission that he couldn't recall a single day where he hadn't had an alcoholic drink while an underage minor at the
Phillips Academy4 and also at
Yale5. Also by how it took prodding from his wife,
Laura Bush, and a meeting with evangelist
Billy Graham, AND a regretful hangover on the morning after his fortieth birthday, and - of course - the aforementioned drunk driving incidents before he considered it time to
slow it down a little.
Rumors persist that the President, who has sworn that he has not had a drink since 19866, may yet tipple from the grapey nipple, including having had several unusual accidents including:
- A fall from a Segway personal transporter in June of 2003
- A tumble from a mountain bike in May 2004
- A January 2002 indident where he allegedly choked on a pretzel, passed out, and grazed his head on a coffee table (an accident which would have explained so much, had it happened twenty years earlier)
- A 2003 incident where he dropped his own dog Barney on its head, poor mutt.
Furthermore, Bush possesses many characteristics of the alcoholic, some of which indicate anecdotally that he may yet be drinking 7 8 including:
- Grandiose behavior
- Rigid, judgmental outlook
- Impatience
- Childish and irresponsible behavior
- Irrational rationalization
- Projection
- Overreaction
- The tendency to go to extremes
- Incoherence while speaking away from script
- Impatience
- Irritability in the face of disagreement
(Of course, he might just be a jerk)
However, the most compelling evidence that the President has indeed had a drink since his pledge to sobriety in 1986 is a fucking video of him drunk as a skunk at a 1992 wedding reception. Your call.
Oh, you know what? We haven't even talked about the cocaine yet.
1 __U.S. News & World Report__, November 1, 1999, "Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq"
2 First Son: George W. Bush and the Bush Family Dynasty by Bill Minutaglio
3 W: Revenge of the Bush Dynasty by Elizabeth Mitchell
4 "How Bush Came to Tame His Inner Scamp," __The New York Times__, July 29, 2000
5 Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President by James Hatfield
6 CNN.com, Nov 2 2000, Bush acknowledges 1976 DUI charge
7 "Addiction, Brain Damage and the President: "Dry Drunk" Syndrome and George W. Bush", Katherine van Wormer, __CounterPunch__, October 11, 2002
8 Bush on the Couch by Justin Frank)
Additional Sources
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2005/08/17/bush_plame/index_np.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush_substance_abuse_controversy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_on_the_Couch
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.