CHAPTER 13
Dub-yas Heterosexual Love Affair With Jim Beam
President Bushs confessed, 20-year romance with booze should be a major concern
to all Americans, including Republicans, because a recent study published by the
American Medical Association found that just two glasses of wine per week can
cause brain damage in teenagers.
The AMA report pointed out that while moderate consumption can produce
positive effects such reduced heart attacks, alcohol is still a poison that kills brain
cells. After years of guzzling hard liquor like Jim Beam bourbon, Bushs gray matter
may indeed have been damaged?a possible explanation for his aggressive and often
belligerent style of leadership that surfaced after the national 9/11 catastrophe.
I have seen this happen to alcoholic airline captains who went through
12-step recovery programs, returned to flying and were still dangerous in stressful
situations. However, to use an appropriate clich, Im no brain surgeon. I dont have
an iota of expertise when it comes to determining diminished mental capacity on the
presidents part. But I am familiar with aspects of boozing that he either doesnt know
about or chooses to ignore.
Another reason for Bushs occasional erratic angry behavior could be the "Dry
Drunk Syndrome" (DDS). The term applies to alcoholics who quit by going cold
turkey and never address underlying psychological problems that may have caused the
alcoholism, such as guilt from going AWOL while other far more courageous men his
age served honorably. .
Genetically based in many cases, alcoholism is a terrible affliction that destroys
millions of American lives annually. In my family, a close member constantly battles
alcoholism by attending AA meetings and going through repeated, 12-step recovery
programs. The intimate experience made me reluctant to discuss Bushs boozing
history and I wouldve ignored the addiction, too?except for his cavalier attitude
toward alcoholism, which does a terrible disservice to people struggling to stay
sober. So with Dub-yas indifference in mind, to illustrate how aloof he and the
Bush clan have been about drinking, I decided to address the subject head-on in
this chapter.
Such an examination also serves another purpose. It allows Americans to
judge Georges fitness as a military leader and ask themselves the crucial question:
should he continue serving as our commander-in-chief? I think the answer is
obvious.
My opinion comes largely from reading Bush-friendly books. In the 2003
biography, Laura, by Antonia Felix, the First Lady described hubbys past drunken
behavior just once. On page 119, she said, "He (George) was wild when he drank
too much."
In his autobiography, Charge to Keep, Dub-ya was a little more forthright.
He discussed his alcoholism in Chapter 10, titled "The Big 4-0." Here are some
relevant quotes from the eight-page section.
"There are turning points in life, and one of mine was quitting drinking,
which I did shortly after my fortieth birthday. My wife and friends later
joked that, notoriously frugal, I quit after seeing the bar bill."
"People wondered later whether something special happened... but no, I
just drank too much and woke up with a hangover."
In the same paragraph, Dub-ya wrote, "Even when I was drinking, I drank
only after work, at night, never during the day...My friends laugh about the
image of me as a party animal, an image they think is vastly over blown."
Referring to his earlier boozing, George stated, "Perhaps a better way to
explain it (drinking) is to say I engaged in some of the excesses of youth
of my time..."
Later in Chapter 10, he said, "I am a person who enjoys life, and for years
I enjoyed having a few drinks."
Bush continued in the next paragraph, "Drinking also magnified aspects
of my personality. It made me more funny, more charming, more
impressionable."
Based on what Ive written so far in this chapter, readers unfamiliar with the
presidents drinking history might assume it was rather blandsome "youthful
excesses," a few drinks after work that made him more charming, and so on.
Not exactly. The rest of the 90-proof story can be found in George & Laura.
Here are three examples on page 76 of the paperback edition about Bushs Yale
college days:
1. He knew how to "smuggle booze" into his DKE fraternity house
where there was "a lot of alcohol."
2. Before football games, he would "mix up screwdrivers (vodka
and orange juice) in a garbage can" and compete in "beer-guzzling
contests."
3. George "drank heavily," according to frat brother, Gregory Gaglico,
who also said it was "appalling."
On page 118, Christopher Andersen wrote in regards to Bushs Air National
Guard service as a sworn officer and gentleman, he "often organized (at his
Houston apartment complex) the nosiest, most bacchanalian events?beer busts
and drunken antics with bikini-clad stewardesses."
Page 125 said that Lt. Bush, who had no other job, would spend Monday
through Thursday after three days of weekend warrior duty downing "iced cans of
Budweiser."
On page 126, still in the National Guard and speaking through Andersen,
Bush emoted about his "nomadic period"?a time of "wretched overindulgence
devoted almost exclusively to drinking too much," as reflected by his Houston
apartment, 29-A, which had "empty bottles and beer cans everywhere."
On page 127, Andersen reported Dub-yas fondness for "impromptu drinking
contests" and the "Four Bs?beer, bourbon and B&B."
Page 129 said the mood-altering properties of alcohol, according to Bush
friends, were enough to change him from "Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde," and the
drunken demeanor that "might have dismissed only moments earlier as simply
as playful could suddenly turn boorish and surly."
During drinking sprees, there was a point that he "crossed the line into
nastiness" and the comments Dub-ya made which seemed hilarious to him were
"asinine and sometimes malicious."
His friends said, "You just sort of held your breath whenever he (Bush)
walked toward a stranger in a restaurant. You never knew what he was going to
do or say."
Also described on page 129, an intoxicated George W. could be quite
witty. Or so he thought.
"At a cocktail party in Kennebunkport (Maine), W. (Bush) searched the
room before spotting an elegant gray-haired woman he recognized as one of his
parents good friends. Bourbon in hand, he wobbled up to the lady and bellowed,
So, whats sex like after fifty, anyway?"
Page 130 stated the following: "With his 15-year-old brother, Marvin, in
tow, W. took off in one of Dads cars to visit a friend. By the time they left the
friends house, both brothers were drunk."
The next page told of a confrontation with an angry George Senior that
same night. Enraged by the fatherly rebuke for being intoxicated, Junior
threatened to punch out his old man. Later, he would claim the shouting match
in Dads den was not so much an act of youthful rebellion as "the result of two
stiff bourbons."
Page 138 said that at a Willie Nelson concert in Odessa, Dub-ya jumped
onto the stage, beer in hand, and sang along with the star.
On page 139, Andersen wrote about Bush during his oil man days in
Midland, "Alarmingly, a week did not go by without an inebriated Dub-ya
getting behind the wheel of his car and trying to find his way home."
Later on page 139, "The elder Bush who had left his post in China to
take the reins of the Central Intelligence Agency, had heard stories about
Dub-yas antics back home in Midland. Now that his son was 30, Big
George and Barbara grew increasingly concerned that Dub-ya might be
developing a serious, long-term alcohol problem."
Page 140 described when George Junior was stopped by police for
suspicion of drunk driving near the Kennebunkport family compound.
Given a sobriety test on the spot, he flunked. Arrested and taken to the
police station, a second test was given but his blood alcohol level still
registered "a substantial .12, above Maines .10 legal limit.
Released on bail, Dub-ya later pled guilty to a misdemeanor DUI.
After that, Andersen wrote about other Bush problems, then returned
to the alcoholism, which became worse because of his irritation over being
stuck in Midland, Texas, and "going nowhere fast."
Page 167 stated: "Clearly, it was Dub-ya who felt frustrated, overcome
by the need for action...and he would unburden himself to Laura with a stiff
drink. And then another. As those evenings wore on, he became louder and
more agitated....with each passing month, George was drinking more and
more."
Page 168 described his antics during three-day Wildcatter golf
tournaments at the Midland Country Club. Wrote Andersen, "At a Wildcatter
costume party, he arrived as a diaper-clad Mahatma Gandhi. He kept doing
this pretty terrible Indian accent, said one partygoer, but I got the
impression he really didnt know who Gandhi was, and why his being drunk
and practically naked might seem offensive to some people."
Page 173 of George & Laura told of more antics at Midland Country
Club, when Dub-ya drank too much. "He would get a little too loud, and the
jokes would get more off-color... He thought he was a riot, and you were
inclined to overlook it."
Also on page 173, Dub-yas close friend and current Secretary of
Commerce, Don Evans, said of his White House boss, "Once he got started
(drinking), he couldnt quit, didnt shut it off."
Page 174 described Bush driving while intoxicated on numerous
occasions despite his earlier DUI in Maine. "There were many close calls
in those days," confided Dub-ya later to a friend.
After boozing for two decades, most of it in Midland, Texas, George
asked himself rhetorically in A Charge to Keep, "How in the hell did I keep
from killing someone else?"
Heres a question thats not rhetorical. Dub-ya went to Maine, got a
DUI and tried to hide it during the 2000 election. So why didnt the
Midland Police Department ever charge him with the same offense? They
had at least 15 years to catch him driving under the influence, nearly a daily
occurrence, according to his friends. Could it be Dub-ya was in a special
class like his wife, Laura? Did the cops ignore him like they did her?
In 1963, Laura, a Midland teenager busy chatting with her girlfriend
passenger, drove through a stop sign, T-boned a car that had the right-away
and killed its driver. Guess what kind of traffic citation she got? She didnt.
Incredibly, the future First Lady committed negligent homicide, an offense
ordinary people in Midland wouldve gone to jail for, and she didnt even
have to pay a fine.
So what kind of legal system was that, anyway?
Back then, it was called "Justice for the Lone State Elite" in a state
that tried ordinary teenagers Lauras age as adults and put them in prison for
years simply because they inhaled fumes from a burning marijuana leaf.
Lower status kids were punished for smoking pot that only harmed themselves
(maybe), but it was perfectly okay to commit negligent manslaughter with an
automobile if you were like Laura, part of the Lone Star Elite.
Committing vehicular homicide with impunity wasnt the only skeleton
in her closet that became known to the media. Perhaps with vengeance in
mind for the 1986 Dallas Mexican restaurant incident, Judy Woodruff exposed
the First Ladys nasty little secret at the end of a White House interview, as follows:
WOODRUFF: Just a couple of other questions, Mrs. Bush, about you.
Its been reported that you smoke. Now, is this correct?
LAURA: That is not correct. I did smoke, though. I used to.
WOODRUFF: When do you give it up?
LAURA: A long time ago.
In Bush-speak, a "long time" can mean anything?like last month.
According to Lloyd Grove, author of the "Reliable Sources" column for the
Washington Post, Laura has been spotted sneaking nicotine puffs in the White House.
So much for the Perfect First Ladys credibility.
Shortly after George W. took office, Bush hypocrisy about smoking spilled
over into his administration policies regarding the American tobacco industrys
major thrust to expand its international markets.
Clinton had impeded their efforts to export death by inhaling with trade
restrictions. However, when South Korea imposed tariffs on cigarettes to reduce
their importation because of the health hazard, President Bush complained about
the added cost imposed on U.S. cigarette makers and ordered the fees rescinded.
His trade representative, Robert Zoellick, insisted that Dub-ya just wanted to
make sure U.S. products were treated fairly. Zoellick also contended that it was a
policy "most citizens agree with."
Oh, really? Mr. Zoellick. Wheres the proof?
There is no proof. Statistically in our country, nonsmokers far exceed those
who engage in the self-destructive habit. Thus, once more, we have an example
of the Bush administration deceiving us by stretching nonexistent facts into what
appears to the truth.
During the 2000 campaign, George explained away his admitted addiction to
beer and bourbon by saying "To beat alcoholism, you need to change behavior,
which means changing your heart. Like I did."
Since his election three years ago, President Bush has offered no tangible
proof that his heart has changed.
Quite the contrary, during the first few critical days following 9/11, as
described in Bob Woodwards 2002 bestseller, Bush at War, I found no
anecdotal evidence indicating George W. had sought help from any deity. He
did take time, however, to discuss with senior White House advisor Karl Rove
a "10-month window of opportunity" for making Republican political capital
from the catastrophe.
Shortly after September 11, according to page 54 of Bush at War (hardback
edition),a White House reporter asked President Bush to, "Give us a sense of
what kind of prayers you are thinking and where your heart is."
Offered a chance to make a Christian testimony, Dub-ya, struggling with
his emotions (or appearing to do so), declined the opportunity and said simply,
"I dont think about myself right now."
How Bush thought about himself, of course, was not the questions point.
The reporter had obviously been interested in religious inspiration, not selfishness.
When Dub-ya "regained" his composure, he told the reporter, again in a
self-serving way, "I am a loving guy. I am also someone who has a job to do,
and I intend to do it."
With that said, Bush left the White House pressroom without mentioning
a single thing about the importance of faith and prayers in a crisis. However, he
did manage to say "I" three times in his short answer.
The next mention of religion in Bush at War appears on page 65, when, at
the start of an emergency cabinet meeting several days after 9/11, Dub-ya asked
Donald Rumsfeld to offer a prayer. Pleaded the Secretary of Defense solemnly
to God, "Give us patience to measure our lust for action."
Bush did exactly as Rummy had prayed. He demonstrated patience long
enough to satisfy his advisors, then launched a barrage of cruise missiles against
Afghanistan that killed dozens of innocent women and children but not Osama
bin Laden.
I wonder what Jesus thought about that kind of response to 9/11? Or any
type of lustful action, for that matter.
The importance of religion in Bushs role as Commander-in-Chief became
an issue again in a more recent book by Bob Woodward, his 2004 bestseller,
Plan of Attack. Woodward said George W. told him hes on a mission from God
to spread democracy throughout the Muslim world.
The first time I read about the religious quest, it raised three questions in
my mind:
1. Where does the Constitution say a president has the right
or responsibility to spread democracy?
2. What kind of democracy is Bush talking about?
3. How does he know Muslims want a democratic form of
government?
Recalling Dub-yas drunken confrontation in the Dallas restaurant with Al
Hunt a year after getting the "word" from Billy Graham, I told myself, So much for
a mission from God.
If Bush pursues his quest, how about, "The Devil made me do it!" | 
