Bush is boozing it up

[Sub Atomic]

BUSH'S BOOZE CRISIS

Faced with the biggest crisis of his political life, President Bush has hit the bottle again, The National Enquirer can reveal.

Bush, who said he quit drinking the morning after his 40th birthday, has started boozing amid the Katrina catastrophe.

Family sources have told how the 59-year-old president was caught by First Lady Laura downing a shot of booze at their family ranch in Crawford, Texas, when he learned of the hurricane disaster.

His worried wife yelled at him: "Stop, George."

Following the shocking incident, disclosed here for the first time, Laura privately warned her husband against "falling off the wagon" and vowed to travel with him more often so that she can keep an eye on Dubya, the sources add.

more

[rzemanfl]

1. The anthrax team is working on the Enquirer issue. n/t

[marbuc]

2. How many of us read the National Enquirer?

Pick up an American Prospect, your brain will thank you.

[htuttle]

7. No, the real question is...

...how many people read the COVER of the Enquirer as they are standing in the grocery store checkout line?

Given that there's not much else to do at that point, I'd say just about everyone.

[marbuc]

8. Ok, I give

I do scan the cover for the latest on Jen Aniston/Oprah/Nick and Jessica

[dflprincess]

20. Everybody reads the cover when they're in line

(even if they don't admit it). Was it on the cover?

I hate to say this, but I may have to grit my teeth and buy this issue (I NEVER thought I'd say that). Then, I think, I'll leave it in the laudry room of my apartment building.

[jonnyblitz]

23. many people actually buy it, too. nt

[whistle]

3. Well, that is as good a reason as any for shrub to pick up a drink

...as for Laura enabling him, go for it babe! He'll just get worse and more unmanageable and hit bottom that much quicker. Once * starts back on the coke and crack, his fall from grace will be like the tsunami last December.

[John Q. Citizen]

15. Once he starts? Didn't you see him working his jaw

involuntarily last week during his speech? Looked like he was speeding to me.

Just to be clear here, I'm not joking. He was moving it like any tweaker anywhere.

[whistle]

22. I don't know what that looks like

[existentialist]

4. "Inquiring minds want to know."

The (lack of) credibility of the source aside, it may be an indication of the political winds that they would run such a story. It's certainly more encouraging and refreshing, and even possibly credible than their stories about Hillary Clinton's space alien boyfriend.

Thanks for the post. There might even be something to it.

LOL

[Ian David]

5. I think only Weekly World News was doing the aliens. But I could be wrong

[enid602]

6. pickled

"His worried wife yelled at him: "Stop, George."" He must have been in her stash; he's probably lucky she didn't blow his head off.

[classof56]

9. Or run him down with her car.

Probably they don't let her drive anymore, though, now that I think about it.

Tired Old Cynic

[calimary]

10. Holy CRAP - is this for real????

MAN!!! One of the things that, I think, kept the Clinton persecution going was that you saw stuff about it at the grocery checkout counter EVERY FRICKIN' WEEK - in the "National Enquirer" and other tabloids.

HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!

If this has gotten into the "Enquirer," he really does have a problem. Not just the drinking. The fact that it's in the tabloids now.

Please believe me: if this is for real, it's a BIGTIME black eye for him (or is that bloodshot eye?). It means that, after years of behaving themselves, and having been scared silent by that anthrax letter (to one of the tabloid photographers who'd taken some unappreciated shots of Drunk and Disorderly - the twins - misbehaving in some bar - which killed him), the "Enquirer" has become emboldened. Maybe the editors are no longer afraid. Maybe they've been sitting on this stuff and have started truly to become concerned about out country and the AWOL "leadership" at the top. Maybe they've started to wake up in the wake of Katrina. Or maybe they smell road kill and are just circling the carcass like any other self-respecting vulture would. Sometimes a pile-on starts when the subject becomes perceived as damaged goods. Maybe all the editors over there are looking at are the poll numbers that won't come back up, and the louder and more widespread complaints and criticism about him. Maybe they're putting two and two together and realizing it's a big, fat, juicy, titillating FOUR.

Whoa! If this is for real, bush is sunk. And will probably stay drunk.

BTW, when I worked at the AP in L.A., we had several "comp'ed" copies of the "Enquirer" arrive in the mail every week, just a day or so before the weekly copy hit the stands. Everyone would POUR over it. One issue went to the news editor in the big desk in the middle of the newsroom. The others were passed around among us peons. Especially on stories like the ongoing Michael Jackson saga, some of our best hotshot reporters repeatedly confirmed that the "Enquirer" had an excellent track record, usually got it spot-on correct, and was usually way ahead of the pack. The editor and various writers and reporters would scour the "Enquirer" for bits and pieces that the AP might have missed or to which we should pay more attention. People sneered at the "Enquirer" in our bureau, but they made a beeline for it every time it came in. And it WAS taken seriously.

They were always able to get good stuff, and frequently, details we didn't have. One reason was because they had staffers and stringers EVERYWHERE. Another was because they never hesitate to pay for news - as in - drop a 20-dollar-bill or 50 or 100 on some hotel concierge, or maid or plumber or delivery guy or ambulance driver or club bouncer or valet parking guy or hospital orderly or whatever. That's how they always got tips galore, and how their reporters were kept abreast of juicy inside stuff. Some of these reporters had quite a few of these sources on their own personal payrolls. The AP, on the other hand, had a strict policy of never paying for news tips.

I bet some folks at the "Enquirer" have been sitting on this stuff for a long time, and now, perhaps, feel emboldened to go with it, because bush is no longer Mr. Invincible and they're not as intimidated anymore.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

11. you raised some good points.

Also, during the OJ trial I heard the same thing: the Enquirer was right on the money & had way more scoops than the legitimate papers.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

17. Yeah, It was the Enquirer that scooped the OJ "sole of shoe" pic..

It was the smoking gun of that case...don't sell the enquirer short.

Also (grin), they knew who Regis was going to get as a new co-host after kathy-Lee, weeks before ABC broke the news...

on edit:
SNIP:
"Another source said: "I'm only surprised to hear that he hadn't taken a shot sooner. Before Katrina, he was at his wit's end. I've known him for years. He's been a good ol' Texas boy forever. George had a drinking problem for years that most professionals would say needed therapy. He doesn't believe in it , he never got it. He drank his way through his youth, through college and well into his thirties. Everyone's drinking around him."

"Another source said: "A family member told me they fear George is 'falling apart.' The First Lady has been assigned the job of gatekeeper." Bush's history of drinking dates back to his youth. Speaking of his time as a young man in the National Guard, he has said: "One thing I remember, and I'm most proud of, is my drinking and partying. Those were the days my friends. Those were the good old days!"
SNIP

Popcorn, Get your popcorn..

[RamboLiberal]

14. There's a huge thread on this story over in GD

And a lot of DU'ers are pooh-poohing it cause it's The Enquirer.

I'm not, there's a lot of symptoms there if you watch Bush every day. I heard earlier today Randi play a snippet of Bush and it was plain he was slurring his words (she wasn't talking about this, it was just my ears picking up the slurring).

As I mentioned a couple of times in GD, John Dean in his book Worse than Watergate on Page 26 says it's rumor in DC that Bush is nippin' and also that Prozac is to Bush what Dilatin was to Nixon.

I would think John Dean has some pretty good insiders whispering in his ear.

I wouldn't put it past The Enquirer to have paid of some lowly peonwho can still have some good inside dope as you confirm, to rat out what is going on inside the Crawford pig farm.

I hope I live long enough to have confirmed what I've suspected for awhile, and that is that Bush is still drinking and that explains a lot of symptoms we've seen. And I hope it comes out now, rather than later. Americans need to know and the Repukes need a big time payback for what they did to Clinton.

Big Dog's dalliance didn't hurt us, but a drunk in the WH is hurting us Big Time.

[John Q. Citizen]

18. The first place I ever read about the connection between

whole homogenized milk and heart disease was in the Enquierer back in the 70's. It was a few years later that it made the mainstream press.

Homogenizing whole milk breaks the fat up into such small pieces it eneters the bloodstream through the intestines and scars and clogs arteries. Unhomogenized milk is no problem (too big to pass through the intestinal walls) and low fat/no fat milk is much less of a problem.

Yeah, they definatly get some scoops sometimes.

[enid602]

19. Enquirer

Who is the Enquirer owned by? It seems odd that they, of all people are at the vanguard of reporting this story, or at least airing these suspicions.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

12. hey dweeb,

I haven't seen you forever. When are you going to cough up the recipe for crab cakes?

best

[zulchzulu]

13. Introduce him to crack while we're at it

Let's make him so waxked out that he shows up nude on TV...I'd rather him have to resign out of total and complete embarrassment rather than pay for the crimes he has committed.

[OneTwentyoNine]

16. Hell....he NEVER stopped.....

That SOB was either falling fucking down drunk or that pretzel really did attack him. He's looked like shit for years,that ass clown has been drinking regularly,not hard to tell....

[Robertwf]

21. Why do you think he keeps falling off those bikes?

He's been looking kind of disheveled and sweaty lately, too.