George W. Bush: "I Drank Too Much At One Time In My Life"

BALTIMORE, Md. — President Bush on Tuesday referred to his former struggles with alcohol as an "addiction," a blunt characterization of his less disciplined adult days before a reliance on faith help him turn his life around.

"Addiction is hard to overcome," Bush said in speaking at a faith-based center that helps former prisoners get job training and other help.

"As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life," Bush said. "I understand faith-based programs. I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem."

Increasingly, Bush has reflected in candid terms about his days of drinking. Last month, he told some young recovering addicts to stick with their fight against drugs and cited his own experiences with alcohol years ago. He said then that "addiction competes for your affection ... you fall in love with alcohol."

Bush, 61, decided to quit drinking alcohol after a boozy night in 1986 celebrating his 40th birthday. He went on to win election and re-election as Texas governor before bidding for the White House.

The president spoke Tuesday at the Jericho Program, which helps former prisoners get their lives in order and contribute to society. The stop came as Bush sought to keep some attention on his faith-based programs, one of the themes from his final State of the Union address on Monday night.

Comments

[realpolitic]

10:28 PM on 02/02/2008

Bush drank too much and we are all picking up the bar tab.

[Felicty]

10:22 PM on 01/31/2008

Bush's story is sadly Shakespearian, in a way. In my eyes, from the moment he stole the 2000 election, he would NEVER be forgiven for it. I refuse to cut him any slack.

Let me buy you a case of whiskey, George.

[MotherWarrior]

01:25 PM on 01/31/2008

If Bush really understood addiction, would he have linked recovery with redemption? What is it? A sin that needs to be expunged? Have addicts been possessed by the devil? See my blog on addiction, www.motherwarriors.blogspot.com

[FirstShirt]

12:44 PM on 01/31/2008

Good for him. To those in denial anyone who has the self confidence to share their personal struggles and pain is a person to emulate. Being an alcoholic or addict isn't a mark of pride and it isn't a mark of shame, although shame is often a part of the illness. And, only a physician and the person themselves can call them an "addict". He should be applauded for supporting recovery. Many families are saved by rehabilitation efforts. Those who use another person's illness as an opportunity to make a political point are pathetic and weak.

[VivaZapata]

11:39 AM on 01/31/2008

between the ages of 18 and 61 with a few dry moments thrown in to get that pest laura off my back.

[BobOnThis]

11:21 AM on 01/31/2008

Why do they keep saying: "Drugs & Alcohol"?

It should be "Drugs especially Alcohol"!

Alcohol is the epitome of drugs... and is a dangerous 'gateway' drug.

They seek to confuse because if they acknowledged that alcohol is a drug then alcohol prohibition was actually drug prohibition and that was found to be unconstitutional.

So you see there is no drug war... the 18th Amendment abolished alcohol/drug prohibition!

[noamjunior]

11:18 AM on 01/31/2008

This is a great first step for W.
Now he needs to come clean about his ongoing battle with cocaine and perscription drugs, and finally come out of the closet and live an openly gay lifestyle with carl rove

[realpolitic]

10:02 AM on 01/31/2008

In my nonprofessional opinion, Bush has attention-deficit disorder and that is not said to belittle him. The man is constantly distracted, he fatigues easily from anything requiring mental concentration like press conferences or debates, and breaks his day often for physical release in exercise. He does not listen well and avoids reading like the plague.

Bush is anti-intelluctual, but this quality more likely compensations for his lack of ability to concentrate and focus.

As a result, his policies have no follow-through. They are conceived on the fly by like-minded individuals who prefer the ends to the means and do not take into account dissenting facts and opinion. There is little or no planning for even the most grand schemes, like the Iraq war. In fact, Bush's lack of curiousity is legend.

Even when speaking, Bush constantly repeats himself, speaks in disjointed phrases or fragments, and meanders off-course only to be saved by an occasional humorous remark. Outside of delivering prepared remarks, several journalists have noted the disjointed quality of Bush's ramblings.

Karl Rove hid Bush's liabilites from us, casting him as the fun neighbor whom we would like to barbeque with. His grammatical mishaps and inarticulateness was hidden as a "regular guy" phenonmenon and his lack of curious was disguised as not being elitist.

Without so many personal limitations, there would never have been the need for such a cult of personality to be created around Bush by those practiced at the art of myth making, like Rove. Bush was sold to us as an Everyman, yet somehow more heroic and morally pure than we had a right to expect. It was said, in fact, he was close to God and consulted a higher authority.

This salesmanship was quite a deed given Bush's avoidance of the Vietnam War, business failures, scholarship mediocrity, and his previous drinking habits. This personality cult, as it must for all who misrule, began to crumble for many with the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. Since then, almost the entire country must concede that the emperor has no clothes.

[IMPRISONBUSH]

12:06 AM on 01/31/2008

...." ITS CALLED BEING A DRUNK "...........

WHO HIDE HE HAD A DWI FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

[mam]

10:45 PM on 01/30/2008

"As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life." Yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday. No, wait - it WAS yesterday!

[hozer]

10:29 PM on 01/30/2008

Both George Bush's..
father & son

if the American people had any grasp of history..

http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/index1.htm

it sure looks like you all got the government you deserve

This asshole might be leaving WARshington in a hail of bullets, Thanx to CarlyleGruppen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D6PUD66UMc

...too chickenshit to impeach,
and too impotent to imprison

all in a country full of cops on steroids..
who rake in $millions on seatbelt tyrrany

his bullshit about drinking too much is just a smokescreen to cover up that he's more of a monster than Bob Picton, Gary Ridgway, and Jeffrey Dahmer combined...
..yet this piece of artwork is just one person in a whole multi-trillion dollar orgy of violence that persists in WARshington district of Criminals.

..just look at all the bottom feeding parasites who were at the State of the Onion Address

..darkness, pure darkness
blacker than the bottom of an oilwell

he can start by cleaning up all tons of the Depleted Uranium his crowd of pirates have spewed around the planet.. not just in war zones, it's in your backyard too.

this is all beyond the SciFi level of SICKO
=============================================

[aznurse]

08:47 PM on 01/30/2008

I guess is you stay drunk for years, you could say I drank too much one time in my life.

[RedRooster]

08:31 PM on 01/30/2008

"Well you see, if you fool me and then fool me again, well then uh, you uh, you know, well, you are just foolin' me."

~ George W Bush,
Dry Drunk, coke addicted war criminal.

[MuseScavenger]

08:15 PM on 01/30/2008

...And now he breathes too much...

[MuseScavenger]

08:12 PM on 01/30/2008

We the people were better off when GW was hiding at the bottom of a bottle.