WASHINGTON -- The second batch of former President George W. Bush's interview with NBC's Matt Lauer was released on Friday. And unlike the first, it is heavily focused on the personal turmoil that plagued Bush prior to his political career -- chief among them his excessive drinking.
Buried in the interview is a colorful anecdote that personifies to what extent alcohol had come to dominate his life
MATT LAUER:
Tell me the story about the dinner party where you--GEORGE W. BUSH:
Okay. So here's one of the worst.MATT LAUER:
That's what we want, we want the worst.GEORGE W. BUSH:
Well, you found it.MATT LAUER:
Yeah.GEORGE W. BUSH:
So I'm drunk at the dinner table at Mother and Dad's house in Maine. And my brothers and sister are there, Laura's there. And I'm sitting next to a beautiful woman, friend of Mother and Dad's. And I said to her out loud, "What is sex like after 50?"MATT LAUER:
Silence.GEORGE W. BUSH:
And I mean total silence. And not only silence, but like serious daggers.MATT LAUER:
From your mom.GEORGE W. BUSH:
Yeah. And my wife. And then I end the anecdote by saying, "I call her to apologize, of course." The after dinner remorses.MATT LAUER:
But the point of the story is to say alcohol had a control of you, you didn't have control over alcohol.GEORGE W. BUSH:
That's right. And I was a wiseass, and I would do stupid things, and alcohol had control over me. The interesting thing-- I end the anecdote with her writing me a letter on my 50th birthday, when I was governor of Texas, "Dear Governor: Well, what's the answer?"
The anecdote is a humorous one that will nevertheless reinforce the notion that Bush stumbled his way into the White House. Its purpose in the interview and Bush's book, "Decision Points," however, is to serve as a contrast to the person he became later in life. Sober since his 40th birthday, Bush added that he never had a drop of alcohol while in the White House.