THE DECIDER-IN-CHIEF: A DRUNK WITH POWER

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From Capitol Hill Blue

 

The Rant

The decider-in-chief: A drunk with power

By DOUG THOMPSON

Apr 19, 2006, 03:25

 

 

 

 

I'm having a hard time keeping up with all of George W. Bush's titles.

 

He likes to call himself the commander-in-chief, a hypocritical

stance since he did everything in his and his daddy's power to avoid

going to war during the Vietnam era. Perhaps coward-in-chief would be

more appropriate.

 

He also loves to call himself a " war time president, " another blatant

use of fantasy since the only war he manages is the one he created

himself based on lies and fabricated rationale.

 

Now he's got a new, self-indulgent title.

 

" I'm the decider, and I decide what is best, " Bush declared in a sort-

of-stirring defense of embattled defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

 

Decider-in-chief? A key statement to the arrogance that is George W.

Bush.

 

" I decide what is best, " he says.

 

For Bush the game has always been about power. Absolute power.

Dictatorial power.

 

This is the American President who said: " it would be much easier if

this was a dictatorship, as long as I get to be the dictator. "

 

At the time some people thought he was joking. Those who know him

knew he wasn't.

 

" Of all the Presidents I've served or observed, George W. Bush is the

least receptive to the opinion of others, " says political scientist

George Harleigh, who served in both the Nixon and Reagan

administrations. " He has no interest in what others think and he

doesn't listen to the advice of experts or professionals. "

 

In 1999, while completing a profile of Harris County, Texas, Judge

Robert Eckels, I interviewed a number of Texas political observers.

Republican and Democrat alike agreed that then Gov. George W. Bush

was stubborn, arrogant and used to having his own way.

 

" He's an asshole, " said Tom Delaney, who worked on Bush's second

gubernatorial campaign. " He can smile at you while cutting off your

balls. "

 

Dr. Justin Frank, a prominent George Washington University

psychiatrist and author of the book, Bush on the Couch: Inside the

Mind of the President, says Bush has a cruel, sadistic streak that

goes back to his childhood when a young George gleefully bragged

about dissecting cats, cutting them open while they were still alive.

 

The boy who tortured cats, Dr. Frank says, grew up into an alcohol-

abusing bully who strikes out at anyone who opposes him.

 

All one has to do is confront the President and the bully emerges.

 

" To actually directly confront him in a clear way, to bring him out,

so you would really see the bully, and you would also see the fear, "

he says.

 

Dr. Frank also believes Bush, an alcoholic who brags that he gave up

booze without help from groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, may be

drinking again.

 

" Two questions that the press seems particularly determined to ignore

have hung silently in the air since before Bush took office, " Dr.

Frank says. " Is he still drinking? And if not, is he impaired by all

the years he did spend drinking? Both questions need to be addressed

in any serious assessment of his psychological state. "

 

As a recovering alcoholic (11 years, 10 months and 13 days sober), I

agree with Dr. Frank's assessment. Bush demonstrates many of the

traits of a drinker who has relapsed: An inability to focus, moments

where he goes " blank " and can't respond, incoherent sentences and

flashes of anger when challenged.

 

" The pattern of blame and denial, which recovering alcoholics work so

hard to break, seems to be ingrained in the alcoholic personality.

It's rarely limited to his or her drinking, " Dr. Frank says. " The

habit of placing blame and denying responsibility is so prevalent in

George W. Bush's personal history that it is apparently triggered by

even the mildest threat. "

 

So it's no surprise that the self-declared " decider-in-chief " is an

arrogant hothead who probably sneaks a drink or two during the day.

He's a paranoid, fear-mongering bully who openly abuses power and,

thanks to the gullible American voting public, he can, and will

continue to, abuse that power.

 

A drunk: That's the title George W. Bush deserves most. He is a drunk

even if he doesn't get blasted on booze. He's drunk with power and

that's the most dangerous kind of drunk. When a drunk who gets high

on power sits in the White House, the rest of us wake up with the

hangover.

 

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