Did another poster guess that Rove might have planted the Enquirer story?

[DeepModem Mom]

Assume Bush has started drinking again, and the MSM is close to reporting it. What is the best face you could put on it? From the Enquirer:


..."When the levees broke in New Orleans, it apparently made him reach for a shot," said one insider. "He poured himself a Texas-sized shot of straight whiskey and tossed it back. The First Lady was shocked and shouted: "Stop George!"...

***

Bush is under the worst pressure of his two terms in office and his popularity is near an all-time low. The handling of the Katrina crisis and troop losses in Iraq have fueled public discontent and pushed Bush back to drink.

A Washington source said: "The sad fact is that he has been sneaking drinks for weeks now. Laura may have only just caught him — but the word is his drinking has been going on for a while in the capital. He's been in a pressure cooker for months.

"The war in Iraq, the loss of American lives, has deeply affected him. He takes every soldier's life personally. It has left him emotionally drained.

The result is he's taking drinks here and there, likely in private, to cope. "And now with the worst domestic crisis in his administration over Katrina, you pray his drinking doesn't go out of control."...

http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/63426


Note, "you pray." If he's fallen off the wagon, is his base meant to pray that poor W finds strength in this troubled time, with so much pressure on him, and war and Katrina deaths weighing on his sensitive soul?


ON EDIT, ANOTHER POSSIBILITY --

mirrera has reminded me in post #3 that Rove has often planted true stories in disreputable sources, so they can be debunked. He absolutely has done that!

[mr_hat]

1. All of those photo-ops in NO have taken him back. Literally.

[hardrainfallin]

2. New Rule: 'Recovering alcoholics' should be barred from the presidency. nt

[mr_hat]

4. He's never admitted to being an alcoholic. >

And recovery is an active process, not one of denial. Hence "dry drunk."

[rzemanfl]

5. I have been recovering for twenty years and sort of resent that,

although AA requires "rigorous honesty"-which probably disqualifies any recovering person from politics-I can assure you it sure made it tough to practice law when I still did that.

[Booster]

11. I quit drinking in 1986 and everytime somebody asks me how I

did it, I always tell them AA because I hated those meetings so bad, I decided no drink was worth going to those meetings. I was court ordered to go, but AA really was what made me stop.

[Tace]

28. Really -- I Had A Bad Hangover Once, And Checked Out A Meeting

Scared the living shit out of me! Now I avoid hangovers. : )

[hardrainfallin]

12. In the first place, would you really want to be president?

In the second place, I think if you take alcoholism seriously as a disease and if you take the office of the Presidency seriously, then you have to conclude that the two don't mix.

It's a totally high-pressure, high-stress job that puts the recovering alcoholic at undue risk and puts the nation at undue risk.

I'm tired of the bullshit about "anyone can be president" -- well anyone can't teach, for example, at a university. Anyone can't be admitted to the bar and practice law.

And there are certain health conditions that I think SHOULD prevent people from assuming public offices at this level (I'd include Cheney's heart condition in that category: it's not about "discrimination" it's about fucking SECURITY for christ's sake! In Cheney's case, j.h.christ, who knows when the guy's going to keel over with a heart attack? It's a risk I, as EMPLOYER , would not want to take.]

Shit, if people can be fired nowadays for SMOKING CIGARETTES, then I think a history of alcoholism and substance abuse is enough to disqualify someone from the presidency. Doesn't mean you can't go out in the "private" sector and get a job that pays twice that.

Sorry, but I don't want my tax dollars invested in such high-risk personnel.

So resent all you want--it's not about "making judgments", it's about risk management for christs sake. And common sense.

[rzemanfl]

14. I think this is a slight overreaction to my "sort of resent that"

comment. There are many recovering people I'd trust as President more than Bush (probably even some active drunks) but they wouldn't be my first choice either.

[hardrainfallin]

15. I'd trust a pothead before I'd trust a drunk.

Sorry, too much experience in that boat. Too much.

The most dangerous drugs in our society are the ones that are legal.

[rzemanfl]

16. Well, potheads don't pass out at critical moments....but they

might get the munchies and wander off.

[hardrainfallin]

17. personally, I've never seen a pothead do anything to endanger

someone else's life.

I cannot say the same about alkies.

At any rate, there are few positions I feel should be absolutely "drug-free"--the office of the President is one of them.

Besides, I know enough people (myself included) who drink (and smoke) responsibly. It's the least we can expect of our elected officials.

I'd never teach a class (at any level, i.e. from K - college) on pot or on booze, so if, I, in my lowly little rank-and-file position can adhere to that basic ground rule, well.....

[rzemanfl]

19. Many potheads drive and operate machinery while they are

high,, but I agree they are a lot less dangerous than drunks. Do you always take everything so seriously? A little levity from time-to-time can take the edge off of living in BushWorld.

[hardrainfallin]

25. No. I don't take everything seriously, and certainly agree that a little

levity (and a lot of weed!) is the only way to take the edge off living in Bushworld.

I'm just livid about the spectacle we are witnessing, ie with people LOSING THEIR LIVES, over an irresponsible fucking lush who can't keep his drinking to himself.

[samdogmom]

20. Thank you! n/t

[mirrera]

3. Exactly! If he's drinking it aint cause of "feelings"...

I was wondering the same thing. Plant it in a disreputable way, discredit source...bingo message dead with the messanger.


http://NoBullshiRt.com

[DeepModem Mom]

7. YOU'RE RIGHT -- that is Rove's more usual method! nt

[Carla in Ca]

9. But wasn't he gone for a while?

He has kidney stones and wasn't around. * can't function without him.

[DeepModem Mom]

10. I think he's back. nt

[Carla in Ca]

18. Yes, but he was gone when * supposedly

started drinking.

[Minnesota_Lib]

27. Yeah..I just can't see him getting overly upset about the suffering..

of others. Now, if he had started chugging the stuff a few days later after the public outrage over his lack of response shook his little world, I could see that.

[applegrove]

6. To make the President seem 'weak' in his responce instead of

vicious & cold in the grand experiment? Who knows. Take everything with a grain of salt. There seems to be an inordinant amount of "leaks" re: Bush behaviour of late.

[Cha]

8. I don't know shit..but that

dialogue reported in the ne sounded a wee bit phoney.."Stop George"?

But, maybe they talk phoney that way..I don't know.

[Gman]

13. They have always been good at setting low expectations

and letting these things out ahead of time to lessen the impact. Looks like Rove's fingerprints to me. It doesn't mean something coming out is imminent. This is probably a "just in case".

[LittleClarkie]

21. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.

"The war in Iraq, the loss of American lives, has deeply affected him. He takes every soldier's life personally. It has left him emotionally drained."

That old sociopath? Bah.

[UTUSN]

22. Yip, It's the ROVE m.o. - Plant TRUE Item with Flawed Messenger

Pre-empt the item's breaking in "reputable" messenger. He did it with Fortunate Son, did it with the CBS episode, and many before and after.

Recommended.

[fishnfla]

23. Rove was in the hospital with kidney stones when the levees broke

according to one story. Could be a plant for this one too?

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

24. The biggest lie: 'the loss of American lives has deeply affected him'

Other than being unable to connect his actions (starting and continuing to pursue an unnecessary and illegal war) with the consequences (1,900+ U.S. deaths, tens of thousands of civilian Iraqi deaths, untold numbers of injured on both sides), how can a person who holds the death penalty record -- someone who makes fun of a condemned woman -- be said to be "deeply affected" by what happens to someone else?

At least the story got play in a place where people will see it for a week. It's not "How Laura Lives With the Pain of Killing Her Former Lover", but it'll do.

[bklyncowgirl]

26. The drop in his poll number has effected him greatly nothing else

Bush was going to be a war president, a strong leader--not like his father. According to some that was his real reason for invading Iraq. Now his vanity war has turned into a disaster, the economy's a disaster waiting to happen and now hurrican Katrina has just handed him the dubious distinction of being the first President to lose a major American city.

The shit has hit the fan--Poppy's starting to look pretty good these days and Bush knows he's inadequate.

No wonder he needs a drink.

[union_maid]

29. I have another theory

Not far from that. Mine is that he's damaged goods. No good to them anymore. They're turning on him. If the country thinks that it's fallen into ruin because of an alcoholic president, maybe they'll just think about that until 2008 and Cheney and the rest of them can finish what they started - stealing everything that not nailed down and everything that is, as well. Or maybe if the country assigns the disastrous state we're in to one man's personal weakness it won't hurt the Republicans as much in 2006 as thinking that Bush has governed stone cold sober. It's just the tinfoil hat theory that I'm working with at the moment.

[Tace]

30. I've Argued That This Is A Setup For *'s Early Retirement...

to be replaced by Cheney before the midterms.

However, looking at the other side of a Rovian plant, the idea of planting a true story in a disreputable source to discredit the story, two other possibilities:

1) He's doing some stuff a lot less legal and acceptable than liquor, and this will be the cover story, or;

2) The fact that half *'s base (and 90% of DU, apparently) will believe this stuff doesn't matter in the least. In fact it doesn't matter if it's completely true and every voter in the country believes it, because we haven't had a fair presidential election since at least 2000, and we won't again for a long time, if ever, so it's just all for show.

[confludemocrat]

31. Been my belief expressed in all the bush booze threads: sumpin' smells

too many little plants of his caring about others deaths: deaths in Iraq have "affected him" (yeah, right), and started drinking when the levee broke (all upset about it-suuure, oh suuurrre!)

That's not the Bush we all know from countless instances of callousness or apathy about the difficulties of others.

[justgamma]

32. That was my first thoughts.

It sounds like a Rove thing. He wanted to get a good spin on the story ( Shrub cares), Where would be a good place to "leak" a preemptive story that may come out in the MSM. In a gossip tabloid that has a shady reputation, of course.
Next the spin will be that those mean democrats pushed him to drink.