Is Bush nearly off the wagon or already in the gutter?

By Libby

We've been hearing periodic rumors about Bush, an admitted alcoholic, having fallen off the wagon for a couple of years and now The Daily Mail reports that Bush and Blair bonded over a beer at the G-8 conference. Of course, it was near beer and judging from the photo, it appears to be a Buckners, which is indeed sold as non-alcholic beverage.

In my experience, most people think that doesn't really count but the designation non-alcoholic is a misnomer. Most near beers are do in fact contain .05 percent alcohol. For a normal drinker, that percentage won't have an intoxicating effect but for an alcholic, even that tiny amount can trigger the disease. That's not just my opinion, there's a scientific study to prove it.

But I don't need to see the study to know that's true. I've been living with alcoholics all my life. The disease runs in my family, my first husband is an alcoholic and in the three years I was a bartender I've dealt with a lot of drunks. And I can say with absolute certainty that an alcoholic falls off the wagon with the first sip of alcohol. It doesn't matter if he stops at one near-beer or drinks a case of Budweiser, the wagon rolls out of sight as soon as he raises that first glass.

One thing I learned about near-beer when I was bartending is when an alcoholic swears off booze, at first they might drink soda water or juice when they return to the bar to socialize with their friends. Inevitably, when they switch to near beer, "to fit in with the crowd," it almost always indicated that they had started drinking on the sly and chose near beer at the bar in order to preserve the illusion that they were off the sauce. It was only a matter of time before they gave up the act and went back to public drunkeness.

Now, having no direct knowledge, I'm not accusing the president of anything and I doubt if you'll ever see him throwing back shots of tequila at the next state dinner, but I think it's not a good sign when he's willing to be seen in public quaffing an almost real brew. Especially in light of his making such a huge deal about his religious conversion from substance abuse.

It's a warning signal we would do well not to ignore. A drunken Commander Guy can put us into a whole lot more danger than all the terrorists in the world.