Isn’t this the GOP’s excuse?

February 6, 2007

Just yesterday, I mocked a top GOP aide for accusing Dems of “stealing” Republican ideas. As it turns out, I may have been too hasty.

Just days after disclosing his affair with a staff member married to one of his top political aides, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom admitted Monday he has a drinking problem and said he would seek treatment for alcohol abuse.

During a regularly scheduled weekly meeting with department leaders in City Hall, Newsom said he has stopped drinking and that he is seeking professional help for his dependency.

In a statement issued by his press office after the meeting, the mayor said he has no plans to step down from his job while he undergoes treatment.

“Upon reflection with friends and family this weekend, I have come to the conclusion that I will be a better person without alcohol in my life,” he said in the three-paragraph statement. “I take full responsibility for my personal mistakes, and my problems with alcohol are not an excuse for my personal lapses in judgment.”

No, but it certainly seems like a convenient explanation, doesn’t it?

I certainly don’t mean to make light of Newsom’s alcohol dependence, and I wish him well as he seeks treatment. But I can’t help but notice that a) alcohol has come the excuse d’jour for politicians caught in all kinds of compromising situations; and b) before Newsom, this has been the excuse of choice for the GOP, not the Dems.

Indeed, it’s quite a list.

* Former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.), after having been caught soliciting teenaged congressional pages, sought treatment for alcohol abuse.

* Former Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), after having been caught taking bribes, also sought treatment for alcohol abuse.

* David Safavian, the former top procurement officer for the Bush administration, cited alcohol abuse when seeking leniency for his role in the Jack Abramoff scandal.

* VP Dick Cheney (with multiple DUI convictions on his record) noted that he’d had a few beers before he shot an old man in the face.

Hasn’t the blame-the-alcohol excuse jumped the shark by now?

And really, this stuff is insulting to alcohol! After all, the only way to abuse alcohol is to dump it down the drain… that’s alcohol abuse… Merely drinking it is doing what it was intended to do…

As for me, I can proudly say that I have no problems with alcohol (only without…)! Cheers!

  • I find it a lot easier to believe that someone might have an affair if they drank too much than that they would become financially corrupt, selling votes and such. But what do I know… I’m not a Republican.

    BTW, the last line has a typo (remove “has”)

  • Having an affair is a lapse of judgment in one area. Alcoholism indicates a lapse of judgment in many areas. Kind of a weak excuse.

  • Well, from my experience of politics, the fact they’re all (with some rare exceptions) sleazy drunks is not new news. They’re also all (without exception) supreme egotists who get to the point where they think they can do anything. Very few of them have a “no man” on staff – that’s someone who they trust enough that that person can tell them “no” on things and make it stick, that they’ll listen (my boss was smart enough to have one – me – and he never got in trouble, though we had some big-time disagreements). Most of the time, staffers are enablers of whatever bad behavior there is going on, since helping the boss is the road to promotion.

    If you want to see politics in action behind the scenes, go get hold of the 1979 movie “The Seduction of Joe Tynan,” done by Alan Alda. That movie was close to a documentary in its truth-telling back then, and I’m sure the stuff shown there still goes on, with only the details of the crises du jour any different.

    plus ca change…

  • As usual, the press is not calling any of these people on it.

    If someone were to ask any of these people “why alcohol abuse, when your crime/mistake/societal problem is clearly not about alcohol at all?”

  • …before Newsom, this has been the excuse of choice for the GOP, not the Dems.

    Technically, since Patrick Kennedy claimed addication to prescription medicine caused his car crash last year. But he did end up going to AA.

  • MEA GULPA. What ever happened to resigning and disappearing into to the sunset never to be heard of again? Are our expectations of the conduct of our elected officials so low that they think this is an acceptable excuse? Do the right thing; resign goddamit, show our elected leaders what it is to be a real man and what real men do, you wimp!

  • See? Democrats ARE stealing GOPer ideas!

    Actually, I think most pols view themselves as celebrities and what do celebrities blame when they get in trouble? (Hint: Think sMel Gibbon.)

    However, based on observations of non-recovered alcoholics, they do stupid shit because they think they’re invincible, everyone else is stupid and they can just charm/shout/fight their way out of trouble if they do get caught. Screwing your best friend’s wife fits the profile. However, so does whining “the booze made me do it.”

    Shaddup and get thee to an AA meeting.

    On a side note, stuff like this convinces me BushBrat MUST have a record, or he would, if daddykins hadn’t covered it up.

  • don’t forget about young patrick kennedy … oh & also his Uncle Teddy at Chappaquiddick

    I think they are both dems …

  • To Newsom’s defense, he is one of the principals of the Plumpjack group (http://www.plumpjack.com/principals.html) which owns Plumpjack winery. Being around alcohol all the time may have its effects. Not that I don’t think it sounds like a convenient excuse, but there are legitimate underpinnings for his claim. Now if he starts talking about finding Jesus, then I’ll admit he stole one right of the Repub handbook.

  • Heck far, the man owns a vineyard, a winery and some restaurants, he’s ripe for a drinkin’ problem. Give him a break. And didn’t his wife just leave him after admitting she was gettin’ some on the side? Dadgummit, the man could use 30 days of R&R to let the whole thing blow over. By the time he gets back to the office at least a couple of the GOP candidates for Pres will be caught boozin’ and carousin’ – again.

  • give him a break? of course he would’nt betray the trust of the voters, they are important to him, although his friend & campaign manager apparently was not. any way this was on his on personal time, when he is on company time he is trustworthy, and he surely keeps work & personal life separate, and this is just the kind of guy to lead us … what a character … one day he could be president where this kind of behavior is not that unique

  • I am sure its those San Francisco values…LOL

    I am sure Bill O’Reilly will spend 1/2 his show covering Newsom and his alcohol excuse….

    Shame on Newsom for showing bad judgement and using alcohol as an excuse….

  • When people abuse alcohol, their whole life goes into the ashcan, and it doesn’t matter what party they claim to be members of. One of Gavin Newsom’s former staffers told me some time ago that he needed to go to a re-hab program, and this is probably just a small part of the story of a life out of control.

    Even if this marks the end of his career, which I doubt, I am grateful to Gavin Newsom for bringing the issue of equity to the subject of gay marriage. I wish him well, and if he is sucessful in his quest for recovery, I hope that he is re-elected

  • I agree with Tom Cleaver (#4). Most politicians have never grown up psychologically. Many of those I knew back in my San Francisco days were outrageous boozers, one among the many risks they take assuming they’ll never get caught. It’s the same logic, or lack of it, which impels teenagers to race cars … the belief that death will never happen to them. It’s the mindset which keeps George Walker Bush and the Bush Crime Family from ever even thinking about the indebtedness and lost lives Commander Codpiece’s thrills cost the rest of us.

  • Being a recovering alcoholic for 12 years I have to admit that Newsoms story is not all that surprising. On a business trip several years ago I myself had a drunken affair that lasted 3 months until I moved on to a different business location never to have contact with her again. So in Gavins case I can understand his weakness especially if the other player was a willing recipant. Peace out you all!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Time to vote all idiots out of office. He’s got too many problems, out of control. Another great role model for the kids…

    Next!

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