{"id":9843,"date":"2007-02-06T10:30:27","date_gmt":"2007-02-06T15:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9843.html"},"modified":"2007-02-06T10:30:27","modified_gmt":"2007-02-06T15:30:27","slug":"isnt-this-the-gops-excuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/isnt-this-the-gops-excuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Isn’t this the GOP’s excuse?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, but it certainly seems like a convenient explanation, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

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.
\n
\nIndeed, it’s quite a list.<\/p>\n

* Former Rep. Mark Foley<\/a> (R-Fla.), after having been caught soliciting teenaged congressional pages, sought treatment for alcohol abuse.<\/p>\n

* Former Rep. Bob Ney<\/a> (R-Ohio), after having been caught taking bribes, also sought treatment for alcohol abuse.<\/p>\n

* David Safavian<\/a>, the former top procurement officer for the Bush administration, cited alcohol abuse when seeking leniency for his role in the Jack Abramoff scandal.<\/p>\n

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

Hasn’t the blame-the-alcohol excuse jumped the shark by now?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}