Howard Dean: I Beat Booze

NewsMax.com ^ | 7/02/03 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff

[kattracks]

Howard Dean and George Bush share one thing in common: both had serious alcohol addictions that they beat.

Both prove anyone with an alcohol problem can still recover and rise to the highest levels of American society.

Months before former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean became a top tier candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, the left-wing Democrat revealed that he had to quit drinking at age 33 because, "I didn’t think I handled liquor well."

Bush has previously said he kicked the habit at age 40.

In an interview with New York Magazine in February, Dean's Yale University buddy Ralph Dawson was asked about the Democrat rising star's student hobbies.

""Well, he drank," Dawson blurted out.

Dean later explained, "I quit drinking when I got married in 1981. I didn’t think I handled liquor well."

Then the candidate revealed that sometimes his drinking caused trouble. "Actually, I drank beer. I tended to misbehave. I had a hangover the next day,” Dean told New York magazine.

The up and coming candidate won't say what kind of misbehavior he indulged in, adding only, "What’s funny when you’re 18 isn’t funny when you’re 30, so I just quit.” He insists that he was never arrested for drunk driving, and there is no alcoholism in his family.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

2004 Elections

[cake_crumb]

"Good analysis, but the effort to compare Dean to Bush in this piece is designed to show he is 'electable'. "

It's starting to scare me in a way too. If a conservative publication like NewsMax can do a piece like this, then look out for the orgasmic puff pieces bound to come from the left-wing media if they choose him as their golden boy.

I saw this morning that the media is pushing him to the front of the pack, just to see how the voters react. They're describing him as the "dark horse candidate" now (it was John Edwards 6 months ago) and going on about how much more money he's raking in than the "rest of the field".

Left's face it, they have 8 candidates and are running out of time. This alchohol thing would have been great for Dean politically....but WE can crush it by bringing up all the leftists' morally superior slams against a quarter-century-old DUI and a former drinking problem on the part of President Bush.

The hypocrisy of the left strikes again.

[jpl]

According to Dean's biography, he got his medical degree in 1978, and he's been in politics since 1982, when he got elected to the Vermont statehouse.

This means a couple of things: number one, this guy was only actually a practicing medical doctor for about four years or so. Second of all, if he didn't quit drinking until 1981, this means that he was a drunk for a significant portion of the time he was actually a practicing medical doctor!

Yeah, this is a guy that should be President of the United States (eyeballs rolling up to the ceiling).

[cake_crumb]

"This means a couple of things: number one, this guy was only actually a practicing medical doctor for about four years or so. Second of all, if he didn't quit drinking until 1981, this means that he was a drunk for a significant portion of the time he was actually a practicing medical doctor!"

Yep <VBEG> I agree with Howlin: letitbehim letitbehim letitbehim.

[onyx]

What's truly amusing to me..... with mean-dean making this admission, it's as though he really thinks he's headed for the nomination! Otherwise, why admit to having a drinking problem, unless he thinks it would surface and be used against him?

[L.N. Smithee]

Then the candidate revealed that sometimes his drinking caused trouble. "Actually, I drank beer. I tended to misbehave. I had a hangover the next day,” Dean told New York magazine.

Are we going to hear of apocryphal pix of Dean on top of a bar au naturel like we did about W?

[Aaron0617]

<..sign> Another Dean story.

What are Kerry and Gephardt doing? How do their campaigns (if they have one) allow this guy to take over the news so much lately.

[sauropod]

Am glad to see he did. Now leave him alone on the topic (to all).

There is plenty to castigate Dean on. Y'all don't need to go after some personal problem he beat in 1981. That is what the other side does.

[schaketo]

Dean later explained, "I quit drinking when I got married in 1981. I didn’t think I handled liquor well."

Calling Martin Sheen! Does this mean Howie is a “white knuckle drunk”?

[sauropod]

Tell me again, Sir Bedevere, how you make ship's sails out of lamb's bladders...

[sauropod]

I prefer Sharpton.

[Paulus Invictus]

Dean should start drinking again as soon as posible. I can't understand the guy when he's sober. He claims to be both a conservative but then says things that place him left of Lenin. What a scum, but all of the nine RATcandidates fit the same description.

[mewzilla]

He insists that he was never arrested for drunk driving, and there is no alcoholism in his family.

Well, since Howie raises the subject of his family, how's your son doing Howie?

[Sloth]

Both prove anyone with an alcohol problem can still recover and rise to the highest levels of American society.

The moral of the story is: Chug-a-lug, kids! If the President can party hard & still get where he is, you can always clean yourself up later. Being irresponsible is the best part of being young!

[Ready4Freddy]

He might have learned from W's not being forthright about his drinking problem. Maybe ppl are learning that it's better to get it all out in the open up front.

[Ready4Freddy]

The poster I responded to made it sound as though Dean had actually uttered that phrase. He may have, but the article certainly didn't indicate that.

Agree with you on NM, but they're good for a hoot some days.

[schaketo]

2.30 AM
The telephone rings at the Vermont hotel's front desk.
"Vermont hotel, good afternoon, what can I do for you ?"
"hello, this is Howie Dean, can ye tell me what time the bar opens ?"
"4 am sir" the response is.

3:00 AM
The phone rings again.
"Vermont hotel, good morning, what can I do for you?"
"Pleez ca you thzsell me when thse bar openzzz "
"Mr. Dean, I already told you the bar opens at 4 AM"

3.10 AM

Again the phone.
"Vermont hotel, good morning, what I can I do for you?"
"Zzzaay, when doezzzz sdyfyu bar open?"
"Governor Dean, this is the last time I'm going tell you: you are not going to get into the bar before 4 AM"
"But I don't wonne get in, I wonne get out!!"

[Miss Marple]

Bush WAS forthright with his drinking problem. Where were you? He answered questions about it in several interviews!

The ONLY thing he didn't disclose was the DUI, which was supposed to have been expunged from the records.

[onyx]

W not only admitted his drinking probem, but he also praised Laura for standing by him! It was the long ago driving incident in Maine that he didn't mention.

[Bullish]

Dean doesn't appear to be a formidable candidate at all.

The real enemy of Bush is the left wing media scum-masters who will go into full slime mode against Dubya.

The other side of that coin is that whoever the pinko media selects as their candidate will get all the good press in the world. For free!

If Dean's their guy, they'll ride him around on their shoulders untill election day.

[Right Wing Professor]

Dollars to donuts he's admitting this now because one of his rivals has some opposition research on his drunken antics, and he's leaking it in order to defuse the story and to be able to claim it's old news. Wonder what it will be? DUI? Public indecency?

I guess we'lll find out soon enough.