Is Bush Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior

[RodneyCK2]

I found this article posted on a blog. Has anyone heard anything about this? If so, it is quite scary...


Bush Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior
By TERESA HAMPTON, Editor, * Editor, Capitol Hill Blue


President George W. Bush is taking powerful anti-depressant drugs to control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue has learned.

The prescription drugs, administered by Col. Richard J. Tubb, the White House physician, can impair the President’s mental faculties and decrease both his physical capabilities and his ability to respond to a crisis, administration aides admit privately.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” says one aide. “We can’t have him flying off the handle at the slightest provocation but we also need a President who is alert mentally.”


Angry Bush walked away from reporter's questions on 8 July

Tubb prescribed the anti-depressants after a clearly-upset Bush stormed off stage on July 8, refusing to answer reporters' questions about his relationship with indicted Enron executive Kenneth J. Lay.

“Keep those motherfuckers away from me,” he screamed at an aide backstage. “If you can’t, I’ll find someone who can.”

Bush’s mental stability has become the topic of Washington whispers in recent months. Capitol Hill Blue first reported on June 4 about increasing concern among White House aides over the President’s wide mood swings and obscene outbursts.

Although GOP loyalists dismissed the reports an anti-Bush propaganda, the reports were later confirmed by prominent George Washington University psychiatrist Dr. Justin Frank in his book Bush on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President. Dr. Frank diagnosed the President as a “paranoid meglomaniac” and “untreated alcoholic” whose “lifelong streak of sadism, ranging from childhood pranks (using firecrackers to explode frogs) to insulting journalists, gloating over state executions and pumping his hand gleefully before the bombing of Baghdad” showcase Bush’s instabilities.

“I was really very unsettled by him and I started watching everything he did and reading what he wrote and watching him on videotape. I felt he was disturbed,” Dr. Frank said. “He fits the profile of a former drinker whose alcoholism has been arrested but not treated.”

Dr. Frank’s conclusions have been praised by other prominent psychiatrists, including Dr. James Grotstein, Professor at UCLA Medical Center, and Dr. Irvin Yalom, MD, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University Medical School.

The doctors also worry about the wisdom of giving powerful anti-depressant drugs to a person with a history of chemical dependency. Bush is an admitted alcoholic, although he never sought treatment in a formal program, and stories about his cocaine use as a younger man haunted his campaigns for Texas governor and his first campaign for President.

“President Bush is an untreated alcoholic with paranoid and megalomaniac tendencies,” Dr. Frank adds.The White House did not return phone calls seeking comment on this article.

Although the exact drugs Bush takes to control his depression and behavior are not known, White House sources say they are “powerful medications” designed to bring his erratic actions under control. While Col. Tubb regularly releases a synopsis of the President’s annual physical, details of the President’s health and any drugs or treatment he may receive are not public record and are guarded zealously by the secretive cadre of aides that surround the President.

Veteran White House watchers say the ability to control information about Bush’s health, either physical or mental, is similar to Ronald Reagan’s second term when aides managed to conceal the President’s increasing memory lapses that signaled the onslaught of Alzheimer’s Disease.

It also brings back memories of Richard Nixon’s final days when the soon-to-resign President wandered the halls and talked to portraits of former Presidents. The stories didn’t emerge until after Nixon left office.

One long-time GOP political consultant who – for obvious reasons – asked not to be identified said he is advising his Republican Congressional candidates to keep their distance from Bush.

“We have to face the very real possibility that the President of the United States is loony tunes,” he says sadly. “That’s not good for my candidates, it’s not good for the party and it’s certainly not good for the country.”

[Boomer]

1. You're a few threads behind

Several Capitol Hill Blue articles on Bush's mental health (or lack thereof) have been posted to the General Discussion board. There is a lot of skepticism concerning the journalistic reliability of CHB, but on the other hand, would any of us really be surprised if this was true?

[John Q. Citizen]

2. careful with this source

Some have said on DU that the site Capitol Hill Blue isn't very reliable.

I don't know. I can't find any other confirmation for the story, and most of the sources in the piece are unnamed.

On the other hand, who knows?

Right after the 2000 elections (while Florida was front page)Bush disappeared for 5 or 6 days and he looked pretty bad the first time he re-emerged.

[RodneyCK2]

3. Disappeared? To funny...

I never knew that, thanks for sharing. Sorry guys if this was old news (or made up news, whichever is the case). It was the first I have read about it.

I am sure if it is true, we will find out the real story 15 to 30 years down the road, hopefully sooner. These things have a way of leaking out.

[Robert Murphy]

4. No Need to Apologize...

...Rodney--one can't stay abreast with everything posted on this board--unless one is a moderator. ;-) But... I think Mr. John Q,'s point is entirely valid: this is a dubious accusation, without any reliable facts to back it up. Remember, we are Democrats: we may have just (re-)learned how to play hardball, but we play fair; unlike many in the Republican party, we don't take innuendo as fact... ;)

Cheers,

Robert

[anti_shrub]

5. Not sure if CHB is legit, but there IS something wrong.......

Look at Shrubbie during his dad's campaigns. He was way more coherent and intellegent sounding. Hell, he sounds like William F Buckley compared to his 2004 self.

I'm convinced the pretzel incident was the result of passing out drunk too. Maybe mixed booze and medications?

This is something that needs looked into for the safety of the nation, even conservatives should be concerned. But then again, Rush proved that the standard conservative view on drug addiction is flexible.

[Robert Murphy]

6. I Must Respectfully Disagree..

Anti-Shrub,

There is by no means any evidence to support this. Perhaps it is true--although this seems unlikely. (If for no other reason than W.--to me at least--seems no less lucid than he did in his brain-dead debates in 2000 with Gore....) We Dems must remain above aping the tactics of the Wingnuts, who would have us believe Cinton dealt cocaine while raping four women and having up to 70 people (including his close friend Vince Foster) wacked. No, this bit in Capitol Hill Blue is not in the Mellon-Scaife league when it comes to outrageous baseless accusations, but it is close.

The facts are on our side; we can play hard, but fair, and win.

Cheers,

Robert

[michigandem2]

7. I read this last week sometime

It did kinda peak my interest but the way its written it sounds like an article in the Enquirer or something...
It could be true..in fact I sent it to Al to have him get his Harvard team to maybe do some research...and I know of someone who sent it to some other places to maybe get someone to investigate it further..but its something they will keep tight...like Reagan maybe having AH in office...I would like to know if my President is incompetent..ya know? but whatever...it doesn't matter he will need some heavy meds come November 3rd...