The Drunken Driving Duo, Bush and Cheney

In the last two Presidential elections little note was taken of the fact that in their earlier days, GW Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney, both ran afoul of the legal system for driving while under the influence of drink. I suppose that one reason is that people were unable to make the obvious inference that, if elected, the pair just might conduct the governmental affairs of the United States of America while in a similarly tipsy condition, with the intoxicant this time being power instead of alcohol -- or both. But so it has happened.

People probably also thought, "Well so what if those ol' young boys got DUI's? That was a long time ago, and boys will be boys. And anyway a good number of us, maybe the majority, have driven at some time or another while our systems were temporarily overloaded with alcohol. That doesn't mean that these boys were or are habitual drunkards, bless their little hearts."

That may be so, but still... Based on the statistic that came out many years ago and to my knowledge hasn't yet been refuted or even seriously challenged, 1 out of every 25 drivers that you see on the road are legally drunk. And that means that it is all but certain that you have already driven a good many times while loaded before one day you weave back and forth across the centerline a little too much, and finally you are easily noticed by someone in his cop car, who stirs himself out of his own sort of daze enough to pull you over for the offense.

I don't recall hearing MADD, the Mothers Against Drunk Driving, come out in force against the Bush-Cheney tickets in 2000 and again four years later. But they are so angry and aggressive -- or at least they used to be, and with good reason -- that they are probably conservatives, and maybe that made it possible for them to overlook those clouds in the candidates' past.

Still, in 2000 it could be easily anticipated by all but the feeble-minded and the evil-minded that the broad policies pushed through later by the Drunken Driving Duo would be harmful to the nation and the world. The conflagration to which they lit the fuse in Iraq is the most conspicuous example. But now it turns out that during their terms both men, despite their elevated status, have been highly harmful to others on more personal levels, physically, and to their friends and boosters to boot.

Everyone knows how a few weeks ago Cheney nearly took the life of one of his close friends and supporters by not looking at his target and carelessly spraying the man in the face and chest with a load of pellets fired from a shotgun, while supposedly quail hunting in Texas.

Now, according to the Rachel Maddow program on Air America, we hear that during a trip to the British Isles, GW Bush lost control of his mountain bike while riding "hard" on a wet road. After being struck either by the bike or by the flying, presumptive President of the United States, or both, a Scottish policeman had to be whisked to the hospital, so badly injured that it was 14 (!) weeks before he could go back to work. GW Bush himself suffered some scratches. I didn't catch what happened to the mountain bike.

This happened a while ago, but in keeping with the strictly adhered-to Bush/Cheney policies of Secrets and Lies, we are only now hearing about this mishap, as reported in a Scottish newspaper, just as the hunting accident was only revealed, also a little late, in a Texas newspaper, and not by the White House press corps, the Press Secretary, or even the perhaps more prestigious, these days, Examiner.

These and many other events show beyond any doubt that the good judgment of both men is lower than that of the great majority of American citizens, while their recklessness is higher. On every level they are a threat to the well-being and life of anyone who crosses their path. Yet they are accepted as the best that the country can do for its top leaders.


There's something wrong with everything when you have a situation like this!