ScottP Posted August 26, 2004 Posted August 26, 2004 ...it's pretty creepy: By TERESA HAMPTON Editor, Capitol Hill Blue Jul 28, 2004, 08:09 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." 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 as 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 wondered 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." Quote
hohm Posted August 26, 2004 Posted August 26, 2004 If I was Bush, I would probably feel paranoid, erratic, and depressed as well, considering my role in the events of the past 4 years. Quote
Figger_Eight Posted August 26, 2004 Posted August 26, 2004 "We have to face the very real possibility that the President of the United States is loony tunes," possibility...? Quote
Dru Posted August 26, 2004 Posted August 26, 2004 Didnt Nixon suck back the Valiums? And Kennedy smoked herb in da House reportedly Quote
glacier Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 Not to mention the liberal use of alcohol by many - Grant, Taft, Churchill (yeah, I know he's not a president), etc... Quote
EWolfe Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 I think another line of work would help immensely. Quote
Dr_Flash_Amazing Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 I think another line of work would help immensely. Federal inmate? Quote
EWolfe Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 Would you trust him to make YOUR license plate? Quote
rbw1966 Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 Would you trust him to make YOUR license plate? Put a wig on him and I bet he'd make some cell-mate very very happy. Quote
Ireneo_Funes Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 I think another line of work would help immensely. Federal inmate? No, that wouldn't be appropriate... send the whole gang (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz...hell, Powell too) to Abu Ghraib for a dose of their own medicine. Where's the naked-prisoner-on-a-leash icon? Quote
RobBob Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 While I'm not a fan of GWB, I find that the article smacks of Dan -'s writing style. Quote
Off_White Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 I hear you RobBob, Bush sucks green donkey dicks, but phrases like "secretive cadre of aides that surround the President" set off my bullshit detector. One would hope that one's aides can keep a secret, it goes with the job description, and cadre is supposed to make it sound sinister, but duh, of course there is more than one. It the info is true, it doesn't need the drama of creative writing to increase the impact, the unvarnished facts would be quite enough. It's not to say I don't believe the info, just that the writer would do well to cultivate a little journalistic restraint. She might as well be wearing a giant puppet head. Quote
EWolfe Posted August 27, 2004 Posted August 27, 2004 Thread Hijack! Bwahahahaha! Shooting robins with a pellet gun, then checking regularly to watch the ants and bees devour the little redbreast. Quote
E-rock Posted August 28, 2004 Posted August 28, 2004 Both of you clearly had early signs of anti-social personality disorder. Thankfully you discovered climbing in time to curtail your psychotic urges. Quote
Figger_Eight Posted August 28, 2004 Posted August 28, 2004 Thread Hijack! Bwahahahaha! Shooting robins with a pellet gun, then checking regularly to watch the ants and bees devour the little redbreast. Geezuz Quote
whirlwind Posted August 28, 2004 Posted August 28, 2004 i think it's bs as well, i dislike Bush but can you imagiane any phyciotrist giving confidential information to any one. 1) he'd lose his licence (cource he'd sell a shit load of books) 2) he'd get sued and lose all the money he made from the books but who knows Quote
larrythellama Posted August 28, 2004 Posted August 28, 2004 if anything he prolly just smokes rove's pole. Quote
pope Posted August 29, 2004 Posted August 29, 2004 The name "Dr. Justin Frank" sounded like a fictional character (like a name created from "just 'n' frank"), but apparently this guy's for real and his book is Amazon's 436th best seller. Hardcover: 272 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.93 x 9.24 x 6.56 Publisher: Regan Books; (June 15, 2004) ISBN: 0060736704 Average Customer Review: Based on 48 reviews. Write a review. Amazon.com Sales Rank: 436 (Publishers and authors: improve your sales) On a related note, here's an Eiger Sanction quiz: what is the first name of the Mr. Dragon, the CII spy network director? Quote
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