Our Dry Drunk President

Rocker/songwriter Steve Earle is interviewed by the Independent (uk) and tells some stories about George W. Bush and Alcoholics Anonymous. Which kind of blows the anonymity part of it, but there you go. (hat tip to Suburban Guerrilla)

"Somebody told me you said you resemble George W Bush in some ways..."

"Absolutely. I was with some people, and they were all asking about Bush. 'Why is he the way he is? Why does he keep repeating his mistakes?' I told them: Bush, like me, is a recovering addict. And George W Bush..." Earle stops himself. "I can't say what I was going to say, because it would be busting his anonymity."

There is the hint of a pause.

"But fuck him. I can't stand the motherfucker. George W Bush went to AA meetings when he was governor of Texas. I know people who... he was seen in meetings all the time he was governor, in Austin."

"That doesn't make him a bad person."

"No. But the reason this is important is that now, as President of the United States, going to Twelve-Step meetings is impossible. There are rules about that and the CIA writes those rules. The guy who established Alcoholics Anonymous took the principles from something called the Oxford Group, which was totally Anglican, then made a system that worked for anybody - even if they were agnostic."

"So AA meetings tempered Bush's instincts?"

"From the moment he took office, the Christian rhetoric started to ratchet up. In his life, he replaced the Twelve-Step Programme with fundamentalist Christianity. I really believe that."