Katherine van Wormer: Bush and Dry Drunk Syndrome: "Dry drunk is a slang term used by members and supporters of Alcoholics Anonymous and substance abuse counselors to describe the recovering alcoholic who is no longer drinking, one who is dry, but whose thinking is clouded. Such an individual is said to be dry but not truly sober. Such an individual tends to go to extremes."


This is an interesting take on our President. Not completely convincing, perhaps, but gives some explanation to some of us for the extreme stances and lack of cooperation. I have Repub friends who just dismiss this criticism--saying that my dislike for Bush is just the same as the Clinton haters. Perhaps. I actually gave Bush a lot of leeway when elected, didn't begrudge Florida and told my concerned friends that he would govern from the middle with respect to the narrow election. Then came John Ashcroft. And it was bad.

Oddly enough, almost every Repub I know is scared of Ashcroft and thinks he is a bad AG. But none of those Repubs hold Bush responsible for appointing him, keeping him in office, and refusing to moderate his radical conservatism.

But all of this goes back to a president who seemingly refuses to compromise at any level. One blogger I read lately (commenting on the blog, actually) suggested that this administration never compromised with itself--never moderated its internal ideas, never questioned the rightness of those ideas. That bothers me. I cannot conceive of a situation where that is a good idea.