> http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4921.shtml
> Bush Using Drugs to Control Depression, Erratic Behavior
> By TERESA HAMPTON
> President George W. Bush is taking powerful anti-depressant drugs to
> control his erratic behavior, depression and paranoia, Capitol Hill Blue
> has learned.
[...]
> 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.
This kind of armchair diagnosis really infuriates me in the normal course of events, but doubly so when it's presented as "confirmation" of otherwise unsourced reports of the President's mental condition.
It is irresponsible journalism to portray Dr. Frank's diagnosis-at-a-distance as a "confirmation" of Bush's antidepressant use. _Bush on the Couch_ is, charitably, at most speculation; even if it's speculation which is in line with the allegations of the story, it's still just speculation.
In any case, since _Bush on the Couch_ predates this latest report, the chain of causality (as it were) is reversed. The unsourced information in this article, assuming it to be true, confirms Frank's speculations on the reasons for Bush's behavior -- not the other way around.
We get up in arms when Drudge spreads this kind of innuendo and anonymous allegation; we should hold Capital Hill Blue to a similar standard, I think.
-- John S Costello joxn.costello at gmail.com "Every other vice hath some pleasure annexed to it, or will admit of some excuse, but envy wants both." -- Robert Burton