Runners-Up–Rep. William Jefferson and D.A. Mike Nifong, likely alcoholics.
Under watch:
Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), indicted on charges that he used his congressional office to enrich himself and his family through a pervasive pattern of fraud, bribery and corruption. The 94-page indictment follows a two-year investigation following a sting operation in which Jefferson (allegedly) told an investor that he would need a half million dollars to bribe a Nigerian government official to help a digital technology firm, iGate Inc. of Louisville, KY, to gain a foothold in Africa. The investor delivered $100,000 to Jefferson in marked bills, $90,000 of which were found tucked away in Jefferson’s freezer, “wrapped in aluminum foil, and concealed inside various food containers.” Jefferson could qualify as one of the great functional alcoholics of all time. He’s a Harvard Law School graduate and in 1990 he became the first African American elected to Congress from Louisiana since Reconstruction. Along the way he raised five daughters, three of them also Harvard Law School graduates, one of whom is a Louisiana state representative. It will be an outlier if he’s not an alcoholic and found guilty. Just keep in mind that journalists are too busy outing celebrities to have an interest in uncovering drinking and using among politicians, CEOs and other non-celebrity professionals and that enablers have way too much to lose in seeing them outed. Not even the FBI had a clue about the subject of this month’s review, Robert Hanssen, a likely alcoholic who did more to damage U.S. security than any other spy ever. And recall the example of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, one of the first two men on the moon, who stopped bingeing only days before lift-off. Even under the intense scrutiny of NASA, no one had a clue that he was a full-blown alcoholic.
Durham, North Carolina District Attorney Mike Nifong, stripped of his law license and banned from ever practicing law again for “dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation” in the rape prosecution of three Duke University lacrosse players. While the case was deeply flawed from the get-go (even if the faculty and administration of Duke agreed with Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson that the players were guilty before being tried), the fatal blow involved Nifong deliberately withholding evidence showing that DNA from at least four males on the underwear and body of the alleged victim, who was a stripper and an addict, was not from the players. In the January 2007 issue of TAR, I wrote:
“The extraordinary accusations, which may prove to be a disgusting instance of alcoholic prosecutorial abuse, is reminiscent of the infamous 1912 case recounted by author James Graham in which the alcoholic New York City District Attorney Charles Whitman had police lieutenant Charles Becker executed for a crime he did not commit. As I said in Drunks, Drugs & Debits, ‘Once an addict achieves a position of power, he is out of control and cannot help himself.’ Therefore, the behavior itself is an excellent indicator of alcoholism.”
Prosecutorial abuse has been proven. As is typical for those outside of Hollywood and professional sports, proving alcoholism at the root of the abuse–one of the greatest examples of false accusations ever–remains elusive, but the odds are remote that it did not form the essential underpinning of the drama.
Note to family, friends and fans of the above: the benefit of the doubt is given by assuming alcoholism (they are either idiots and fundamentally rotten, or they are alcoholic/other drug addicts–which would explain the misbehaviors). If alcoholic, there is zero chance that behaviors, in the long run, will improve without sobriety. An essential prerequisite to sobriety is the cessation of enabling, allowing pain and crises to build. Thus far, many have done everything they can to protect the addict from the requisite pain, making these news events possible. The cure for alcoholism, consequential bad behaviors and, ultimately, tragedy, is simple: stop protecting the addict from the logical consequences of misbehaviors and proactively intervene.