more bad news for repubs.

"I wouldn't be president if I kept drinking. You get sloppy, can't make decisions, it clouds your reason, absolutely

Another reason for Dubya to "do tears".

Draper tells of an April 2006 dinner at which Bush asked aides for a show of hands on whether his divisive defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld, should be fired.

The vote: 7-4 to get rid of him, with Bush siding with those who wanted him kept on for the time being. Rumsfeld was replaced after the elections that fall switched control of the House and Senate to Democrats.

White House aides who wanted Rumsfeld out were privately dismayed when retired generals called publicly for his ouster, fearing that would steel Bush's resolve to keep his defense chief, the book says.

Bush, without addressing that meeting, suggested to the author that the ex-generals did get under his skin.

"My reaction was, 'No military guy is gonna tell a civilian how to react,'" he said.