MADD crying in its beer over beer summit

Mothers Against Drunk Driving didn't start out as a prohibition group. These days, however, MADD is precisely that.

After President Obama invited Henry Louis Gates and Cambridge cop James Crowley to meet at a now-celebrated beer summit, MADD is finding its own libations filled with its own bitter tears.

MADD groans that the meeting sends a negative message to the American public. Nancy Raynor, who heads MADD's Delaware chapter, cries that the beer summit portrays social drinking by adults as, well, acceptable.

Yes, as soon as I heard about the beer summit, I decided to order a bottle of vodka at the neighborhood bar, guzzle it, and hijack a school bus full of children. Just joking! But to hear MADD tell it, if I had done such a thing, it would have been the beer summit's fault.

But MADD's Frank Harris said, "MADD is not against responsible drinking of alcohol for those over 21 years of age."

Clearly, however, MADD is against it: Obama is 48. Gates is 58. Crowley is 42. There is no evidence that any of these men drove home intoxicated from the beer summit.

If MADD is worried about children copying the behavior of adults, maybe it ought to worry about kids growing up to be prohibitionist control freaks after reading about MADD's latest complaint. MADD isn't exactly championing moderation.

Interestingly, MADD said surprisingly little about Bush's DUI arrest (and the many excuses Bush's followers came up with to excuse his drunken driving).

(Source: http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/08/03/beer-summit-sparks-fight-between-madd-and-alcohol-lobby)