Mr. Novak gets his drink on?

One of the things the General learned while working as a beertender was how to spot someone who's approaching their limit of 3.2 beer. It's an important skill to have in a small Utah town, because taverns rank somewhere between brothels and coffeehouses as the fastest routes to Hell in the minds of the local populace. The Beehive State's dramshop laws are among the toughest in the country. Woe be unto any rural beertender who allows a customer's blood alcohol content to reach 0.08%.

Mr. Novak looked liked he had reached that point long before he walked off CNN's Inside Politics, yesterday. All the signs are captured in this video. Watch it, and see for yourself. He's slurring his speech, stuttering, and moving his head in the same manner I've seen hundreds of drunks move theirs right before they announce that they could kill me with their bare hands (you'd be surprised how often small town Utah beertenders hear that).

Unlike the French, I think the episode helped Mr. Novak. If drunkeness was the cause, then he should get plastered on the job more often. It may have lowered his inhibitions and allowed him to finally acknowledge that newspapers photoshop makeup onto his picture. I always wondered about that. His beauty never seemed natural to me. Now, I know that the responsibility lies with the newspapers and not him.