Another Of Those "Good" Causes Hijacked ........

Chris Selley: MADD needs to get back to basics

Posted: August 06, 2009, 5:10 PM by NP Editor

Here's a quote for the ages: “We have no problem with the president serving beer at the White House.”

The source of this magnanimous concession to hospitality is Chuck Hurley, CEO of the American branch of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. (Yeah, that's right, Chuck Hurley. What are you sniggering about?) He was responding to a minor fracas earlier this week involving Nancy Raynor, president of MADD's Delaware chapter — all the best minor summer fracases come from Delaware — who told a radio station that “young people tend to mimic the actions that they see be adult.” If one was of a conspiratorial nature, one might read that to mean there was something inherently unfortunate about the President drinking beer, or being seen to drink beer on television. (Rayner claims to have been quoted out of conext.) And if you were the American Beverage Institute, which is basically MADD's arch-nemesis, you might release an over-excited press release claiming this was yet more evidence of MADD's “neo-prohibitionist agenda.” And if you were the media, gagging for news in the August doldrums, you might just run with it.

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