Michael K. Deaver, the former aide to President Reagan, says he's been sober for six years now and would do things differently if he were back at the White House.
Deaver, who was convicted of lying to Congress and a grand jury in 1987, described his battle with alcoholism Tuesday at a hearing by a House committee."I guess if I were there now," Deaver said, "I would try to look at this as problems of people, human beings, rather than voter blocs."
Deaver said he has worked for three years as a volunteer in a homeless shelter just a few blocks from the Capitol, helping an alcohol treatment program for street people.
It operates without federal money. Deaver complained that the federal government is all but ignoring treatment and education about alcohol and drugs while it spends billions trying to catch and jail drug dealers.
"The problem isn't demand. The problem is treating the disease," he said.
Deaver spoke to the Select Committee on Aging, which conducted a hearing on alcohol abuse among the elderly.
He received generally gentle treatment. But one Democrat, Rep. Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts, said the administration Deaver worked in was responsible for crippling the government's ability to finance treatment programs by winning big tax cuts that slashed revenues.
"Mr. Kennedy," Deaver responded, "I think there's enough blame to go around. . . . I would agree, if I could do it all over again, I would do it a lot differently. But I don't have that opportunity."
Deaver is a former public relations man and close friend of Reagan who in effect became his stage manager.
But Deaver's success failed him when he left government in 1985 to reap the rewards of a well-connected lobbyist. In 1987 he was convicted of lying to a House subcommittee and a grand jury investigating allegations his lobbying violated federal ethics laws.
Deaver's defense was that his memory had been clouded by alcoholism. He was fined $100,000 and ordered to perform 1,500 hours of community service.
Describing himself as in his sixth year of recovery, Deaver credited his daughter Amanda, then 16, with confronting him over his drinking, and Father Joseph Martin, 67, a recovering alcoholic and founder of Ashley House recovery center in Baltimore, with helping him.
"If someone had told me six years ago I'd be sitting in this room as Mike Deaver, alcoholic, talking about this disease, I would have said they were crazy," he said.