Has Rehab Become Refuge For Famous Names In Trouble?
WHITFIELD: With his career wrecked by scandal, Mark Foley is taking a familiar road to recovery, having entered a treatment center for alcoholism. But has rehab become a refuge for famous names in trouble? Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.</s>TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As Mark Foley rides out the storm in rehab, a storm he created by allegedly sending sexual messages to teenage boys, his lawyer is blaming alcohol for the former congressman's behavior.</s>ROTH: He is absolutely, positively not a pedophile.</s>ROWLANDS: Over the years, it's been a familiar drill. When the going gets tough, politicians and celebrities go to rehab. Just this year, Ohio Congressman Bob Ney checked into rehab for alcoholism after admitting he accepted inappropriate gifts and Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy retreated to a clinic after crashing his car on Capitol Hill.</s>REP. PATRICK KENNEDY (D), RHODE ISLAND: That's not even excuse for what happened Wednesday evening. But it is a reality of fighting a chronic condition for which I'm taking full responsibility.</s>ROWLANDS: Mel Gibson blamed the booze after his drunken anti- Semitic tirade and checked in for treatment as did TV personality Pat O'Brien, who went into rehab after his sexual phone messages were leaked to the media.</s>HARVEY LEVIN, MANAGING EDITOR, TMZ.COM: What rehab does is it creates the safe haven for the celebrity. He basically has this kind of, this past to be able to do what he needs to do to for four or six or eight weeks and hopefully, for him there will be another scandal and people will be off his case.</s>ROWLANDS: Politicians going to rehab after getting in trouble is nothing new. More than 10 years ago, Oregon Senator Bob Packwood apologized for his behavior and checked into rehab after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual harassment. You can even go back more than 25 years to Arkansas Congressman Wilbur Mills.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was it like when you first had to admit to yourself that you were an alcoholic?</s>WILBUR MILLS, FMR. U.S. CONGRESSMAN: Oh, it was devastating. I had become the lowest thing that God ever let live.</s>ROWLANDS: Mills ran into trouble after he was caught with this exotic dancer, Fanny Fox, that caused an uproar on Capitol Hill. Mills checked himself in for treatment and retired two years later. While skeptics may think that treatment is a copout, experts say alcohol and drugs can truly cause some people to do outrageous things.</s>DR. DREW PINSKY, ADDICTION SPECIALIST: Things they do when they're intoxicated, when they're in their disease, are shameful. They feel awful about it up. When they sober up, they look at it and can't believe they've done some of those things.</s>DAVID ROTH, MARK FOLEY'S ATTORNEY: Mark has been admitted into an alcoholism, substance abuse and mental health facility as an in- patient and we anticipate that he will be there a minimum of 30 days and possibly, if not probably, longer.</s>ROWLANDS (on camera): Medical experts say rehab should last as long as it takes for somebody to start responding to treatment. But when it comes to politicians, or celebrities in trouble, some people think that rehab lasts as long as it takes for a story to go away. Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.</s>WHITFIELD: And so our legal guys have not gone away. Here they are again, Avery Friedman and Richard Herman, joining us to talk more about this. So, Avery, what's the real objective here? Aside from the fact that some who really have a problem are seeking to get help by going into rehab, but is the bottom line really already trying to build the defense just in case there is an appearance in court?</s>FRIEDMAN: Well, of course. I mean, this is -- for politicians, this is what law enforcement refers to as the Marion Barry syndrome.</s>WHITFIELD: Oh, no.</s>FRIEDMAN: As soon as you catch them, they either get religion or they go into rehab. And, you know what? Pardon my cynicism, but for a guy that wrote the exploited children law -- he's a smart guy. And he knows what he's doing. He knew how far to go. So I'm gay, I'm drunk, I'm going to go into rehab and everything is going to be just fine.</s>WHITFIELD: So Richard is this how you see it, kind of tainting the potential jury pool if it comes to that?</s>HERMAN: Fred, this is not going to be a defense for him. If anything, it'll be used in mitigation if charges are brought against him. But, Avery hit it. He was a co-chair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus. His lawyer in that meeting -- you know, less is always better, Fred -- in that press conference the other day, his lawyer said, when he wrote these e-mails, he was drunk, he was intoxicated and he was suffering from mental illness. And during this last week, we saw that some of those e-mails took place when he was on the very floor of Congress voting. Can you imagine this Congressman...</s>FRIEDMAN: Maybe he was drunk. He might have been drunk on the floor of Congress. I don't know.</s>HERMAN: ... mentally ill, drunk, voting for the welfare of the United States of America. It's incredible. Whitfield: And so, what do we say about the other allegations, you know, according to his attorney, that perhaps he was molested by a clergyman when he was a young person. I mean, that's a pretty serious charge to play around with if you don't really mean it and if you can't stay by it.</s>FRIEDMAN: Well, in all fairness, I think, you know, this is going to be a factor. I mean, it's very difficult to explain this behavior. And I'm presuming that that representation about abuse is something -- in fact, what's interesting is the diocese in Palm Beach has asked the former congressman to come forward and identify who the abusers were. So I don't think that should be discounted. I think it's a serious matter. And again, as we said in segment one, we have so far to go, Fredricka, in learning what the facts are here. So far to go.</s>WHITFIELD:: Richard?</s>HERMAN: Right. His lawyer said, I don't want to make excuses, except that my client is gay, he's suffering from mental illness and he's an alcoholic. Other than that, I mean, it's preposterous. It's only going to benefit him in sentencing if criminal charges are brought, it will not be a defense to any prosecution against him.</s>WHITFIELD:: All right. Richard Herman, Avery Friedman, thanks so much. And Avery you get the kudos for, you know, coining the phrase of the day. Exfoliate.</s>FRIEDMAN: I'll take it.</s>WHITFIELD: I'm not going to forget that one. All right gentlemen...</s>WHITFIELD:: What's that?</s>HERMAN: Fred, I got censored on mine. I just want to let you know. I had a good one.</s>WHITFIELD: I know. OK. OK. We had to beep it?</s>HERMAN: Yes.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Good to see you guys.</s>FRIEDMAN: Nice to see you. Take care.</s>HERMAN: Take care.</s>WHITFIELD:: Well, it doesn't matter if you have the greatest MP3 player around. If you can't hear what's being played, what difference does it make? Straight ahead, tips for getting the most out of your music.