TV Prez Calls Bush a 'White-Knuckle Drunk'

November 13 -- Here's some unasked-for advice to George W. Bush from TV prez Martin Sheen: Get thee to rehab.

Gosh, do you think the Republican Texas governor will heed what a well-known Democratic activist says?

Unlikely, but Bush may make an exception for Sheen, who plays President Josiah Bartlet on The West Wing and who recently called him a "white-knuckle drunk."

Well, Sheen says he's only trying to help. The star of NBC's fictional White House drama was offering some 12-step advice to the Republican presidential candidate, whose 1976 DUI arrest made headlines just prior to the election. Sheen said he was making the remarks not to insult Bush, but to force him to acknowledge the severity of drug and alcohol dependence.

Sheen is a recovering addict himself and made the remark while addressing a group at a Vista Del Mar, Calif., treatment center.

Sheen famously dished out some tough love to son Charlie Sheen, taking out an arrest warrant against his bad boy son in 1998 to force him into drug rehabilitation. Charlie, who just joined the cast of ABC's Spin City, now says he's clean and sober, thanks to dear old Pop.

Bush has admitted that he used to have a drinking problem, but swears that he stopped drinking at age 40.

"[Bush] is still in denial about it," Sheen, a vocal supporter of Bush's rival, Vice President Al Gore, said, according to The Associated Press, "You have got to be in a program. I did not make up the rules about that."