hit the bottle

“It’s utterly inexplicable that, 20 days into an investigation, they chose to put out this really personal information,” she said, adding: “Would we talk about a man in a similar situation? ‘Poor old Barney’s hit the bottle, because he’s got erectile dysfunction.’

This disappointment sends Cage to hit the bottle like the Oscar-winning actor's character, Ben Sanderson, in "Leaving Las Vegas."

During the nadir of the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, President Richard Nixon hit the bottle hard — to the point that the American security establishment was scared that he might drunkenly cause an international incident.

After he lost the Brexit referendum she says he hit the bottle and “chomped on cigars” and that Samantha could only join him as he made his resignation speech after a large negroni cocktail.

Both priests also have a disconcerting, exhilarating propensity to hit the bottle when their commitment to their vows starts to crumble.