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Perhaps because of his mature appearance, Bannon proved remarkably good at it. Presenting a fake ID to a bartender is a tense interaction, pitting one's willingness to deceive against the bartender's need to preserve his job. In a darkened barroom, judgments are notoriously arbitrary. But Bannon's stickball ID proved infallible, never let him down, and he imbibed at will at the taverns of his choice. Often this would be at a notoriously unvigilant bar like New York City's Malkan's, whose entire business model seemed to be based on serving minors. But the seasoned bartenders at Rudy's in New Haven and Dean's in Cleveland, Ohio, seemed equally impressed that a high school sporting club would vouch for Bannon's age.
Although Bannon said he eventually became "tremulous about its continuing viability," he used his card for four years, eschewing the more popular fake ID of the era, the altered draft card. The day he turned 21, Bannon retired the battered document, grateful for its many years of uninterrupted service.
So why did George W. Bush get into the business of enabling minors in the first place? Bannon, who is now a lawyer active in Democratic state politics, is pretty clear on this point: "First and foremost, he was trying to be a wiseass." Shortly after first deploying the card, Bannon ran into Bush and told him of his success with the bogus credentials bearing his signature. The future First Father seemed well pleased.