Feb. 20, 2005
Man releases secret tapes of President Bush
PRESIDENT UNAWARE HE WAS BEING RECORDED
By David D. Kirkpatrick
NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON - As George W. Bush was first moving onto the national
political stage, he often turned for advice to an old friend who
secretly taped some of their private conversations, creating a rare
record of the future president as a politician and personality.
In the last several weeks, that friend, Doug Wead, an author and former
aide to Bush's father, disclosed the tapes' existence to a reporter and
played about a dozen of them.
Variously earnest, confident or prickly in those conversations, Bush
weighs the political risks and benefits of his religious faith,
discusses campaign strategy and comments on rivals. John McCain "will
wear thin," he predicted. John Ashcroft, he confided, would be a "very
good Supreme Court pick" or a "fabulous" vice president. And in
exchanges about his handling of media questions about his past, Bush
appears to have acknowledged trying marijuana. Wead said he recorded
the conversations because he viewed Bush as a historic figure, but he
said he knew that the president might regard his actions as a betrayal.
As the author of a new book about presidential childhoods, Wead could
benefit from publicity, but he said that was not a motive in disclosing
the tapes.
The conversations Wead played offer insights from the time he was
weighing a run for president in 1998 to shortly before he accepted the
Republican nomination in 2000.
Wead had been a liaison to evangelical Protestants for the president's
father, and the intersection of religion and politics is a recurring
theme in the talks. Preparing to meet Christian leaders in September
1998, Bush told Wead, "As you said, there are some code words. There
are some proper ways to say things, and some improper ways." He added,
"I am going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a
true statement."
Bush, who has acknowledged a drinking problem years ago, told Wead on
the tapes that he could withstand scrutiny of his past. He said it
involved nothing more than "just, you know, wild behavior." He worried,
though, that allegations of cocaine use would surface in the campaign
and blamed his opponents for stirring up rumors. But when Wead said
that Bush had in the past publicly denied using cocaine, Bush replied,
"I haven't denied anything."
He refused to answer reporters' questions about his past behavior, he
said, even though it might cost him the election. Defending his
approach, Bush said: "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You
know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
The White House did not deny the authenticity of the tapes. "The
governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed was
his friend," White House spokesman Trent Duffy said.
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/10947050.htm
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