Bush conversations secretly taped

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 - 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 a personality.

In the last several weeks, that friend, Doug Wead, an author and former aide to Mr. 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, Mr. 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 questions from the news media about his past, Mr. Bush appears to have acknowledged trying marijuana.

Mr. Wead said he recorded the conversations because he viewed Mr. 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, Mr. Wead could benefit from any publicity, but he said that was not a motive in disclosing the tapes.

The White House did not dispute the authenticity of the tapes or respond to their contents.

I just have to say that I don't agree at all with this reporter's actions. I didn't like the secret taping when Linda Tripp did it and I don't like it now. It just isn't something that should be done, in my opinion.

I don't really care that Bush did coke or pot. I would prefer that he was honest about it but I must admit that I kind of see his point about not wanting to influence kids. I was also surprised at some of his answers concerning homosexuals. Don't get me wrong, I despise his stance on gay marriage but still, he didn't give the answers that I would have expected.

I must add though that the idea of John Ashcroft as either a Supreme Court Justice or Vice President gives me the chills. Glad someone talked him out of those ideas.