\n ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/bushBUZZ.jpg\")
WASHINGTON,
\n Feb. 19 – As George W. Bush was first moving onto the national political
\n stage, he often turned for advice to an old friend who secretly taped
\n some of their private conversations, creating a rare record of the future
\n president as a politician and a personality.<\/p>\n
In the last several weeks, that friend, Doug Wead, an author and former
\n aide to Mr. Bush’s father, disclosed the tapes’ existence to a reporter
\n and played about a dozen of them.<\/p>\n
Mr. Bush, who has acknowledged a drinking problem years ago, told Mr.
\n Wead on the tapes that he could withstand scrutiny of his past. He said
\n it involved nothing more than "just, you know, wild behavior." He
\n worried, though, that allegations of cocaine use would surface in the
\n campaign, and he blamed his opponents for stirring rumors. "If nobody
\n shows up, there’s no story," he told Mr. Wead, "and if somebody
\n shows up, it is going to be made up." But when Mr. Wead said that
\n Mr. Bush had in the past publicly denied using cocaine, Mr. Bush replied, "I
\n haven’t denied anything."<\/p>\n
He refused to answer reporters’ questions about his past behavior, he said, even
\nthough it might cost him the election. Defending his approach, Mr. Bush said: "I
\nwouldn’t answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don’t want some
\nlittle kid doing what I tried."<\/p>\n
Could his disinclination to answer the marijuana questions be related from the 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 … Continue reading
\n to the "vision thing"? Is it acceptable for a US President who is embarassed
\n or ashamed by past illegal activity to simply refuse to answer questions
\n on the topic? OK, he got away with it, and in retrospect it was obviously
\n the "smart" thing to do, but was it RIGHT? Was it LEGAL? Is it IMPEACHABLE?<\/em><\/p>\n
\n New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"