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From the NewsMax.com Staff
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Saturday, Feb. 19, 2005 9:26 p.m. EST
Tapes Reveal Bush Thinking
Doug Wead, the author of a new book about presidential childhoods and a former aide to President George H.W. Bush, the father of the current President Bush, secretly taped conversations with then Texas Governor George W. Bush in which the future president weighed the political implications of his religious faith, discussed campaign strategy and commented on rivals.
He has now played some of those tapes for a New York Times reporter, claiming that publicity for his new book was not a consideration.
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The White House thus far has only commented via a spokesperson: "The governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his friend."
According to a report in the Times, some examples of a candid Gov. Bush, starting in the summer of 1998:
John McCain "will wear thin," he predicted.
"I like Ashcroft a lot," he told Wead in November 1998. "He is a competent man. He would be a good Supreme Court pick. He would be a good attorney general. He would be a good vice president."
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. I am going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true statement."
The future president said he could withstand scrutiny of his past, telling Wead it involved nothing more than "just, you know, wild behavior."
Defending his approach to not answering certain prying press questions about his past, Bush said: "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
In a conversation on the eve of Bush's re-election as governor: "I believe tomorrow is going to change Texas politics forever. The top three offices right below me will be the first time there has been a Republican in that slot since the Civil War. Isn't that amazing? And I hate to be a braggart, but they are going to win for one reason: me."
"I think he wants me to attack homosexuals," Bush said after meeting James Robison, a prominent evangelical minister in Texas. He said he told Robison: "Look, James, I got to tell you two things right off the bat. One, I'm not going to kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?"
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