The Bush Tapes
"That's part of my shtick, which is,
look, we have all made mistakes."
Doug Wead, a former aid to Bush I and author of books whose very
titles bore me so much that I can't be bothered to mention them, has just
gotten himself a shitload of publicity by making available secretly recorded
tapes of the current Bush. Which, of course, we're pleased to have, but if
it were me, I'd give Wead a good ass-kicking.
Predictably, the big news is Bush's seeming
acknowledgement of his past drug use, although in my book, anyone who didn't
already believe in that has been living in a fool's paradise. For me, the
interesting part lies in Bush's negotiation of the crossroad between
politics and religion. That, and the very scary revelation that Bush really
believes that John Ashcroft would make a fine supreme court justice. On
second thought, we could probably consider that as two faces of the same
coin.
The conversations are circa 1998. At the
time, Wead was an 'evangelical advisor', i.e. a guy who helped Bush figure
out how to get the fundamentalist vote. (And you thought that just came
naturally). Wead absolutely denies that his unveiling of the tapes has
anything to do with garnering publicity for his new book, 'WhatEverIt'sCalled'.
No, he is giving the thoughts of a great leader to posterity. "If I was on
the telephone with Churchill or Gandhi, I would tape record them too." And
just like me, they would have kicked his ass, although I'm sure Gandhi would
feel just terrible about it.
You can read the whole article in today's
New York
Times, but since you're probably far too busy to fill out their
subscription form, I'll give you a couple of good bites here. Such as the
fact that Bush indulges in his penchant for using nicknames, christening
Wead as 'Weadie' and 'Weadnik'. (Sometimes the NYT is too hasty. I'm sure
Bush must have also called him 'the Weadster' and 'Slim').
This is cringe worthy: In September of '98,
Bush met with James C. Dobson, founder of
Focus on the Family. It seems that Dobson wanted to check out his
'Christian credentials'. "He said he would like to meet me, you know, he had
heard some nice things, you know, well, 'I don't know if he is a true
believer' kind of attitude." The upshot of this was the decision to not
consider anyone as a running mate that believed in abortion rights, since it
would be upsetting to conservative Christians. "They are not going to like
it anyway, boy," Bush said. "Dobson made it clear."
We get to see the Bush approach to dealing
with the 'character issue'. In 1998, it's "What you need to say time and
time again is not talk about the details of your transgressions but talk
about what I have learned. I've sinned and I've learned." A year later, the
approach is considerably less humble. "I think it is time for somebody to
just draw the line and look people in the eye and say, I am not going to
participate in ugly rumors about me, and blame my opponents, and hold the
line, and stand up for a system that will not allow this kind of crap to go
on."
"It's me versus the world," Bush says
at one time. "The good news is, the world is on my side. Or more than half
of it." Thank you, Mister Wead, for bringing us these words and insights.
And now, Mister President, you have my full permission to kick his ass. |
