What was Doug Wead thinking when he made secret tapes of conversations with then Texas Governor George Bush?
In Secretly Taped Conversations: Glimpses of the Future President (NYT, free registration required), some of the content of the tapes is revealed. There's nothing there that should be a difficulty for Mr. Bush, at least there's nothing there I didn't already suspect, or that he has already said publicly. There will, no doubt, be instances of Bush haters taking comments that are already out of context even further out and spinning them to make him look bad. That won't be news.
What really irks me is that Doug Wead is trying to make what he did appear to be okay since he didn't do it with the goal of making a profit or embarrassing George Bush. Looks like he failed on both points. The tapes have come to light because he used them to write a book. If he quoted something that Mr. Bush said to him in private, why did he have to prove that it was said? He didn't, but he's certainly getting publicity, isn't he?
I don't think he embarrassed the President except for exposing a betrayal, but Doug Wead should definitely be embarrassed. This man, a former Christian minister exhibited poor judgment, bad taste and a willingness to privately and publicly betray someone who thought him a friend. After the tapes were made, the only decent (and Christian) course of action would have been to give them - without making any copies, of course - to President Bush.
One wonders if that ever occurred to Doug Wead.
Why disclose the tapes? "I just felt that the historical point I was making trumped a personal relationship," Mr. Wead said. Asked about consequences, Mr. Wead said, "I'll always be friendly toward him."
UPDATE: Paul at Wizbang thinks the article is a snoozer. He's right in a way, and it is remarkable (and reassuring) that Bush is privately much like his public persona. And Willis thinks the motive is money.
UPDATE II: Ann Althouse is suspicious that the recordings weren't that secret.
