Yes, more like this please
Here's Mickey Kaus on Doug Wead, who secretly recorded his phone conversations with then-Governor George W. Bush and has now turned over some of the tapes to ABC News and the New York Times:
The treachery is that Doug Wead waited until after the election:
"I don't want some little kid doing what I tried ...."
"The Bible is pretty good about keeping your ego in check. ... "
"I think it is bad for Republicans to be kicking gays. ... "
[When told that a supporter was saying he'd promised to not hire gays] "No what I said was I wouldn't fire gays. ... "
"I am going to tell the truth and do the right thing, dammit, without fear or favor, with malice toward none and charity toward all--and if my political advisers tell me that will cost me power and fame, so be it!"OK, that last one was made up. But another round of explosive front-page revelations from secretly recorded phone conversations like today's and Bush's approval will hit 70 percent.
He-he. I don't know if I'd go that far. But I will say that the only thing revealing about these tapes is that they show Mr. Bush to be the same man in private that he is in public, which seems to me a good thing.
For those who wonder how I can feel respect and affection for a president who's given his (nominal) support to the Federal Marriage Amendment, I commend your attention to the transcript above. Dubya is just a good ol' boy from Texas who may not have the most sophisticated understanding of gays and lesbians, but he's not a bigot either. Plus, he's the man who signed the law that put a gun on my hip, which is the best "hate crimes" prevention you can get anywhere.