SECRET TAPES REVEAL BUSH'S VIEWS BEFORE PRESIDENCY

WASHINGTON -- 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 president as a politician and personality.

In the past several weeks, that friend, Doug Wead, an author and former
aide to Bush's father, disclosed the tapes' existence to a reporter and
played about a dozen of them.

Variously earnest, confident or prickly in those conversations, Bush weighs
the political risks and benefits of his religious faith, discusses campaign
strategy and comments on rivals. John McCain "will wear thin," he
predicted. John Ashcroft, he confided, would be a "very good Supreme Court
pick" or "fabulous" vice president. And in exchanges about his handling of
media questions about his past, Bush appears to have acknowledged trying
marijuana.

Wead said he recorded the conversations because he viewed Bush as a
historic figure, but he said he knew that the president might regard his
actions as a betrayal. As the author of a new book about presidential
childhoods, Wead could benefit from any publicity, but he said that was not
a motive in disclosing the tapes.

The White House did not dispute the authenticity of the tapes or respond to
their contents. Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, said, "The governor
was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his friend."
Asked about drug use, Duffy said, "That has been asked and answered so many
times there is nothing more to add."

The conversations Wead played offer insights into Bush's thinking from the
time he was weighing a run for president in 1998 to shortly before he
accepted the Republican nomination in 2000. Wead had been a liaison to
evangelical Protestants for the president's father, and the intersection of
religion and politics is a recurring theme in the talks.

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." He added, "I am going to say that I've
accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true statement."

But Bush also repeatedly worried that prominent evangelical Christians
would not like his refusal "to kick gays." At the same time, he was wary of
unnerving secular voters by meeting publicly with evangelical leaders. When
he thought his aides had agreed to such a meeting, Bush complained to Karl
Rove, his political strategist, "What the hell is this about?"

Bush, who has acknowledged a drinking problem years ago, told Wead on the
tapes that he could withstand scrutiny of his past. He said it involved
nothing more than "just, you know, wild behavior." But he worried that
allegations of cocaine use would surface in the campaign and blamed his
opponents for stirring up rumors. "If nobody shows up there's no story," he
told Wead, "and if somebody shows up it is going to be made up." When Wead
said that Bush had in the past publicly denied using cocaine, Bush replied,
"I haven't denied anything."

He refused to answer reporters' questions about his past behavior, he said,
even though it might cost him the election. Defending his approach, Bush
said: "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I
don't want some little kid doing what I tried."

Presidency Reflects Views

The private Bush sounds remarkably similar in many ways to the public
President Bush. Many of the taped comments foreshadow aspects of his
presidency, including his opposition to both anti-gay language and
recognizing same-sex marriage, his skepticism about the United Nations, his
sense of moral purpose and his focus on cultivating conservative Christian
voters.

The dozen conversations Wead agreed to play ranged in length from five
minutes to nearly half an hour. In them, Bush regularly gripes about the
barbs of the press and his rivals. And he is cocky at times. "It's me
versus the world," he told Wead. "The good news is, the world is on my
side. Or more than half of it anyway."

Other presidents, such as Richard Nixon or Lyndon Johnson, secretly
recorded conversations from the White House without the knowledge of
others. Some former associates of President Bill Clinton taped
conversations in apparent efforts to embarrass or entrap him. But Wead's
recordings are a rare example of a future president taped at length without
his knowledge talking about matters of public interest like his political
strategy and priorities.

Wead first acknowledged the tapes to a reporter in December to defend the
accuracy of a passage about Bush in his new book, "The Raising of a
President." He said he made the tapes in states where it was legal to do so
with only one party's knowledge.

Tape Authenticated

The New York Times hired Tom Owen, an expert on audio authentication, to
examine samples from the tapes. He concluded the voice was that of the
president.

A White House adviser to the first President Bush, Wead said in an
interview in The Washington Post in 1990 that Andrew Card Jr., then deputy
chief of staff, told him to leave the administration "sooner rather than
later" after he sent conservatives a letter faulting the White House for
inviting gay activists to an event. But Wead said he left on good terms. He
never had a formal role in the current president's campaign, though the
tapes suggest he had angled for one.

Wead said he recorded his conversations in part because he thought he might
be asked to write a book for the campaign. He also wanted a clear account
of any requests Bush made of him. But he said his main motivation in making
the tapes, which he originally intended to be released only after his own
death, was to leave the nation a unique record of Bush.

"I believe that, like him or not, he is going to be a huge historical
figure," Wead said. "If I was on the telephone with Churchill or Gandhi, I
would tape record them too."