Bush Tapes Suggest Possible Drug Use?

Now THIS has got to be the most ridiculous item of the day (or week!). Much is being made of the private phone conversations secretly taped by then-Governor Bush's old friend Doug Wead from 1998-2000, who played 12 of them for a New York Times reporter.

This is being used by some enemies of the President (including the 'Times') as evidence that, after several years of avoiding the question, he did indeed try marijuana in his earlier years. This is how it went down:

Bush, in criticizing then-Vice President Al Gore for having admitted his marijuana use, was justifying his reasoning on this to Wead.

"I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions," he said, according to the Times. "You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."

Knowing our President's rustic manner of speaking, this sounds to me like he was putting himself in Gore's shoes. Even if this is not true and he smoked his way all through college, why is this relevant now? We all know that he is a recovering alcoholic and a born-again Christian. I think it clearly indicates that any shot is a good one to his detractors - regardless of how cheap or baseless.

In another clip, the Texas Governor states that he is against the continued discussion of cocaine use, saying that he believes that someone should take a stand and not comment on allegations of this nature ("this crap" is actually how he put it).

In yet another passage, liberals are probably surprised to hear Governor Bush respond emphatically to a leading question from Wead that he has no intention of discriminating against gays.

Why don't we talk about his trip to Europe, where the real news is that of our President "reaching out" across the pond to mend some frayed egoes. Guess that isn't as big as his possibly doing what we all know his predecessor (and Gore) did in college.