Via the NYT: From Psst to Oops: Secret Taper of Bush Says History Can Wait
But Wednesday, after a blast of criticism, Mr. Wead abruptly decided he had spoken too soon. “History can wait,” he said, promising to turn over the tapes to Mr. Bush.[…]
Mr. Wead, an author who drew on the tapes obliquely for one page in his recently published book, “The Raising of a President: The Mothers and Fathers of Our Nation’s Leaders,” said, “I am asking my attorney to direct any future proceeds from the book to charity and to find the best way to vet these tapes and get them back to the president to whom they belong.”
Isn’t that nice of him?
And, no joke:
Richard Land, president of the ethics and religious liberty commission of the Southern Baptist Convention said, “I would say it wasn’t all that great a career move if he wants to speak at evangelical events.”
And:
In a telephone interview Wednesday, Mr. Wead, sounding noticeably fatigued, said he decided to change course because of “the perception that I have tried to exploit the tapes and make money off of it and hurt the president and had all kinds of agendas.”“This seems like the best thing to show that isn’t the case,” he said.
“Nobody believes my story that I saw him as a figure of history,” Mr. Wead said with exasperation. “I guess I have got a story that is unbelievable to people.”
I would say so.
Tuesday evening, Mr. Wead sent a copy of his statement to Chris Matthews, host of the MSNBC television program “Hardball,” explaining that he was canceling a planned appearance on the show.
“It seems the better part of wisdom for me to forgo television for a time,” he wrote, according to a copy of the note released by MSNBC. “It would only add to the distraction I have caused to the president’s important and historic work.”
In an interview yesterday, Mr. Matthews, who once worked as a speechwriter to President Jimmy Carter, said he was sympathetic and that the note seemed heartfelt.
“This is a live debate among people who have served high-level people like presidents at close range, whether your duty is to your personal relationship or to history,” Mr. Matthews said. “It is a question of loyalty versus truth.”
Actually, I am not sure you can make that argument. If Bush were secretly snorting cocaine and having wild orgies, but pretended otherwise in public, then taping him could be seen as a service to the truth over loyalty. Just to surreptiously tape him without his knowledge, however, in the confience of friendship, is pretty low.