New Tapes Say Bush May Have Smoked Marijuana (Gasp..! Bush Smoked Marijuana)

By Sue Pleming ( <---- LIBERAL ALERT!) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush indicated in interviews secretly taped by a friend before he became president that he had used marijuana but would not admit it for fear of setting a bad example for children.

Portions of the tapes, recorded from 1998 to 2000 by author Doug Wead without Bush's knowledge, were aired on ABC News on Sunday and published by The New York Times. Their authenticity was verified by the media outlets but has not been independently checked by Reuters.

"I wouldn't answer the marijuana question. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried," Bush purportedly says on the tape.

He added: "But you got to understand, I want to be president. I want to lead. I want to set -- Do you want your little kid say, 'Hey, Daddy, President Bush tried marijuana, I think I will?"'

In the tape, Bush mocks former Vice President Al Gore -- who fought him for the presidency in 2000 -- for admitting he smoked marijuana.

White House officials did not dispute the tapes' veracity and indicated the president was disappointed by their release.

"These were casual conversations that then Gov. Bush was having with someone he thought was a friend, and that's what they are," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters traveling with Bush to Europe aboard Air Force One.

McClellan said Bush, who was governor of Texas when the tapes were made, was not aware he was being recorded and the White House found out only when contacted by the New York Times for comment.

"Look, I think that, one, the comments in the tapes speak for themselves. And two, I think that what I just said pretty much speaks for itself," McClellan said when pressed about the details.

"Those were issues that were addressed ad nauseam four years ago and they were conversations that took place more than four years ago," he said, adding that Bush had not been in contact with Wead for several years.

"Bush has refused to deny or confirm ANY OF THIS RUMORMONGERING.

He has done so by design. He has explained why, and it makes perfect sense. If you start down that road, there is no end. The media and your political enemies will raise rumor after rumor, question after question, on an endless series of possible fauxpas in your past. So regardless of what you did or did not do in your past, the stories become all about your past...15, 20, 30, 35, 40 years ago."

Then why did he make the denial when asked if he had used cocaine within the last seven years? Why didn't he just say he wasn't going stoop to answering such questions? Why not just respond to the questions, get it over with and be done with it? What's the big deal? Either he played around with drugs some when he was younger or he didn't.

"George W Bush is not going to let people like that - and apparently like you - do that to him, his life, his family, and by extension, this nation!"

I'm not attacking George Bush. These are just questions I'd like to see him answer. I don't think that whether he used drugs or not in his wild younger days has any bearing on his current performance as president, or as a father or a husband. The only reason I care one way or another about it is that I believe it is wrong to saddle people with felony convictions for simple possession of a drug like cocaine. I'm not some "legalizer" who wants drugs like cocaine sold at the corner store or anything like that but I do not believe that simple possession of a personal amount of any drug should be a felony, something that can ruin someone's future and make succeeding at life as a contributing member of society very difficult. I know that a lot of valuable members of my community and throughout this country have fooled around with these substances at least a little in the past and I think it's important that people realize that while drug use is stupid and dangerous if everyone that has ever fooled around with these substances had been caught and left with a felony record a lot of productive citizens wouldn't be where they are today doing good things for their families, their communities, and this country. I'm talking about millions of Americans who contribute to our society even though they did happen to fool around with drugs at some point in their lives. This isn't a Bush bashing exercise at all.

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