Yep ... just the tapes, Ma'am. Ask Nixon.
Because that's what the law says; it's what the Presidential Records Act is all about. The PRA became law in 1978 in the wake of Nixon's attempts to keep all of his records and papers secret by claiming that his records were his personal property. The PRA set things up so that when a President leaves office, his papers are left in the possession of we the people. The Reagan administration is the first administration to which the law became applicable. The law allows the (outgoing) President to designate certain papers as "off-limits to the public" for up to 12 years, but when the 12 years are up, the archivist is supposed to make the papers available to us. 68,000+ pages from the Reagan administration were supposed to be released at the beginning of 2001--it's the law, remember. Bush has been stonewalling the release since he took office. He first took a 30-day period to review the documents, then he asked for another 90 days, then another 10 weeks. These are the first Presidential records that would have been released subject to the PRA. Bush in essense has made that law null and void by claiming executive privilege and national security.