Bush conversations taped by old friend: report

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2005

WASHINGTON (AFP) — When future US President George W. Bush was first moving onto the national political stage, he often turned for advice to an old friend who reportedly secretly taped some of their private conversations.

The New York Times said that in the last 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.

In those conversations, Bush weighs the political risks and benefits of his religious faith, discusses campaign strategy and comments on rivals, the report said.

The president says that his main Republican rival in the 2000 primary campaign, Senator John McCain, "will wear thin." The Times reported.

The future president went on to...