Gotta love it. From the NY Times article on the newly-discovered Bush tapes:

He refused to answer reporters’ questions about his past behavior, he said, even though it might cost him the election. Defending his approach, Mr. Bush said: "I wouldn’t answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried."

Isn’t that the height of arrogance? Does Bush actually think that kids will try marijuana because HE did it? Like . . . of ALL the people that kids want to emulate, he’s #1?!?

He mocked Vice President Al Gore for acknowledging marijuana use. "Baby boomers have got to grow up and say, yeah, I may have done drugs, but instead of admitting it, say to kids, don’t do them," he said…

Because "just say no" worked so well in the 1980’s, I guess.

Anyway, instead of that message being sent, the message received is "It’s okay to do drugs, just so long as you don’t admit to doing them, so you can then tell others how bad drugs are."

When Mr. Wead warned that he had heard reporters talking about Mr. Bush’s "immature" past, Mr. Bush said, "That’s part of my schtick, which is, look, we have all made mistakes."

Schtick?!? That’s Yiddish for "gimmick", isn’t it? Here’s a nice example of more schtick . . .

Preparing to meet Christian leaders in September 1998, Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead, "As you said, there are some code words. There are some proper ways to say things, and some improper ways."

So . . . a man of principle? Or a class-A panderer relying on gimmicks and proper wordsmithing? You be the judge.