[Paleopsych] NYT: In Secretly Taped Conversations, Glimpses of the Future President

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The New York Times > Washington > In Secretly Taped Conversations,
Glimpses of the Future President
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/politics/20talk.html
February 20, 2005

[Bush in private is very much like he is in public. I ordinarily don't send 
things like this, but it's quite revelatory to know that not every politician 
is a conscious deceiver. Followup article appended. Both came out during 
my annual Lenten break, but they are still worth reading.]

    By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 - As George W. Bush was first moving onto the
    national political stage, he often turned for advice to an old friend
    who secretly taped some of their private conversations, creating a
    rare record of the future president as a politician and a personality.

    In the last several weeks, that friend, Doug Wead, an author and
    former aide to Mr. Bush's father, disclosed the tapes' existence to a
    reporter and played about a dozen of them.

    Variously earnest, confident or prickly in those conversations, Mr.
    Bush weighs the political risks and benefits of his religious faith,
    discusses campaign strategy and comments on rivals. John McCain "will
    wear thin," he predicted. John Ashcroft, he confided, would be a "very
    good Supreme Court pick" or a "fabulous" vice president. And in
    exchanges about his handling of questions from the news media about
    his past, Mr. Bush appears to have acknowledged trying marijuana.

    Mr. Wead said he recorded the conversations because he viewed Mr. Bush
    as a historic figure, but he said he knew that the president might
    regard his actions as a betrayal. As the author of a new book about
    presidential childhoods, Mr. Wead could benefit from any publicity,
    but he said that was not a motive in disclosing the tapes.

    The White House did not dispute the authenticity of the tapes or
    respond to their contents. Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, said,
    "The governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed
    was his friend." Asked about drug use, Mr. Duffy said, "That has been
    asked and answered so many times there is nothing more to add."

    The conversations Mr. Wead played offer insights into Mr. Bush's
    thinking from the time he was weighing a run for president in 1998 to
    shortly before he accepted the Republican nomination in 2000. Mr. Wead
    had been a liaison to evangelical Protestants for the president's
    father, and the intersection of religion and politics is a recurring
    theme in the talks.

    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." He added, "I am
    going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true
    statement."

    But Mr. Bush also repeatedly worried that prominent evangelical
    Christians would not like his refusal "to kick gays." At the same
    time, he was wary of unnerving secular voters by meeting publicly with
    evangelical leaders. When he thought his aides had agreed to such a
    meeting, Mr. Bush complained to Karl Rove, his political strategist,
    "What the hell is this about?"

    Mr. Bush, who has acknowledged a drinking problem years ago, told Mr.
    Wead on the tapes that he could withstand scrutiny of his past. He
    said it involved nothing more than "just, you know, wild behavior." He
    worried, though, that allegations of cocaine use would surface in the
    campaign, and he blamed his opponents for stirring rumors. "If nobody
    shows up, there's no story," he told Mr. Wead, "and if somebody shows
    up, it is going to be made up." But when Mr. Wead said that Mr. Bush
    had in the past publicly denied using cocaine, Mr. Bush replied, "I
    haven't denied anything."

    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."

    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.

    Mr. Bush threatened that if his rival Steve Forbes attacked him too
    hard during the campaign and won, both Mr. Bush, then the Texas
    governor, and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, would withhold
    their support. "He can forget Texas. And he can forget Florida. And I
    will sit on my hands," Mr. Bush said.

    The private Mr. Bush sounds remarkably similar in many ways to the
    public President Bush. Many of the taped comments foreshadow aspects
    of his presidency, including his opposition to both anti-gay language
    and recognizing same-sex marriage, his skepticism about the United
    Nations, his sense of moral purpose and his focus on cultivating
    conservative Christian voters.

    Mr. Wead said he withheld many tapes of conversations that were
    repetitive or of a purely personal nature. The dozen conversations he
    agreed to play ranged in length from five minutes to nearly half an
    hour. In them, the future president affectionately addresses Mr. Wead
    as "Weadie" or "Weadnik," asks if his children still believe in Santa
    Claus, and chides him for skipping a doctor's appointment. Mr. Bush
    also regularly gripes about the barbs of the press and his rivals. And
    he is cocky at times. "It's me versus the world," he told Mr. Wead.
    "The good news is, the world is on my side. Or more than half of it."

    Other presidents, such as Richard M. Nixon and Lyndon B. Johnson,
    secretly recorded conversations from the White House. Some former
    associates of President Bill Clinton taped personal conversations in
    apparent efforts to embarrass or entrap him. But Mr. Wead's recordings
    are a rare example of a future president taped at length without his
    knowledge talking about matters of public interest like his political
    strategy and priorities.

    Mr. Wead first acknowledged the tapes to a reporter in December to
    defend the accuracy of a passage about Mr. Bush in his new book, "The
    Raising of a President." He did not mention the tapes in the book or
    footnotes, saying he drew on them for only one page of the book. He
    said he never sought to sell or profit from them. He said he made the
    tapes in states where it was legal to do so with only one party's
    knowledge.

    Mr. Wead eventually agreed to play a dozen tapes on the condition that
    the names of any private citizens be withheld. The New York Times
    hired Tom Owen, an expert on audio authentication, to examine samples
    from the tapes. He concluded the voice was that of the president.

    A White House adviser to the first President Bush, Mr. Wead said in an
    interview in The Washington Post in 1990 that Andrew H. Card Jr., then
    deputy chief of staff, told him to leave the administration "sooner
    rather than later" after he sent conservatives a letter faulting the
    White House for inviting gay activists to an event. But Mr. Wead said
    he left on good terms. He never had a formal role in the current
    president's campaign, though the tapes suggest he had angled for one.

    Mr. Wead said he admired George W. Bush and stayed in touch with some
    members of his family. While he said he has not communicated with the
    president since early in his first term, he attributed that to Mr.
    Bush's busy schedule.

    Mr. Wead said he recorded his conversations with the president in part
    because he thought he might be asked to write a book for the campaign.
    He also wanted a clear account of any requests Mr. Bush made of him.
    But he said his main motivation in making the tapes, which he
    originally intended to be released only after his own death, was to
    leave the nation a unique record of Mr. Bush.

    "I believe that, like him or not, he is going to be a huge historical
    figure," Mr. Wead said. "If I was on the telephone with Churchill or
    Gandhi, I would tape record them too."

    Summer of 1998

    The first of the taped conversations Mr. Wead disclosed took place in
    the summer of 1998, when Mr. Bush was running for his second term as
    Texas governor. At the time, Mr. Bush was considered a political
    moderate who worked well with Democrats and was widely admired by
    Texans of both parties. His family name made him a strong presidential
    contender, but he had not yet committed to run.

    Still, in a conversation that November on the eve of Mr. Bush's
    re-election, his confidence was soaring. "I believe tomorrow is going
    to change Texas politics forever," he told Mr. Wead. "The top three
    offices right below me will be the first time there has been a
    Republican in that slot since the Civil War. Isn't that amazing? And I
    hate to be a braggart, but they are going to win for one reason: me."

    Talking to Mr. Wead, a former Assemblies of God minister who was well
    connected in conservative evangelical circles, Mr. Bush's biggest
    concern about the Republican presidential primary was shoring up his
    right flank. Mr. Forbes was working hard to win the support of
    conservative Christians by emphasizing his opposition to abortion. "I
    view him as a problem, don't you?" Mr. Bush asked.

    Mr. Bush knew that his own religious faith could be an asset with
    conservative Christian voters, and his personal devotion was often
    evident in the taped conversations. When Mr. Wead warned him that
    "power corrupts," for example, Mr. Bush told him not to worry: "I have
    got a great wife. And I read the Bible daily. The Bible is pretty good
    about keeping your ego in check."

    In November 1999, he told his friend that he had been deeply moved by
    a memorial service for students who died in an accident when
    constructing a Thanksgiving weekend bonfire at Texas A & M University,
    especially by the prayers by friends of the students.

    In another conversation, he described a "powerful moment" visiting the
    site of the Sermon on the Mount in Israel with a group of state
    governors, where he read "Amazing Grace" aloud. "I look forward to
    sharing this at some point in time," he told Mr. Wead about the event.

    Preparing to meet with influential Christian conservatives, Mr. Bush
    tested his lines with Mr. Wead. "I'm going to tell them the five
    turning points in my life," he said. "Accepting Christ. Marrying my
    wife. Having children. Running for governor. And listening to my
    mother."

    In September 1998, Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead that he was getting ready
    for his first meeting with James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the
    Family, an evangelical self-help group. Dr. Dobson, probably the most
    influential evangelical conservative, wanted to examine the
    candidate's Christian credentials.

    "He said he would like to meet me, you know, he had heard some nice
    things, you know, well, 'I don't know if he is a true believer' kind
    of attitude," Mr. Bush said.

    Mr. Bush said he intended to reassure Dr. Dobson of his opposition to
    abortion. Mr. Bush said he was concerned about rumors that Dr. Dobson
    had been telling others that the "Bushes weren't going to be involved
    in abortion," meaning that the Bush family preferred to avoid the
    issue rather than fight over it.

    "I just don't believe I said that. Why would I have said that?" Mr.
    Bush told Mr. Wead with annoyance.

    By the end of the primary, Mr. Bush alluded to Dr. Dobson's strong
    views on abortion again, apparently ruling out potential vice
    presidents including Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Gen. Colin L.
    Powell, who favored abortion rights. Picking any of them could turn
    conservative Christians away from the ticket, Mr. Bush said.

    "They are not going to like it anyway, boy," Mr. Bush said. "Dobson
    made it clear."

    Signs of Concern

    Early on, though, Mr. Bush appeared most worried that Christian
    conservatives would object to his determination not to criticize gay
    people. "I think he wants me to attack homosexuals," Mr. Bush said
    after meeting James Robison, a prominent evangelical minister in
    Texas.

    But Mr. Bush said he did not intend to change his position. He said he
    told Mr. Robison: "Look, James, I got to tell you two things right off
    the bat. One, I'm not going to kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How
    can I differentiate sin?"

    Later, he read aloud an aide's report from a convention of the
    Christian Coalition, a conservative political group: "This crowd uses
    gays as the enemy. It's hard to distinguish between fear of the
    homosexual political agenda and fear of homosexuality, however."

    "This is an issue I have been trying to downplay," Mr. Bush said. "I
    think it is bad for Republicans to be kicking gays."

    Told that one conservative supporter was saying Mr. Bush had pledged
    not to hire gay people, Mr. Bush said sharply: "No, what I said was, I
    wouldn't fire gays."

    As early as 1998, however, Mr. Bush had already identified one
    gay-rights issue where he found common ground with conservative
    Christians: same-sex marriage. "Gay marriage, I am against that.
    Special rights, I am against that," Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead, five years
    before a Massachusetts court brought the issue to national attention.

    Mr. Bush took stock of conservative Christian views of foreign policy
    as well. Reading more of the report from the Christian Coalition
    meeting, Mr. Bush said to Mr. Wead: "Sovereignty. The issue is huge.
    The mere mention of Kofi Annan in the U.N. caused the crowd to go into
    a veritable fit. The coalition wants America strong and wants the
    American flag flying overseas, not the pale blue of the U.N."

    As eager as Mr. Bush was to cultivate the support of Christian
    conservatives, he did not want to do it too publicly for fear of
    driving away more secular voters. When Mr. Wead warned Mr. Bush to
    avoid big meetings with evangelical leaders, Mr. Bush said, "I'm just
    going to have one," and, "This is not meant to be public."

    Past Behavior

    Many of the taped conversations revolve around Mr. Bush's handling of
    questions about his past behavior. In August 1998, he worried that the
    scandals of the Clinton administration had sharpened journalists'
    determination to investigate the private lives of candidates. He even
    expressed a hint of sympathy for his Democratic predecessor.

    "I don't like it either," Mr. Bush said of the Clinton investigations.
    "But on the other hand, I think he has disgraced the nation."

    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."

    He said he learned "a couple of really good lines" from Mr. Robison,
    the Texas pastor: "What you need to say time and time again is not
    talk about the details of your transgressions but talk about what I
    have learned. I've sinned and I've learned."

    "I said, 'James' - he stopped - I said, 'I did some things when I was
    young that were immature,' " Mr. Bush said. "He said, 'But have you
    learned?' I said, 'James, that's the difference between me and the
    president. I've learned. I am prepared to accept the responsibility of
    this office.' "By the summer of 1999, Mr. Bush was telling Mr. Wead
    his approach to such prying questions had evolved. "I think it is time
    for somebody to just draw the line and look people in the eye and say,
    I am not going to participate in ugly rumors about me, and blame my
    opponents, and hold the line, and stand up for a system that will not
    allow this kind of crap to go on."

    Later, however, Mr. Bush worried that his refusal to answer questions
    about whether he had used illegal drugs in the past could prove
    costly, but he held out nonetheless. "I am just not going to answer
    those questions. And it might cost me the election," he told Mr. Wead.

    He complained repeatedly about the press scrutiny, accusing the news
    media of a "campaign" against him. While he talked of certain
    reporters as "pro-Bush" and commented favorably on some publications
    (U.S. News & World Report is "halfway decent," but Time magazine is
    "awful"), he vented frequently to Mr. Wead about what he considered
    the liberal bias and invasiveness of the news media in general.

    "It's unbelievable," Mr. Bush said, reciting various rumors about his
    past that his aides had picked up from reporters. "They just float
    sewer out there."

    Mr. Bush bristled at even an implicit aspersion on his past behavior
    from Dan Quayle, the former vice president and a rival candidate.

    "He's gone ugly on me, man," Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead. Mr. Bush quoted
    Mr. Quayle as saying, "I'm proud of what I did before 40."

    "As if I am not!" Mr. Bush said.

    Sizing Up Opponents

    During the primary contest, Mr. Bush often sized up his dozen
    Republican rivals, assessing their appeal to conservative Christian
    voters, their treatment of him and their prospects of serving in a
    future Bush administration. He paid particular attention to Senator
    John Ashcroft. "I like Ashcroft a lot," he told Mr. Wead in November
    1998. "He is a competent man. He would be a good Supreme Court pick.
    He would be a good attorney general. He would be a good vice
    president."

    When Mr. Wead predicted an uproar if Mr. Ashcroft were appointed to
    the court because of his conservative religious views, Mr. Bush
    replied, "Well, tough."

    While Mr. Bush thought the conservative Christian candidates Gary L.
    Bauer and Alan Keyes would probably scare away moderates, he saw Mr.
    Ashcroft as an ally because he would draw evangelical voters into the
    race.

    "I want Ashcroft to stay in there, and I want him to be very strong,"
    Mr. Bush said. " I would love it to be a Bush-Ashcroft race. Only
    because I respect him. He wouldn't say ugly things about me. And I
    damn sure wouldn't say ugly things about him."

    But Mr. Bush was sharply critical of Mr. Forbes, another son of
    privilege with a famous last name. Evangelicals were not going to like
    him, Mr. Bush said. "He's too preppy," Mr. Bush said, calling Mr.
    Forbes "mean spirited."

    Recalling the bruising primary fight Mr. Forbes waged against Bob Dole
    in 1996, Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead, "Steve Forbes is going to hear this
    message from me. I will do nothing for him if he does to me what he
    did to Dole. Period. There is going to be a consequence. He is not
    dealing with the average, you know, 'Oh gosh, let's all get together
    after it's over.' I will promise you, I will not help him. I don't
    care."

    Another time, Mr. Bush discussed offering Mr. Forbes a job as economic
    adviser or even secretary of commerce, if Mr. Forbes would approach
    him first.

    Mr. Bush's political predictions were not always on the mark. Before
    the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Bush all but dismissed Senator John
    McCain, who turned out to be his strongest challenger.

    "He's going to wear very thin when it is all said and done," he said.

    When Mr. Wead suggested in June 2000 that Mr. McCain's popularity with
    Democrats and moderate voters might make him a strong vice
    presidential candidate, Mr. Bush almost laughed. "Oh, come on!" He
    added, "I don't know if he helps us win."

    Mr. Bush could hardly contain his disdain for Mr. Gore, his Democratic
    opponent, at one point calling him "pathologically a liar." His
    confidence in the moral purpose of his campaign to usher in "a
    responsibility era" never wavered, but he acknowledged that winning
    might require hard jabs. "I may have to get a little rough for a
    while," he told Mr. Wead, "but that is what the old man had to do with
    Dukakis, remember?"

    For his part, Mr. Wead said what was most resonant about the
    conversations with Mr. Bush was his concern that his past behavior
    might come back to haunt him. Mr. Wead said he used the tapes for his
    book because Mr. Bush's life so clearly fit his thesis: that
    presidents often grow up overshadowed by another sibling.

    "What I saw in George W. Bush is that he purposefully put himself in
    the shadows by his irresponsible behavior as a young person," Mr. Wead
    said. That enabled him to come into his own outside the glare of his
    parents' expectations, Mr. Wead said.

    Why disclose the tapes? "I just felt that the historical point I was
    making trumped a personal relationship," Mr. Wead said. Asked about
    consequences, Mr. Wead said, "I'll always be friendly toward him."

------------

The New York Times > Washington > From Psst to Oops: Secret Taper of Bush Says 
History Can Wait
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/24/politics/24wead.html
February 24, 2005

    By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 23 - All week, Doug Wead has said the reason he
    secretly recorded some of his phone calls with President Bush was for
    history's sake.

    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.

    The disclosure that he had such tapes, recordings that spanned two
    years before the 2000 presidential election when he was an evangelical
    adviser to Mr. Bush, was published in The New York Times on Sunday.

    Since then, Mr. Wead has appeared on several television news and talk
    shows to defend his actions, insisting several times that he had never
    sought to profit from the tapes and had decided to release some of
    them only after the president's re-election.

    "My thanks to those who have let me share my heart and regrets about
    recent events," Mr. Wead wrote in the statement, posted on his Web
    site Wednesday. "Contrary to a statement that I made to The New York
    Times, I know very well that personal relationships are more important
    than history."

    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."

    The White House declined to add to its previous statements that Mr.
    Bush "was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his
    friend."

    But even Laura Bush was drawn into the controversy during her trip in
    Europe with Mr. Bush.

    "I think it's very odd and awkward, to be perfectly frank, to tape
    someone while you're talking to them on the phone, and they don't know
    it, and then come out with the tapes later," Mrs. Bush said in an
    interview on the NBC morning show "Today." "I don't know if I'd use
    the word 'betrayed,' but I think it's a little bit awkward for sure."

    Mr. Wead's decision may be the coda to an unlikely 15-year-friendship,
    begun when Mr. Bush was the born-again son of a well-known political
    family and Mr. Wead was a former evangelist who made his living
    turning out quickly written books and speaking at Amway conventions.

    Among the disclosures Mr. Wead made about the tapes was that he was
    keeping some additional undisclosed ones - coyness that prompted
    furious speculation this week about what else or who else they might
    contain since Mr. Bush and Karl Rove, his top political adviser, both
    had many conversations with Mr. Wead over the phone during that time.
    One of the tapes he played for The Times included what he said was a
    brief conversation with Mr. Rove.

    In the eyes of the Bush family and its loyalists, Mr. Wead violated a
    cherished code of silence about their private affairs.

    White House displeasure could put a dent in Mr. Wead's other careers.
    As news of the conversations was about to be published last weekend,
    the White House warned some of its evangelical allies who might be
    mentioned on the tapes. Mr. Wead had augmented his book royalties with
    fees as an evangelical motivational speaker and an expert on the Bush
    family, and his actions could hurt his popularity with evangelical
    supporters of Mr. Bush. He also has close ties to Rich DeVos, the
    wealthy evangelical Christian co-founder the network-marketing giant
    Amway who is also a major supporter of Mr. Bush. Representatives of
    Mr. DeVos did not return calls for comment Wednesday.

    "I know Doug Wead," said Dr. James C. Dobson, the founder of the
    evangelical group Focus on the Family who acknowledged receiving a
    "heads up" before the report appeared. "I am shocked by his breach of
    trust and his relationship with then Governor Bush, who had welcomed
    him into his confidence."

    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."

    Mr. Wead declined to comment on any contact with the White House about
    the tapes, but said the White House had not pressured him.

    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."

    Mr. Wead said he had not yet worked out to whom he would give his
    future royalties. He noted that his advance for his current book was
    based only on the success of his previous book about presidential
    families, which became a best seller, not on his access to the tapes.

    Mr. Wead declined to comment on how he planned to turn over the tapes
    to the president. "That will be proceeding," he said.

    About the book he is planning next, another history of presidential
    families, and his career as a paid speaker, Mr. Wead said he did not
    yet know what the consequences might be.

    "What is next is for me to make this right," he said. "To give any
    future proceeds away and to give the tapes back to the president since
    he didn't know he was being recorded."

    Because the tapes were made before Mr. Bush became president, they
    would not be subject to the regulations governing presidential papers,
    which require them to be declassified after 25 years, said Barbara
    Elias, freedom of information coordinator for the National Security
    Archive, a nonprofit research group. Other lawyers suggested that the
    White House may seek to convey the tapes to an outside lawyer
    representing Mr. Bush, thus further shielding them under
    attorney-client privilege.

    Mr. Wead, a former minister of the Assemblies of God, first met
    President Bush's father before his 1988 presidential campaign. At the
    time, Mr. Wead was already a speaker at Amway events and had also
    written a handful of books, and he approached Mr. Bush, who was then
    the vice president, about a biography. Mr. Wead became an adviser to
    the first President Bush on relations with evangelical Christians. The
    younger Mr. Bush, who had become more deeply religious than his
    father, worked closely with Mr. Wead in reaching out to conservative
    Christians in his father's campaigns; the two often traveled the
    country together.

    After the 1988 election, Mr. Wead worked as a White House aide. He
    left in 1990 after he sent a letter criticizing the invitation of some
    gay activists to the White House, although Mr. Wead says he did not
    object to their inclusion.

    In 1992, however, when Mr. Wead was considering running for Congress
    in Arizona, Mr. Bush stood by his friend, telling The Arizona
    Republic: "Sometimes in White House circles, people have the knives
    out for you. I think Doug got caught up in that. But I don't believe
    he was fired. There was no reason for it."

    On the tapes Mr. Wead played for The Times, he often appears to be
    angling for a position on Mr. Bush's campaign, pointing out that he
    might be able to help Mr. Bush with conservative Christians. Mr. Bush
    politely rebuffs him, explaining that he was ruling out any of his
    father's former advisers. Still, Mr. Bush called repeatedly to seek
    Mr. Wead's advice and never failed to ask Mr. Wead friendly questions
    about his welfare.

    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."