The New York Times publishes excerpts today from an audiotape of President Bush recorded furtively by Doug Wead, a former aide to the President’s father: In Secretly Taped Conversations, Glimpses of the Future President.

Leaving aside the scumminess of both the Times and Mr. Wead for publishing discussions recorded without the President’s knowledge, the tapes reveal that Bush bears no ill will toward gay people, although he is opposed to gay marriage (no surprise there):

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.”

The tapes also reveal that Bush is a deeply spiritual man, who nevertheless has misgivings about the Christian far right and distances himself from them. On the whole, Bush comes across as forthright and honest.

So why would the New York Times publish something like this, when it shows the President as pretty much exactly the person he claims to be?

And in exchanges about his handling of questions from the news media about his past, Mr. Bush appears to have acknowledged trying marijuana.

Oh.

But who cares?