# Bush Tapes
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [February 21, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115 "2005-02-21T04:10:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/21 "2005-02-21T17:34:30Z")
I understand your point, Mhendo, but I don’t believe they do think that; i.e., that smoking pot will lead to hopeless addiction. It’s just that it is not politically expedient for them to support legalization. If Bush does it, his own right wing will crucify him, and if the Democrat does it, Bush’s right wing will start a Pot Haters Veterans for Truth ad campaign to paint the Democrat as a drug addict. It’s too much risk for too little personal gain, and politics is about personal gain. That’s why they’re there, to get power and money. Meanwhile, they’ve shut out effective opposition. The Libertarian candidate and Green candidate, for instance, routinely advocate legalization, but they have to spend all their time on ballot qualification and whatnot, and don’t have access to Republican-Democrat strongholds like the Committee for Presidential Debates.
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### Author:  [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2005, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/22 "2005-02-21T18:08:49Z")
I think you’re correct, and that simple political expediency rather than any real lack of understanding is the real issue for the politicians.
Maybe my ire is directed at the wrong people. Perhaps i should rewrite one of my paragraphs thus:
> [@](#):
>
> What i want to know is exactly how many Presidents and Representatives and Senators and CEOs and doctors and lawyers have to be “outed” as former pot users before the **voters** in this country will finally cave in to statistics and admit that toking up occasionally does not necessarily lead to a life of crack addiction, and does not necessarily make you a long-term drain on society.
Because if the voters come to believe this, it might then cease to be politically expedient to spend so much time and so many resources on the “drug war.”
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/23 "2005-02-21T18:15:42Z")
> [@mhendo](#):
>
> Because if the voters come to believe this, it might then cease to be politically expedient to spend so much time and so many resources on the “drug war.”
Amen! The votes are what they listen to.
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/24 "2005-02-21T19:32:19Z")
> [@mhendo](#):
>
> What i want to know is exactly how many Presidents and Representatives and Senators and CEOs and doctors and lawyers have to be “outed” as former pot users before the lawmakers in this country will finally cave in to statistics and admit that toking up occasionally does not necessarily lead to a life of crack addiction, and does not necessarily make you a long-term drain on society.
It doesn’t necessarily lead to a life of crack addiction, but the anecdotal evidence indicates that it might lead to military shows of force and unwarranted invasions of sovereign states, so I think we best proceed carefully on this one.
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### Author:  [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/25 "2005-02-21T19:39:11Z")
> [@Martin Hyde](#):
>
> The man is an **_admitted_ alcoholic** , he’s probably not going to be ashamed at all that he once tried weed.
Huh, I thought alcoholism was a disease. :smack:
If only I hadn’t admitted to being bipolar. If only some family hadn’t admitted to having cancer. Stigma sucks.
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### Author:  [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2005, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/26 "2005-02-21T19:53:33Z")
Gah! I should add a little more so it doesn’t look like I’m sniping the thread.
A few thoughts came to me when I first read this story. The first, obviously was Linda Tripp. Without trying to rationalize anything between these two situations, I do see a small (yet really insignificant) difference.
With Clinton, whom day after day I have more respect for now that hindsight is available, he got some from a young girl that read more into the relationship than was there. Then she blabbed to an older friend with an agenda, and we know what happened there.
Bush, much like Monica, thought he was talking in confidence to a trusted friend. That friend turned out to “leak” the info to the press in an attempt to increase his own public recognition.
While I have smoked pot, even recently, I’ve never cheated on my wife. So I put one higher on the list of no-nos than the other, but they’re both pretty low on my list of things that outrage me.
What I’m waiting for (probably in vain) is the absolute vilification of this guy in general. I won’t be holding my breath.
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/27 "2005-02-21T20:37:38Z")
Do I think the guy who made the tapes is scum? Yes, absolutely.
Am I surprised Bush has scummy friends? Not in the slightest.
How do I feel when scummy people are stabbed in the back by thier scummy friends? It makes me think that there is, perhaps, a higher order to the universe.
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### Author:  [@PinkMarabou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PinkMarabou)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2005, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/28 "2005-02-21T21:05:05Z")
> [@Miller](#):
>
> there is, perhaps, a **higher order**
Hee hee!
No pun inteded I’m assuming?
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### Author:  [@PinkMarabou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PinkMarabou)
#### Post date: [February 21, 2005, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/29 "2005-02-21T21:06:37Z")
> [@PinkMarabou](#):
>
> No pun inteded I’m assuming?
That’s supposed to be **intended**. :smack:
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### Author:  [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2005, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/30 "2005-02-22T02:38:39Z")
I was listening to the tape on TV last night and Bush said something about “collaborating evidence” when it was obvious that the word he should have said was “corroborating”. It cracked me up until I realized he was probably baked when he said it. 😃
PS I expect to hear countless other lame marijuana jokes about Bush for the remainder of his presidency. After all, fair is fair.
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### Author:  [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2005, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/31 "2005-02-22T02:49:53Z")
> [@duffer](#):
>
> What I’m waiting for (probably in vain) is the absolute vilification of this guy in general. I won’t be holding my breath.
Man, you must feel so disappointed to open this thread and find people condemning the taper! I feel sorry for you and your frustrated anti-liberal outrage addiction!
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### Author:  [@Monocracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monocracy)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2005, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/32 "2005-02-22T10:21:53Z")
Does anyone else think that this may have been OK’d by the Bush administration? All i’ve been hearing from the conservative talking heads is that this tape makes Bush seem more human and that his convictions match his politics. And the liberals have no big problem with it either.
Perhaps it’s a ploy to distract attention from other harmful news stories?
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2005, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-tapes/291115/33 "2005-02-22T11:29:44Z")
> [@SteveG1](#):
>
> If he was getting toasted now, while making decisions, then I would care.
The decisions are pretty much the same as if he _were_ actually toasted. Hell, they’re maybe even _worse_ than if the fucker was toasted.
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