From CNN:

The author who secretly recorded his conversations with then-Gov. George W. Bush told CNN Monday he should give the tapes to the president despite lucrative offers to sell them.

Doug Wead - a former aide to President Bush's father, George H.W. Bush - recorded about nine hours of conversations with the Texas governor while he was considering his run for the White House.

On the tapes, the president appears to admit to past drug use and says he won't join some conservative Christians he sees as "kicking gays."

The tapes, first featured in a New York Times article on Sunday, have raised eyebrows -- not only about Bush's comments, but also Wead's motives for releasing them.

"Tonight, my agent called me and said, 'Well, do you want to retire a multimillionaire?' " Wead told CNN's Anderson Cooper.

But Wead said despite "long lists" of potential buyers, he feels he should give the tapes to Bush, who didn't know their conversations were being recorded at the time.

"My initial hope was to record something that would have historical value, but this has become too much," Wead said. "I think I should get the tapes back to him. He was the other person on the line, and they can do whatever they want with them. History can wait."

Uh...Doug...President George W. Bush didn't wait one day in office before blocking the release of Ronald Reagan's presidential papers, declared to be public property by the Presidential Records Act of 1978. In November 2001, Bush issued Executive Order 13233, permanently blocking the release of the papers of Reagan and every president after him, as long as the incumbent President, Vice President, or the former President, Vice President, or any member of his family objects at all on the grounds of "executive privilege."

Congress's clear 1978 mandate that presidential papers become open to the public in 12 years has been all but completely reversed by executive order, and it seems clear that President Bush has absolutely no plans to make any controversial papers of any of his Republican predecessors available to the public.

If you give those tapes to President Bush, Doug, they'll be vaporized before the press release announcing the news can get out of the fax machine. This President believes he's entitled to act in complete secrecy, and that sunshine laws simply do not apply to him or people he likes. If you really wanted to preserve them as a "historical record," you need to make secure copies of them right now with an ironclad will that assures their release upon your death or when the President leaves office, whichever comes first.

If you feel sorry that your friend was embarrassed by them, that's on you, but if you really had history in mind when making those tapes, then for God's sake, don't turn them over to a man who will destroy them in a heartbeat.

By the way, am I the only person who was profoundly disappointed that the only real news story to come out of the tape excerpts is "Bush may have smoked marijuana?" Sure, the stories covered Bush's kowtowing to the religious right, his deliberate weaseling of difficult questions he wants other people to answer, and his desire to appoint John Ashcroft, the nation's Chief Theologian, to the US Supreme Court, all the headlines were about pot. Can this nation's press not find a single story unless it's got the potential to fit on the cover of the National Enquirer?