Several secretly taped conversations recorded in the late 90’s between George W. Bush and his old friend Doug Wead have surfaced, and present some insight into Bush’s mindset in the years before he decided to run for office.

The NYT prints several excerpts concerning, among other things, Bush’s views on gays.

“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.”