Wead regrets

Doug Wead, who secretly recorded private conversations with George W. Bush and played a dozen of them for the New York Times, has done a one-eighty.

"Contrary to a statement that I made to the New York Times, I have come to realize that personal relationships are more important than history," Wead wrote in a letter to the show's host, Chris Matthews, that MSNBC released to the public on Wednesday. "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. History can wait."

I was convinced that this guy was the biggest sleaze to walk the planet. But Bush's image has been polished; he expresses the same values in private as he does publicly. Wead cancels a TV appearance and says all the right things in his letter to Chris Matthews at MSNBC. Bush and Wead both look good. Is anyone cleaver enough to plan it this way?