Bush said Clinton was a disgrace, in 1998

Sunday, Feb. 20, 2005 9:20 a.m. EST
Bush: Clinton 'Disgraced the Nation'
President Bush had some choice words for both his predecessor, Bill Clinton, and his likely opponent, Al Gore, in tapes recorded by historian Doug Wead two years before Bush ran for the White House and excerpted by the New York Times on Sunday.Speaking in 1998, when news headlines were filled with lurid details of Clinton's involvement with intern Monica Lewinsky, Bush decried the investigation into the scandal, telling Wead, "I don't like it either."
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"But on the other hand," Bush added in the next breath, "I think he has disgraced the nation."
During the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush would say publicly that he intended to "restore the honor and dignity" of the office, but never directly referenced any of the Clinton scandals - and he never personally attacked the president himself.
At the GOP convention in Philadelphia that year, the Bush campaign went so far as to decline to allow an on-site tribute to the Republican House members who prosecuted Clinton's impeachment - one of Bush's first attempts to bring the now famous "new tone" to Washington.
Privately, however, Bush was more candid, acknowledging that while his past wasn't perfect, there was a key difference between how he and Clinton handled their respective problems.
"I did some things when I was young that were immature," he told Wead. "The difference between me and the president [is] I've learned. I am prepared to accept the responsibility of this office."
While always remaining civil on the campaign trail, the Times said, privately Bush could hardly contain his disdain for Al Gore, at one point telling Wead that the then-vice president was "pathologically a liar."


Here's the article link: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/2/20/93437.shtml