a Nov. 5, 1986, entry. "It is not a subject we can talk about."

But there were others who did want to talk about it.

Bush's role in Iran-Contra was perhaps most memorably dissected during a remarkable live interview he did with CBS Evening News anchorman Dan Rather in January 1988.

At the time, Bush was still struggling to win his party's presidential nomination and was eager to appear on the nation's most widely viewed TV evening news show to boost his political fortunes.

Rather pointedly cited a poll indicating that one-third of Republicans believed Bush was hiding something about his role in the Iran-Contra affair.

"I am hiding something," Bush angrily responded. "You know what I'm hiding? What I told the president, and that's the only thing, and I've answered every questionI don't think it's fair to judge a whole career, it's not fair to judge my whole career, by a rehash on Iran."

Rather reminded Bush that as vice president, he had claimed to have been "out of the loop" about Iran-Contra.

"May I explain out of the loop?" Bush replied. "No operational role."

Bush would go on to win a single term in the White House, years that were dogged by Walsh, the independent prosecutor, trying to get to the bottom of how much the 41st president had known about the arms-for-hostages-for-arms scandal — and how much he had held back evidence of what he had known and when he knew it.