Duh alert: Bush insider says Bush is just using Christians...

[buttmunch]

More than five years after President Bush created the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, the former second-in-command of that office is going public with an insider’s tell-all account that portrays an office used almost exclusively to win political points with both evangelical Christians and traditionally Democratic minorities.

The office’s primary mission, providing financial support to charities that serve the poor, never got the presidential support it needed to succeed, according to the book.

Entitled “Tempting Faith,” the book is not scheduled for release until Oct. 16, but MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” has obtained a copy.

“Tempting Faith’s” author is David Kuo, who served as special assistant to the president from 2001 to 2003. A self-described conservative Christian, Kuo’s previous experience includes work for prominent conservatives including former Education Secretary and federal drug czar Bill Bennett and former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Kuo, who has complained publicly in the past about the funding shortfalls, goes several steps further in his new book.

He says some of the nation’s most prominent evangelical leaders were known in the office of presidential political strategist Karl Rove as “the nuts.”

“National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ‘ridiculous,’ ‘out of control,’ and just plain ‘goofy,’” Kuo writes.

More seriously, Kuo alleges that then-White House political affairs director Ken Mehlman knowingly participated in a scheme to use the office, and taxpayer funds, to mount ostensibly “nonpartisan” events that were, in reality, designed with the intent of mobilizing religious voters in 20 targeted races.

According to Kuo, “Ken loved the idea and gave us our marching orders.”

Among those marching orders, Kuo says, was Mehlman’s mandate to conceal the true nature of the events.

Kuo quotes Mehlman as saying, “… (I)t can’t come from the campaigns. That would make it look too political. It needs to come from the congressional offices. We’ll take care of that by having our guys call the office [of faith-based initiatives] to request the visit.”

Nineteen out of the 20 targeted races were won by Republicans, Kuo reports. The outreach was so extensive and so powerful in motivating not just conservative evangelicals, but also traditionally Democratic minorities, that Kuo attributes Bush’s 2004 Ohio victory “at least partially … to the conferences we had launched two years before.”

With the exception of one reporter from the Washington Post, Kuo says the media were oblivious to the political nature and impact of his office’s events, in part because so much of the debate centered on issues of separation of church and state.

In fact, the Bush administration often promoted the faith-based agenda by claiming that existing government regulations were too restrictive on religious organizations seeking to serve the public.

Substantiating that claim proved difficult, Kuo says. “Finding these examples became a huge priority.… If President Bush was making the world a better place for faith-based groups, we had to show it was really a bad place to begin with. But, in fact, it wasn’t that bad at all.”

In fact, when Bush asks Kuo how much money was being spent on “compassion” social programs, Kuo claims he discovered “we were actually spending about $20 million a year less on them than before he had taken office.”

The money that was appropriated and disbursed, however, often served a political agenda, Kuo claims.

“Many of the grant-winning organizations that rose to the top of the process were politically friendly to the administration,” he says.

More pointedly, Kuo quotes an unnamed member of the review panel charged with rating grant applications.

“But,” she said with a giggle, ‘When I saw one of those non-Christian groups in the set I was reviewing, I just stopped looking at them and gave them a zero … a lot of us did.’”

“Tempting Faith” contains several other controversial claims about Kuo’s office, the Bush White House and even the 1994 Republican revolution in Congress.

Many of those revelations and others will be the topic of discussion on Thursday night’s edition of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15228489/

Who would've thought Karl Rove would have so much in common with so many on this board.

[Aella]

Well, this is not surprising, but it IS rather amusing, especially the 'nuts' part.

[buttmunch]

Karl Rove: The man who hates Christians.

[LynnieD]

Gosh, get out. Unbelieveable. *smacks own head*

[Sojiita]

Duh.. Get my smellin' salts! 'the nuts'

[Grimmlok]

Gee, not like I haven't been saying this for about 5 fucking years now.. nice of the rest o the world to catch up to my shining brilliance [/sarcasm]

[Lobelia]

I was thinking about this very thing yesterday, for no reason. About how a politician automatically gains a huge following just by proclaiming him/herself to be Christian, and spouting a bunch of rhetoric. You could be Satan himself & just recite the words, and the sheep come a-running. I would dearly love to have a herd of them seated in an auditorium, and have this article read to them. I'd love to see the looks on their faces, and hear the ensuing sputtering.

[Grimmlok]

Yup.. and then you'd toss them a few bones like trying to pass descrimminatory legislation that has no hope of succeeding, saying "oh well, I tried! Blame the opposition for blocking it!" which ensures even more voter loyalty.

[Lobelia]

Yes, all that us-against-the-world solidarity that's based on fear & smugness.

[pacific breeze]

Politicians use everybody, and short of giving them everything they want, these nuts would complain they're being ignored. Bush has unfortunately done lots to appease them in domestic and foreign policies. From tying birth control to abstinence-only programs to muzzling churches that dare to question this admin -- the list is long.

[Grimmlok]

What amuses me is the vast evangelical hordes are, collectively, so fucking stupid that they couldn't see they were being played.

How dumb do you have to be?

[AliceInWonderland]

no one who truly wants to emulate Jesus and his teachings would go into the wars he's gone into and dispose of countless troops and innocent civilians the way he has.

[Lobelia]

Originally Posted by AliceInWonderland

no one who truly wants to emulate Jesus and his teachings would go into the wars he's gone into and dispose of countless troops and innocent civilians the way he has.

Stop making sense. It is not allowed on Thursdays.

[Sojiita]

I have no idea why..but I still think Bush is kind of sexy..too bad her is a Republitard/demon

[buttmunch]

I have no idea why..but I still think Bush is kind of sexy..too bad her is a Republitard/demon

You did NOT just say that! Bite your tongue, mister, beat yourself with horsehair and don't come back until you make amends. The man has no lips!