God's gonna get the Bush boys for making fun of him By DOUG THOMPSON
No one should be surprised that President George W. Bush and his senior aides privately ridiculed right-wing Christians and evangelicals that helped put them into office. Bush has shown repeatedly that he lacks respect for anything, be it the Constitution, freedoms that once were considered sacrosanct in the nation, the law or the truth.
Now a White House insider who once ran the administration's "faith-based initiative" reveals that the whole "God is my copilot" shtick is just another callous, cynical political ploy to get votes and political support.
Reports Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times News Service:
A new book by a former White House official says President Bush's top political advisors privately ridiculed evangelical supporters as ''nuts'' and ''goofy'' while embracing them in public and using their votes to help win elections. The former official also writes that the White House office of faith-based initiatives, which Bush promoted as a nonpolitical effort to support religious social-service organizations, was told to host preelection events designed to mobilize religious voters who would most likely favor Republican candidates.
The assertions by David Kuo, the former No. 2 official in the faith-based initiatives program, have rattled Republicans.
Some conservatives lamented Thursday that the book, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, also comes in the midst of the scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley's computer messages to male Congressional pages, another threat to conservative turnout.
The book is scheduled to hit stores Monday, but the White House responded to its assertions Thursday as excerpts began leaking out.
In the book, Kuo, who quit the White House in 2003, accuses Karl Rove's political staff of cynically hijacking the faith-based initiatives idea for electoral gain. It assails Bush for failing to live up to his promises of boosting the role of religious organizations in delivering social services.
White House strategists 'knew `the nuts' were politically invaluable, but that was the extent of their usefulness,'' Kuo writes, according to MSNBC, which obtained an advance copy.
``Sadly, the political affairs folks complained most often and most loudly about how boorish many politically involved Christians were . . . National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs.''
This doesn't surprise me. Republicans have long been hypocrites when it came to the religious right. Even Ronald Reagan, the darling of the right-wing, ridiculed the Christian conservatives.
But Bush embraced the Bible thumpers with carefully-orchestrated public enthusiasm while he cursed like a sailor and ridiculed them behind closed doors. He called the Constitution a "goddamned piece of paper," refers to political enemies as "fucking idiots" and lies without remorse to Congress, the American people.
Kuo's book uncovers another sham by the Bush White House, another callous use of supporters for political gain and another lie from an administration whose record is built on deception.
God's gonna get 'em for that.
Capitol Hill Blue
Doug Thompson also publishes a personal blog at Blue Ridge Muse.
