Severian
14th October 2006, 04:36
According to self-described Christian conservative David Kuo, formerly Deputy Director of the White House "faith-based initiative" office, in his new book "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction":
White House strategists "knew 'the nuts' were politically invaluable, but that was the extent of their usefulness,"
.....
"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 and described as 'ridiculous' and 'out of control.' ''
that LA Times article also says: (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-faith13oct13,0,3875008.story?coll=la-home-headlines)
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 pre-election events designed to mobilize religious voters who would most likely favor Republican candidates.
....
John J. DiIulio Jr., the first director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, resigned after seven months and was quoted as saying that the White House was run by "Mayberry Machiavellians" who sometimes put politics ahead of other causes.
Another book excerpt posted here (http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/12/rove-faith-based/)
Every other White House office was up and running. The faith-based initiative still operated out of the nearly vacant transition offices.
Three days later, a Tuesday, Karl Rove summoned [Don] Willett [a former Bush aide from Texas who initially shepharded the program] to his office to announce that the entire faith-based initiative would be rolled out the following Monday. Willett asked just how — without a director, staff, office, or plan — the president could do that. Rove looked at him, took a deep breath, and said, “I don’t know. Just get me a f—ing faith-based thing. Got it?” Willett was shown the door.
In an earlier, and milder, column on beliefnet.com (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/160/story_16092_1.html)Kuo complained the "faith-based initiative" was all talk and no action.
This is not news, of course, just further confirmation. Kuo is hardly the first to point out that the Bush administration verbally placates the Robertson-Falwell wing of the Republican Party around election time, but has done little to actually implement their "social conservative" demands. Less so than other recent Republican administrations, actually.
Of course, like other mainstream conservative and liberal politicians, the Bush administration is paving the way for radically ultraright forces. Give them an inch and they will take a mile, and not necessarily by electoral means. The long-term rightward drift of bourgeois politics creates a framework of public discussion that's a growth medium for all kinds of ultraright, including fascist, movements.
But that's a different thing that asserting the Bush administration is "Christian Fascist", as some leftists do. The function of that false assertion is to stampede people into supporting the Democrats as a lesser evil.
White House strategists "knew 'the nuts' were politically invaluable, but that was the extent of their usefulness,"
.....
"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 and described as 'ridiculous' and 'out of control.' ''
that LA Times article also says: (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-faith13oct13,0,3875008.story?coll=la-home-headlines)
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 pre-election events designed to mobilize religious voters who would most likely favor Republican candidates.
....
John J. DiIulio Jr., the first director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, resigned after seven months and was quoted as saying that the White House was run by "Mayberry Machiavellians" who sometimes put politics ahead of other causes.
Another book excerpt posted here (http://thinkprogress.org/2006/10/12/rove-faith-based/)
Every other White House office was up and running. The faith-based initiative still operated out of the nearly vacant transition offices.
Three days later, a Tuesday, Karl Rove summoned [Don] Willett [a former Bush aide from Texas who initially shepharded the program] to his office to announce that the entire faith-based initiative would be rolled out the following Monday. Willett asked just how — without a director, staff, office, or plan — the president could do that. Rove looked at him, took a deep breath, and said, “I don’t know. Just get me a f—ing faith-based thing. Got it?” Willett was shown the door.
In an earlier, and milder, column on beliefnet.com (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/160/story_16092_1.html)Kuo complained the "faith-based initiative" was all talk and no action.
This is not news, of course, just further confirmation. Kuo is hardly the first to point out that the Bush administration verbally placates the Robertson-Falwell wing of the Republican Party around election time, but has done little to actually implement their "social conservative" demands. Less so than other recent Republican administrations, actually.
Of course, like other mainstream conservative and liberal politicians, the Bush administration is paving the way for radically ultraright forces. Give them an inch and they will take a mile, and not necessarily by electoral means. The long-term rightward drift of bourgeois politics creates a framework of public discussion that's a growth medium for all kinds of ultraright, including fascist, movements.
But that's a different thing that asserting the Bush administration is "Christian Fascist", as some leftists do. The function of that false assertion is to stampede people into supporting the Democrats as a lesser evil.