Exclusive: Book says Bush just using Christians

[Ethelk2044]

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.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15228489/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Effin' President Elmer Gantry . . . n/t

[Tellurian]

7. More Revlations from "the Holier Than Thou"..

"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."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15228489/

[NashVegas]

10. They Passed LAWS for Those "Nuts"

So let's just cut this crap about being used. They are using OUR GOVERNMENT to try to create THEIR Utopia.

[Tellurian]

24. I wouldn't be surprised if Bush

gets a % of "donated" moneys back to him as kick back for the funding.
Would that qualify as Money Laundering?

[Pachamama]

17. Bush Co. has total contempt for the Christians, the Constitution and the

entire US Population...and the world.

They have used anybody and anything that they thought would benefit them to attaining and retaining power and wealth.

They will go down in history as the greatest con-artists, grifters and criminals this Nation has ever known....

:puke:

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. We knew this.

That's why I never supported it. It was bribery money and never intended to make the sweeping change that was really needed to help the poor. They just gave the money to the loud mouthspeakers, and hoped that would appease the masses.

[Cobalt-60]

14. It's a good comparison

And it's a good movie, too
(I must say that I couldn't resist the 1960 version of Shirley Jones either, just to be fair to Elmer :) )

[liberal N proud]

2. They need a book to point this out?

I've been telling wing nuts for years they are bing used by the GOP. I have said they never intend on giving the right wing Christian fundies what they want. Just little tidbits here and there to keep them in the fold.

Maybe they finally pushed too far?

[wholetruth00]

4. You beat me to it. The faith-based LEADERS want the money and the

Republicans want the votes...and they have BOTH used and brainwashed the sheeple of their congregations to accomplish the mutually beneficial outcomes that have screwed the rest of us.

[Miss Chybil]

12. These people like to be spoon-fed their information. nt

[tavalon]

20. They are the sheep washed in the blood of their shepherd

Have you ever watched a flock of sheep? So dumb but easily led.

[Miss Chybil]

28. Have you ever wondered why somebody would want to be washed

in blood, or to eat their god? Such barbaric symbology... It does seem to stir the mystical section of the brain up a bit, though.

[RaRa]

3. While the text is interesting in this post

the title,like so many here made me say "duh!"

[Book Lover]

5. Pope still catholic, sky remains blue

I will be reading the book, of course, though.

[DemoTex]

6. Harry Crews, southern gothic, in "The Gospel Singer":

Pray in one hand, shit in t'other .. see which fills up first.

[rodeodance]

8. "Ken Mehlman knowingly participated in a scheme to use the office,"

.....“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 to request the visit.”

[leesa]

9. I hope it also exposes his fellow thugs, Dobson, Falwell, Robertson, the

Graham Boyz (and YES I mean the old man too), LeHaye, Moon, Perkins, Bauer, and whoever else I forgot...

[grassfed]

11. I sat with my heartbroken Lebanese friend as janet parshall

gleefully described the conflict in Lebanon as "a Sunday school lesson playing out before us."
I will NEVER forget this.

many more examples here:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200607260002

[RamboLiberal]

13. This guy is supposed to be scheduled for 60 Minutes this weekend

Simon and Schuster is his publisher. And he's also scheduled for Faux on Monday - didn't say what show.

[underpants]

30. David Kuo TV schedule - it doesn't say what Fox News show though

http://news.bookweb.org/m-bin/printer_friendly?article_id=674

[Stand and Fight]

15. Working Link and Recommendation...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15228489/

[Judi Lynn]

16. Glad to know there will be more about this Thursday night on Olberman.

The right-wingnuts are going to have a much harder time trying to discredit THIS guy!

Mr. Kuo really needs to stay FAR, FAR AWAY from small airplanes for the next 10 years or so.

[lostnfound]

18. The Olbermann segment on this last night was remarkable

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/11/olbermann-exclusive-dissecting-new-book-tempting-faith/

Kuo's bottom line: the Bush White House is playing millions of American Christians for suckers.

...

Kuo says, '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.' "
...

He describes how they get trinkets..And “passes to be in the crowd greeting the president when he arrived on Air Force One or tickets for a speech he was giving in their hometown. Little trinkets like cufflinks or pens or pads of paper were passed out like business cards. Christian leaders could give them to their congregations or donors or friends to show just how influential they were. Making politically active Christians personally happy meant having to worry far less about the Christian political agenda.”

...

It wasn't just discrimination against non-Christian charities. (One official who rated grant applications (for the office of faith-based initiatives) told Kuo, " 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. ")

...

If you would question Mr. Kuo's credibility, you should know his former boss also quit the White House complaining in his one public interview that politics drove absolutely everything in the Bush administration. There is more, much more revealed in Tempting Faith… how Jack Kemp was tricked into sounding like a religious conservative without even knowing it; Jerry Falwell's astonishing behavior at the 9/11 Day of Remembrance and considerably more as our Countdown exclusive of Tempting Faith continues here tomorrow night.

[City Lights]

19. My fudie relatives will never believe this is true.

The chimp could go on live television and say this book is true, and my fundie relatives would believe he was coerced into saying it.

One of my fundie relatives thinks Nixon did nothing wrong, but was made the fall guy.

I'm going to email this article anyway, just to piss them off.

[Vinca]

21. Let's send this book to #1. If you don't want to read it,

send it to a fundie.:rofl: Suckers!:rofl:

[RamboLiberal]

26. I think it will get in to Top 10

Already after KO on Amazon it's 32nd, and on B&N 79th. I wish I had noted where it stood before KO but I do remember last night around 10PM it was in the 80's on Amazon and in the 130's on B&N. So KO definitely gave it a great :klck:

I called in this morning to a local talk host in Pittsburgh, Lynn Cullen, to discuss the book. Mentioned this guy was a WH insider so he knew what he was talking about when he said Rove's office called the fundies the Nuts.

[0007]

22. God under one nation!

Be the envy of your friends and wear a hip T-Shirt

Order Here! http://www.cafepress.com/beansbarton/1330764

[Beetwasher]

25. SUCKERS

'Nuff said.

[AngryOldDem]

27. Ya think?????

I know many of us are finding this just too hard to believe. :sarcasm:

[VegasWolf]

29. Seriously, can you think of any group easier to exploit? They worship

imaginary people!

[shanti]

31. that's not a shocker

it's pretty obvious that *ush isn't a "godly" man...

[indypaul]

32. "I'm shocked, shocked" n/t

[Megahurtz]

33. I figured so much.

Now if only this news would get out to all the Fundies!}(

[barb162]

34. How many fundamentalists will buy this book?

Next to none

[CreekDog]

35. Regarding W's conversion, the baptism issue is interesting to me

Evangelicals are usually baptized (or re-baptized) upon "being saved", "converting" or "accepting Jesus and their personal savior".

However, George W. Bush became a Methodist (I assume he was Episcopalian like his parents and baptized as an infant in that church). The Methodist Church is one of the few evangelical churches that accepts and performs infant baptisms. Thus W never had to get rebaptized and we haven't read that he had it done again.

If the conversion was done for political reasons, he certainly picked the right denomination to be both evangelical as well as not disown his previous baptism and denomination.

[Clarkie1]

36. This isn't really "breaking news."

They've known they've been had for quite awhile. If they don't vote Democratic, at least perhaps they will feel so used by the Republicans they will be unable to vote for anyone.

[Berry Cool]

37. Olbermann will have a third part of his show on this book Friday.

Again, 8 pm Eastern, MSNBC.

Part three will describe the use of faith-based organizations as unwitting dupes for efforts to get Republicans elected.

edited: to correct info