Tucker's comments come as no surprise to anyone who thinks things through. It's obvious the leadership of these organizations and the politicians who smooze them get rich on the backs of the folks who trust them to forward their conservative values. The politicians laugh at them behind their backs while they rake in their contributions. Their leadership continues to tell them what they want to hear all the while building huge homes and driving big cars. The current conservative Christian movement in North America is very similiar to the Catholic church building huge churches and amassing wealth on the backs of poor believers.

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The old adage says: "When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas". Evangelicals have gotten their fleas in the person of Mark Foley. They've also gotten more than their share of the dog food, too, from the legislative crumbs they've been thrown.

Many of them know they're being used but don't care as long as they're getting those crumbs. Regardless of whether it's "making a deal with the devil", they are still advancing their agenda. I saw an interview with a minister in Tennessee yesterday who said he was still going to "hold his nose and vote Republican".

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....have been suckered, misled, lied to, and used by the rich corporate elite, because they deserve it for being so goddamn stupid. There's no real moral reason to ban gay marriage, limit gay rights, ban contraception or early abortion, or do any of the other red-meat things. If it were possible to administer it fairly, I'd favor a political intelligence test for all potential voters.

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To hear out of Tucker Carlson's mealy mouth. Why wasn't he saying this years ago? Uh huh. Now all these "pundits" (and I use the term loosely with Carlson, he's just a mouthpiece, IMHO) are slowly slithering to the left because they see the people they've been backing for 6 years circling the drain. I wonder who's gonna jump on the bandwagon next?

I don't know if I trust this sudden bout of candor.

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Now if we can only get the "little people" of the religous right to see that : "Not only does the King have no clothes on but his god is Mammon!".

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Anyone who believes that GW Bush is really a Christian is a sucker. Warmongering, lying and torture are NOT Christian values. Indeed, while there is warmongering in the old testament, the new testament is about love and forgiveness. Revelations is simply a warning on what will happen if fake Christians like GW have power...

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Well, welcome to 2006, Rip Van Winkles! It's only taken you 25 years to figure out what the rest of us did early in Reagan's first term.

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I first came to Washington nearly 25 years ago to work for a Republican House member. I remember a staff meeting when the congressman's chief of staff cautioned us to be careful about our comments in the office, because we were prone to have folks from groups like the Moral Majority passing through at any particular time.

"We don't have to give them everything they want, but we do need their vote," he told us. "They've got no place else to go, but they can stay home and not vote if we offend them."

That's exactly the mindset Tucker Carlson was talking about, and it's been around since the beginning of the "Reagan Revolution."

I would caution readers about some of their responses, however:

1) The attitude that evangelicals have come away empty-handed. While they haven't been given any of the constitutional amendments they wanted, they have been assuaged quite a bit through the regulatory process - such as the years of rejecting the approval of RU-486 - as well as through time-wasting distractions such as debates over flag-burning. People have been hurt and important issues crowded out of the agenda through such actions.

2) Calling evangelicals "idiots" is not going to help the progressive cause. You'll simply confirm the notion that they have no place to go. We don't have to cave in to their religious agenda, but we can and should look for secular areas where we have common ground - such as protecting God's creations from global warming and protecting employees from abusive tactics by fat cats.

For years, conservative leaders used wedge issues to divide black and white workers philosophically while employers sent their jobs overseas and then brought illegal aliens into the country to do their jobs.

Don't play into the distraction game by insulting these people. Figure out where it serves our purposes to work together. By doing so, we can give them reasons to consider alternatives and break up the notion that the GOP has a monopoly on religious-minded voters.

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I don't know why you would be surprised that Tucker Carlson would go against type. Here is what he told the Washington Post about his prediction that Kerry would win in 2004:

" I think Iraq is the issue. Fifty years, when the history of 2004 is written, from now many of the debates we now consider deeply significasnt -- health care, stem cell research -- will rate as footnotes. Iraq will be its own chapter. It's a big deal. If Bush loses, it's because of Iraq, and that seems fair to me."

Carlson, alas, predicted the outcome incorrectly, although Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and others less famous, such as Dennis Loo, would tell you that Carlson's prediction was actually accurate; it was the voting process that went wrong.

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I believe that the elite on both sides of the political spectrum dislike the evangelicals. I don't think it's about God, I think it's more about reason...and "MOST" reasonable people think it is crazy to take the Bible (or any book) so literally. I saw Tucker on the Chris Matthews show on Sunday and kind of chuckled when I saw him at least be honest for once.

Nuff said? Mr. Dobson, Falwell and Robertson truly do have a huge segment of the public behind them, but they just are on a different level than the rest of us...for good or for bad.

Global Warming is real, Stem Cell research is necessary, War is not peace and Gays & Bi-Sexuals do not "choose" their sexual proclivity.

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