Evangelical Exposé: Bush's Faith-Based Fraud

Evangelical David Kuo's new book "Tempting Faith" is rocking the 30 year old marriage between evangelicals and the Republican party. The earliest reports, first on Keith Olbermann's Countdown [VIDEO] and then on 60 Minutes [VIDEO], reveal a disingenuous and calculating program to keep up appearances with only the barest of commitments to Bush's Faith-Based Initiatives program.

Below is a handy guide, cherrypicking the most dastardly passages...

Karl Rove: "Just Get Me a F-ing Faith Based Thing. Got it?" "Three days later, a Tuesday, Karl rove summoned [Don] Willett 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, 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 fucking faith based-thing. Got it?' Willett was shown the door." [pp. 140-141]

Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling: "Just Get Me a Damn Faith Bill." "Yet for our House Republican friends, the initiative was primarily useful for politics, and for some of my White House colleagues, the initiative wasn't even on their radar screen….Margaret [Spellings] listened cheerfully and said, 'David, darlin', you are doing a good job. Great job.' Then, lightly but seriously, 'but David, please. Just get me a damn faith bill. Any bill. I don't care what kind of bill. Just get me a damn faith bill.'" [p.166]

From the Beginning, Now-White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolton and Senior White House Staff Did Not Consider the Faith Based Office a Priority. "Even with the speeches and meetings, officials in charge of the Bush transition were ignoring the faith-based effort. In late December [2000], Josh Bolton, later to become deputy chief of staff for policy head of the Office of Management and Budget, and the White House chief of staff, responded to a pastor's inquiry about the initiative by saying, 'as far as I know, no one is in charge of the undertaking yet.' His disregard was surprising not only because he had been the campaign's top policy guru, but because he had the same role during the transition. As it turned out, it wasn't just that nobody had been named to shepherd the initiative through the crucial transition period, it was that nobody at the senior levels of the transition team was even paying attention to the problem. [p.138]

The Reality of Faith Based Legislation and Funding

Bush Was Directly Responsible for...