1 Boring Old Man

Little Initiative
by Amy Sullivan

Early Monday morning, a tell-all book from a former Bush White House official hit Washington like a small explosion, generating at least a color orange political threat level. Here was a conservative Republican, someone who had been on the inside of the president’s signature domestic policy agenda of the first term, leveling damaging accusations of hypocrisy, wide-scale manipulation, and deceit. Conservatives reacted accordingly. They charged the traitor, former Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives David Kuo, with timing the book to do maximum damage in the midterm elections, and they compared him to Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. "What David Kuo is saying about the President and his efforts," said David Contreras, Texas director of the Council on Faith in Action, "is nothing more than a cynical attempt to sell books and line his pockets with 30 pieces of silver [a reference to the payment Judas received for turning Jesus over to the Pharisees.]"

The reaction from the left has been, to put it mildly, slightly less vigorous. It is in stark contrast to the way in which liberal commentators and bloggers embraced other revelations, such as former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill’s memoir or the latest Bob Woodward book. This time, the responses have ranged from total silence to yawns to fears that the book could backfire on the Democratic Party. In general, most liberals have chosen to distance themselves from Kuo and his case.

This could just be smart politics. After all, Republicans are in such a free-fall at the moment that it might be best for liberals to stay out of the way and let conservatives fling recriminations at each other, as has largely been the case with the Mark Foley scandal. But something else is at play, too. Despite the evidence Kuo presents in Tempting Faith, liberals simply don’t believe him. They’ve spent so much time fear-mongering about American theocracy that a book illustrating the opposite simply makes no sense to them. In fact, the real revelation of Kuo’s book is not that the Bushies don’t care about evangelicals; it’s that liberals are too wedded to their views to capitalize on it.

I think the lukewarm response to the book isn’t as lukewarm as she thinks. In the first place, we know that Bush is just using the Religious Right. Who could imagine that these people are primarily motivated by religion? Even the loony version of religion the likes of Falwell, Robertson, and Dobson preach? The Bush team uses the Religious Right just like Machiavelli suggest through his modern interpreter, Michael Ledeen. We know that the Faith Based Initiative is and always has been baloney. It was an excuse to shut down government programs, and give them away to the Christian world. It gets votes, ‘buys voters,’ and excuses social irresponsibility.

I think the reason the response to the book looks muted is that we are in no position to preach to the Religious Right. They and their leaders devalue anything that comes out of our mouths. We’re delighted that David Kuo came clean about this corrupt program, validating what should be obvious to everyone. But he’s one of "theirs." If they’re not so deluded and can hear what he’s saying, great. But for the Democrats to jump on the bandwagon is fraught with danger. The Rovian spin would be immediate and fierce. So, my take on this book is that it’s for the Christians to evaluate and digest on their own They need to see what kind of government they put into power, and how they’ve been duped.

Dobson preaches mixed message
Conservative leader criticizes, praises GOP leadership

Standing before an enormous American flag in Mellon Arena, conservative evangelical activist James Dobson told thousands of supporters he was deeply disappointed in the nation’s Republican leadership, but that the nation’s future depended on re-electing them.

However, he said, "This country is at a crisis point. Whether or not the Republicans deserve the power they were given, the alternatives are downright frightening."

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But, he asked his audience to consider what would happen if Republicans lost control of key committees on education, the judiciary, and especially, the armed forces.

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He compared those who want to negotiate their way out of crises in the Middle East to Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister who sought to appease Adolph Hitler prior to World War II.

It’s for the Christians to hear the absurdity in linking the Republicans to the Christian Religion. It’s for the Christians to hear the disdain and contempt coming their way from the White House so evident in Kuo’s book. It’s for the Christians to hear James Dobson isn’t talking Jesus or Family, he’s talking Republican fear-mongering foreign policy. If they can’t hear it when it’s this loud, they’re not Christians at all.

And that. Amy Sullivan, is our real greatest fear – that they don’t really care about morality or religion either. They’re just bigots and racists hiding their motives behind pseudo-pius Demogogues like James Dobson.

I hope that’s not true. But in any case, it’s not for liberal Democrats to tell them…