Thursday, October 12, 2006

Earth to Evangelicals: Bush Has Been Using You!

It's really not a surprise. Every election year, the Bushites whip up the base into frenzy over gay marriage and how the Democrats want to bring Satan into the classroom, but nothing is ever delivered. Instead, the rich get their tax cuts, the war party gets to invade countries and torture people, the cronies get the good jobs, and the lobbyists get to write legislation.

Now, finally, the cat is coming out of the bag, as recent evidence suggests that the Bushites have been playing the poor evangelicals for fools all along. David Kuo, the former second-in-command at the White House Faith-Based Office, has said that the faith-based initiatives were there to serve a political end, and that Rove's office (the chief exploiter of evangelicals) viewed them as "nuts". Tucker Carlson also confirmed this recently, appealing to his personal knowledge, declaring that the "deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power." Then again, stooges like James Dobson (and our old friend Bill Donohue, the Catholic who acts like an evangelical) have only themselves to blame.

But it gets worse than this. A lot worse. More from Kuo:
"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."
and
"In fact, when Bush asks Kuo how much money was being spent on “compassion” social programs, Kuo claims he discovered “we were actually spending about $20 million a year less on them than before he had taken office.” The money that
was appropriated and disbursed, however, often served a political agenda, Kuo claims.“Many of the grant-winning organizations that rose to the top of the process were politically friendly to the administration,” he says."
Playing everybody for fools. Playing God for a fool too. That may have consequences...

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