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

Exclusive: Book says Bush just using Christians
'Tempting Faith' author David Kuo worked for Bush from 2001 to 2003
By Jonathan Larsen
"Countdown" producer
MSNBC
Updated: 42 minutes ago
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.

"Tempting Faith's" author is David Kuo, who served as special assistant to the president from 2001
to 2003. A self-described conservative Christian, Kuo's previous experience includes work for
prominent conservatives including former Education Secretary and federal drug czar Bill Bennett and
former Attorney General John Ashcroft.


Kuo, who has complained publicly in the past about the funding shortfalls, goes several steps
further in his new book.

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.

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 [of faith-based initiatives] to request the visit."

Nineteen out of the 20 targeted races were won by Republicans, Kuo reports. The outreach was so
extensive and so powerful in motivating not just conservative evangelicals, but also traditionally
Democratic minorities, that Kuo attributes Bush's 2004 Ohio victory "at least partially . to the
conferences we had launched two years before."

With the exception of one reporter from the Washington Post, Kuo says the media were oblivious to
the political nature and impact of his office's events, in part because so much of the debate
centered on issues of separation of church and state.

In fact, the Bush administration often promoted the faith-based agenda by claiming that existing
government regulations were too restrictive on religious organizations seeking to serve the public.

Substantiating that claim proved difficult, Kuo says. "Finding these examples became a huge
priority.. If President Bush was making the world a better place for faith-based groups, we had to
show it was really a bad place to begin with. But, in fact, it wasn't that bad at all."

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.

More pointedly, Kuo quotes an unnamed member of the review panel charged with rating grant
applications.

"But," she said with a giggle, '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.'"

"Tempting Faith" contains several other controversial claims about Kuo's office, the Bush White
House and even the 1994 Republican revolution in Congress.

Many of those revelations and others will be the topic of discussion on Thursday night's edition of
"Countdown with Keith Olbermann."

"Terraholm" <terraholm_SpamNata_@hotmail.com> wrote in news:4p5ktcFhdpmuU1
@individual.net:


Don't miss the KO video linked on the page...

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm...3465-4c8d-be32-

When you tell the truth to power and you think you are lucky enough to
have name recognition-you will be praying for anonymity when all of a
sudden you become persona non grata,called partisan, polemical, a
disgruntled former employee, & if that doesn't do the trick how about
paranoid conspiracy theorist all that fucking garbage laid on by bought
and paid for career govt. ass licking sons of bitches that can attempt
defending Bush with a straight face & all the endless establishment, or
accepted BS-from JFK Assassination to Waco-To MLK Assassination to
nobody held accountable for 9/11 to Panama Invasion to Polygamist Child
molesters on an on an on to our current mess.

lazuli777@webtv.net wrote:


I am thoroughly enjoying seeing the Neocons and their
toadies self-destruct, but the bad news is they are taking
much of the country down with them. :-(

-Johnny (Not to mention the wimpy Democrats whose
ineptitude enabled them.)

P.S. Wes Clark can fix everything. Too bad the Clinton
machine won't let him in, so we'll probably end up with the
Republican rascals being replaced by Democrat scoundrels.

VicXnews <news@news.com> wrote in news:6OhXg.1196$rS.505@fed1read05:




Transcript from KO

When President Bush touched on Iraq at his news conference this morning,
he may have been revealing more than he knew.

[video] BUSH: The stakes couldn't be any higher, as I said earlier, in
the world in which we live. There are extreme elements that use religion
to achieve objectives.

He was talking about religious extremists in Iraq. But an hour later, Mr.
Bush posed with officials from the Southern Baptist Convention.

It is described as the largest, most influential evangelical denomination
in a new book by the former number-two man in Bush's Office of Faith-
Based Initiatives.

The book, "Tempting Faith," not out until Monday, but in our third story
tonight, a Countdown exclusive we've obtained a copy and it is
devastating work.

Author David Kuo's conservative Christian credentials are impeccable; his
resume sprinkled with names like Bennett and Ashcroft. Now, as the Foley
cover-up has many evangelical Christians wondering whether the G.O.P. is
really in sync with their values, "Tempting Faith" provides the answer:
No way.

Kuo, citing one example after another of a White House that repeatedly
uses evangelical Christians for their votes — while consistently giving
them nothing in return;

A White House which routinely speaks of the nation's most famous
evangelical leaders behind their backs, with contempt and derision.

Furthermore, Faith-Based Initiatives were not only stiffed on one public
promise after another by Mr. Bush — the office itself was eventually
forced to answer a higher calling: Electing Republican politicians.

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

According to Kuo, Karl Rove's office referred to evangelical leaders as
'the nuts.'

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.' "

So how does the Bush White House keep 'the nuts' turning out at the
polls?

One way, regular conference calls with groups led by Pat Robertson, James
Dobson, Ted Haggard, and radio hosts like Michael Reagan.

Kuo says, "Participants were asked to talk to their people about whatever
issue was pending. Advice was solicited [but] that advice rarely went
much further than the conference call. [T]he true purpose of these calls
was to keep prominent social conservatives and their groups or audiences
happy."

They do get some things from the Bush White House, like the National Day
of Prayer, “another one of the eye-rolling Christian events,” Kuo says.

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.”

When cufflinks weren't enough, the White House played the Jesus card,
reminding Christian leaders that, quote, “they knew the president's
faith” and begging for patience.

And the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives?

According to Kuo, “White House staff didn't want to have anything to do
with the Faith-Based Initiative because they didn't understand it any
more than did congressional Republicans . They didn't lie awake at night
trying to kill it. They simply didn 't care."

Kuo relates one faith-based promise after another — billions of dollars
in funding and tax credits — that goes unfulfilled year after promise
after year.

He recounts one specific funding exchange with Mr. Bush:

Bush: "Eight billion in new dollars?"

Kuo: "No sir. Eight billion in existing dollars for which groups will
find it technically easier to apply. But faith-based groups have been
getting that money for years."

Bush: "Eight billion. That's what we'll tell them. Eight billion in new
funds for faith-based groups."

Why bother lying?

Kuo says, "The faith-based initiative had the potential to successfully
evangelize more voters than any other."

According to Kuo, the Office spent much of its time on two missions:

One—Trying–and failing–to prove Mr. Bush's claim of regulatory bias
against religious charities hiring who they wanted. Quote: "Finding
these examples became a huge priority. …[but] religious groups had
encountered very few instances of actual problems with their hiring
practices." "It really wasn't that bad at all."

Another mission: lobbying the President to make good on his own promises.

How?

Kuo says they tried to prove their political value by turning the once-
bipartisan faith-based initiatives into a political operation.

It wasn't just discrimination against non-Christian charities. (One
official who rated grant applications 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. ")

The Office was also, literally, a taxpayer-funded part of the Republican
campaign machinery.

In 2002, Kuo says the office decided to "hold roundtable events for
threatened incumbents with faith and community leaders … using the aura
of our White House power to get a diverse group of faith and community
leaders to a 'nonpartisan' event discussing how best to help poor people
in their area."

White House Political Affairs director Ken Mehlman "loved the idea and
gave us our marching orders. There were twenty targets." Including Saxby
Chambliss in Georgia and John Shimkus in Illinois.

Mehlman devised a cover-up for the operation. He told Kuo, "It 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."

Kuo explains, "this approach inoculated us against accusations that we
were using religion and religious leaders to promote specific
candidates."

Those roundtables were a hit. Republicans won 19 of those 20 races. 76
percent of religious conservatives voted for Chambliss over decorated war
hero Max Cleland.

And Bush's 2004 victory in Ohio? That "was at least partially tied to the
conferences [they] had launched [there] two years before."

By that time, Kuo had left the White House, concluding that "it was
mocking the millions of faithful Christians who had put their trust and
hope in the President and his administration. Bush knew his so-called
compassion agenda was languishing and had no problem with that."

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.