Bushies in private: our base is nuts
New York Times - October 13, 2006
Book Says Bush Aides Dismissed Christian Allies By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — A former deputy director of the White House
office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives is charging that many
members of the Bush administration privately dismiss its conservative
Christian allies as “boorish” and “nuts.”
The former deputy director, David Kuo, an evangelical Christian
conservative, makes the accusations in a newly published memoir,
“Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction” (Free
Press), about his frustration with what he described as the meager
support and political exploitation of the program.
“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,’ ” Mr. Kuo writes.
In an interview, Mr. Kuo’s former boss, James Towey, now president of
St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., said he had never encountered
such cynicism or condescension in the White House, and he disputed
many of the assertions in Mr. Kuo’s account.
Still, Mr. Kuo’s statements, first reported Wednesday evening on the
cable channel MSNBC, come at an awkward time for Republicans in the
midst of a midterm election campaign in which polls show little
enthusiasm among the party’s conservative Christian base.
While many conservative Christians considered President Bush “a
brother in Christ,” Mr. Kuo writes, “for most of the rest of the
White House staff, evangelical leaders were people to be tolerated,
not people who were truly welcomed.”
The political affairs office headed by Karl Rove was especially “eye-
rolling,” Mr. Kuo’s book says. It says staff members in that office
“knew ‘the nuts’ were politically invaluable, but that was the extent
of their usefulness.”
Without naming names, the book says staff members complained that
politically involved Christians were “annoying,” “tiresome” or
“boorish.”
Eryn Witcher, a spokeswoman for the White House, said that the
administration would not comment without reading the book but that
the faith-based program was “near and dear to the president’s heart.”