Get me a fucking faith-based thing!

...those were the words of Karl Rove to President Bush's political advisors regarding co-opting the religious right (and evangelicals) for political gain.

I wonder what Rove's words will be once he reads this book? How about, "Just get me a fucking new career!" We could only be so lucky.

Just in time for the '06 mid-term elections, it looks like we're being treated to another devastating political exposé by a former top level official in the Bush administration. David Kuo, most recently the #2 man in charge of the president's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, has penned a bombshell, Tempting Faith, that is bound to be a best seller. (I know I'll be contributing to sales!)



Keith Olbermann has plenty to say about this book. I love the clip above; it begins with W in the Rose Garden, holding a press conference on Iraq. W starts out with those quote:

"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," said the president. Oh, and he was talking about Iraq, by the way, in case you thought he was referring to another country.

I won't get into it too much now, but Kuo in the piece above, as described by Olbermann, evidently outlines how Rove, the president and co. routinely refer to religious right leaders as "goofy" and "the nuts." My first thought about hearing that is, "it serves the right right" for being so blindly partisan that it would just mindlessly vote for Bush.

Now, after nearly six years, we find out that Bush's religiosity was a phony act for votes? Shocker!

What does trouble me though, is how many of these religious groups are getting tax breaks and tax exemptions, seemingly all because we have an evangelical Christian in the White House. My tax dollars going toward this kind of stuff is an outrage.

Part II of Olbermann's look at Kuo's book is below.



This book is on my must-read list, and when I get it and read it, I'll bring you a review post-haste. It's looking like a pretty good book, in the vein of Paul O'Neill and Richard Clarke. And of course, like the aforementioned two administration "defectors," you have to know by now that Bush and Rove won't let Kuo's claims go unanswered, or should I say, Unswiftboated. Stay tuned.