"All Your Base Are Belong to (B)Us(h)"... or, How Evangelicals Got in Bed with Neocons and Ended Up With the Clap

David Kuo is an "insider". As a former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush and the Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, Kuo saw the inner workings of the relationship between Bush and the evangelical Christians who comprise his deepest-rooted base. Kuo is still a conservative Christian, but he left the employ of the White House in 2003. And now he has written a book. Uh-oh.

Recently the Bush White House has come under scrutiny as a result of revelations published by seminal political publisher Bob Woodward in his book "State of Denial". In Woodward's latest installment of the 'Bush at War' series he exposes the misinformation and myopia that have plagued this Administration's handling of the ill-fated war in Iraq. Woodward's previous two installments were kind to Bush. This one was not. Needless to say, the Bush crew has set about trying to discredit it as quickly as possible.

David Kuo's book, however, is different. This guy knows where the bodies are buried because he helped swing the shovels. He names names and gives details only an insider could. And the tale he has to tell is astonishing. After years of support from evangelicals in their narrow election wins, the Bush Administration is now exposed as having used the Christian Right for its own ends and then... well, here are a few snips:

"Sadly, the political affairs folks complained most often and most loudly about how boorish many politically involved Christians were."

"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'."

The Bush offices handed out "passes to be in the crowd greeting the President" when he flew around on Air Force One, 'tickets to a speech he was giving", "little trinkets like cufflinks or pens or pads of paper". "...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."

"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."

"Just get me a f---ing faith-based thing!" - Karl Rove

According to Kuo, Bush made promises to his evangelical friends year after year and did not deliver. He got them little 'victories' like the National Day of Prayer, but kept asking for patience and handing out trinkets to placate those on the religious right who wondered aloud where their political clout was being spent. In fact, the Office of Faith-Based Initiateives ended up being used as a tax-payer funded campaign tool for Republicans.

The upshot of the book is that the Bush Administration has taken the Christian Right for a bunch of suckers and that those Christians are now starting to see it.

MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (of which I am definitely a fan) has run three installments on the book so far. Here is Part One: