David Kuo (author "Tempting Faith") is a paradoxical figure.

[Eric J in MN]

He used to be the #2 man in Bush's Office of Faith Based Initiatives.

But on "The Colbert Report" tonight, he was advocating separation of church and state.

Why didn't he seek some other job if he's a big believer in separation of church and state?

[KittyWampus]

1. He fell off his horse on the road to the whitehouse.

[eleny]

2. I keep remembering Lee Atwater when I watch Kuo

[SharonAnn]

6. David Kuo also has a brain tumor. He's been treated but expects

that it will come back within a coupld of years and likely be fatal.

David Kuo did not do the "dirty campaigning" that Lee Atwater did. He simply believed that "Faith Based Initiatives supported his belief in Faith-based organizations and their work. After some time on board the ship, he realized that it was all about gaining and holding power for the Republicans.

He know recognizes that a government or political party co-opting God, actually diminishes humanity's understanding of and awe of God. It reduces God to a politcal hack.

[eleny]

10. The two share the common experience of facing the inevitable....

....sooner than later. That's what I'm referring to. Kuo himself said on 60 Minutes that he has a malignant tumor and feels he needed to get his experience and point of view out there. His words have me believing his condition compelled him as did Atwater's. And if he wasn't ill, I believe he would have kept his mouth shut.

[BootinUp]

3. didn't see this interview

but I have seen a couple others. I would say he is questioning the CC RW agenda bigtime in terms of how to achieve good works without being corrupted. Its exactly what you would expect to happen with people exposed to BushCo who didn't know it was all just a political lie.

[Ian David]

4. If all Republicans were like him, I might vote for one sometimes. n/t

[Mr_Spock]

5. Interesting interview of him on NPR this afternoon

He was a liberal, had an abortion (wife) & went to Washington to get into politics as an anti-abortion, anti-death penalty Democrat. No Dem would hire him. No Republican would hire him because he had a liberal resume. He got a job with a large anti-abortion lobby and they turned him into a RW Republican "Christian". As in other posts here, he learned that Republicans just use Christians to promote their agenda. Now he's a man without a party and he is dying from a brain tumor and realizes that his humanity is more important than simply being "right" (double entendre). He's drifting back to his liberal, Christian roots.

[Eric J in MN]

8. Thanks, that helps me to understand him. NT

NT

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

7. I don't totally trust him.....

....but he seems to be more along the lines of what a Christian should be, caring and sympathetic to the poor. I may not agree with his stance on abortion, but I respect it compared to the victrol usually spread by the far right on this issue.

[KharmaTrain]

9. I've Found Him Disengenous

Usually I applaud when a former member of this regime "sees the light" and speaks out about what we suspected has been going on inside that executive, but Kuo has struck me as being a gold-digger...and for several reasons.

First...he is a terrible interview. Several of the stories he claimed happened such as Rove calling the fundies "kooks" and the rolling of the eyes...he later backpeddeled on his account on if those things actually happened. He was taken apart by several right wingers for his lack of consitency and inability to stand up...thus casting credibility on his claims. No wonder he didn't make a good wingnut, he couldn't keep his story consitant.

Next, the timing of the book is very dubious. Of course it was meant to capitalize on the election season, but it appears to be one instead of embarassing the right wing, it's pissed them off. Kuo is talking out of school to these people and saying things that when he's pressed he backs off of.

All I needed was to see the Ralph Reid emails to Abramoff about the Indian Casinos...and that was out there a year ago.

[Lexingtonian]

11. he is pretty strange

I listened to the NPR interview both times they aired it today. I couldn't really make sense of him the first time, but the second time I remembered what people were like in the church I was in in the Seventies, and he was a lot like that culturally (though certainly more pious).

I did want to call in and ask him what he thinks of the 14th Amendment, whether anyone who believes laws should be equally applied and there be due process for all could be both a sincere Christian and a Republican. Or why Judaism says abortion is permissible (though tragic), while conservative Christian readings of the Bible deny that.

The reason Kuo doesn't make real sense ultimately is that there is no way to make real sense of reality with the assumptions he does/has to. At least he now understands that he has to disentangle Christian goals and desires from those of the Republican Party.