VIDEO/TRANSCRIPT-Olbermann Exclusive: WH Played Christians For Suckers!

[kpete]

Olbermann Exclusive: Dissecting new Book: Tempting Faith
By: John Amato on Wednesday, October 11th, 2006 at 4:59 PM - PDT


Tonight on Countdown–David Kuo, who was the number two guy at the Office of Faith Based initiatives in the White House writes a scathing account of how the administration used Christians to grab and maintain power. This story validates Tucker Carlson's admission that: "The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power."

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.'

VIDEO AND FULL TRANSCRIPT AT:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/11/olbermann-exclusive-dissecting-new-book-tempting-faith/

[Patsy Stone]

1. Excellent!

Thanks as always, kpete!

[robinlynne]

2. yes, excellent!

[olshak]

3. Thank you...

...I'm going to have fun with this.

[truthisfreedom]

4. killer. absolutely killer. this is coming out Monday! the faithful will

be losing faith in the administration so fast that rove's head will 'splode!

[Change has come]

21. what a fantastic thought!

:bounce: :evilgrin: :bounce:

[mod mom]

5. It kinda confirms "Blackwell is a nut" comment posted in Woodward's

book!

[The Count]

6. Abramoff called them wackos

[wakeme2008]

7. The dam is breaking....

But still the fundies IMHO will not buy it and vote Repug...

[alfredo]

20. The word will get out.

Remember, bush is not good at playing defense. It is hard to defend lies.

Hit them with the truth and sooner or later they will start to crumble.

I hope America is learning a lesson.

[Amonester]

8. Fabulous!

That should make 'em "wake up and smell the coffee" right?

Iraq War 'Unjustifiable', says Bush's Church Head
by Ed Vulliamy in New York

President George Bush's own Methodist church has launched a scathing attack on his preparations for war against Iraq, saying they are 'without any justification according to the teachings of Christ'.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1020-02.htm

Of course, the dicktatorturer couldn't care less...

[TheBaldyMan]

9. K&R'ed n/t

[waiting for hope]

10. This is just too priceless....

Could it be OUR October Surprise? Deep down, they have to know this is true, Bush has done nothing to support their cause .. i.e., gay marriage ban, pro-life, prayer in public schools etc. If they see a glimmer that this could be true for them, perhaps they will realize how the pResident has lied about other things...Iraq, keeping the country safe, supporting our troops, etc. This to me is prue gold.

[VOX]

11. kpete, you rock! Many, many thanks! n/t

[tuvor]

12. Don't forget to forward this to your fundie friends and relatives.

The sooner the better!

[Divernan]

38. I just forwarded this to 30 of the "nuts"- oops, I mean the faithful.

I went back to the last email I got from a well-meaning, super religious former classmate (one of those "OMG, they're cancelling "touched by an angel" diatribes), hit "reply all", added the 10 email adresses kindly provided by the person who originally sent my friend the email, increased print size, highlighted, bolded, underlined and italicized hot button phrases and words, and forwarded this explosive transcript to them all! This should rock their little insulated worlds.

[tuvor]

46. Wow, let us know of any developments! n/t

[aquart]

13. Oh, that was nice.

[Wisconsin Larry]

14. Maybe, but only just maybe the Christian Right will stay home in

November, but even though Kuo reports that:
“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,’”

A recent story on the evangelistic voter response to the Foley scandal showed them still in the Republican court and planning on coming out. Their "State of Denial" is strong and being faith based is unswayed by reality.

It will take more than this, I fear but also hope that I'm wrong.

[many a good man]

15. THIS IS THE BIGGEST STORY OF THE DECADE!

Peel away this core constituency and Republicans will never again win a national election.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

16. They're not the only suckers.

[alfredo]

17. We knew this all along. We knew that the Reps hatred of

Roe Vs Wade was not about abortion, it was about the right to privacy. They didn't give a shit about the "unborn" they wanted to overturn Roe Vs Wade because it affirmed a right to privacy.

[Disturbed]

22. Tucker said the same thing yesterday.

Watch for Scarbro to repeat it.

[alfredo]

24. I try not to watch them. They piss me off.

[Erika]

18. This definitely needs to be forwarded to:

Jerry Falwell www.falwell.com
American Family Assn www.afa.net
James Dobson www.family.org
Tony Perkins www.frc.org

with a solid request for their comments.

Through a couple of subtle comments, I think the religious right organizations are finally seeing that the GOP do not really represent them or their ideals.

W is a farce as a supposed Xtian. You don't call Christ your greatest philosopher and then refer to a reporter as an "asshole" when you think the microphone is turned off.

This story can also have a lot of legs if we use it wisely. The credentials of the author are impeccable.

[Wednesdays]

26. Yeah, we should forward to them just in case...

But I would bet the farm they are all WAY ahead of us on this whole thing.

I wouldn't be surprised if the BFEE, or the fundie elite, or both, came out swinging with a huge smear campaign to destroy Kuo. Or a whisper campaign by their surrogates like the AM radio vermin or FreeRepublic. It really is the only thing they can do to save the coalition--and therefore the whole Republican Party itself.

[Erika]

27. Agree. My point was to let them know WE know

The credentials of this author are beyond reproach. About the time the religious start knocking a religious author with those credentials, they are "tempting faith". Especially if it was done for political gain. They might think old St. Peter might ask them why they downed a good guy for exposing the truth.

Keith Olbermann can stand up for himself. He's capable.

[The Wizard]

42. Max Cleland's credentials

were smeared by Ku Klux Kristians. These people are fearful dupes and whoever scares them the best will get their support. Critical thinking isn't part of their mental capacity. They are black and white thinkers who will cling to superstition as their only hope in the new Crusades.
The Vietnam War went on for years because no one would admit they made a colossal and tragic mistake.
Besides, it's always about money. By funding selected churches with our tax dollars, specifically violating the Constitution, the Grope Our Pages party is spitting in the collective faces of all other religious organizations.
What is the criteria for garnering funding for a faith based program, loyalty to the Republican Party?
The Taliban is said to be evil for imposing religion on civil government, and this isn't any different. The entire Republican Party needs to be sent to the middle east. And they should go there unarmed.

[lonestarnot]

19. I warned them. Drove to work everyday before the election

with "The Great Deceiver won't give you shit," on the back of my car window. LOL They wouldn't listen then either. Hmmmmmf.

[cui bono]

23. wow, this is so damning... glad the Dems timed the release of this book

just right. :evilgrin:

[Erika]

28. What does truth have to do with politics

Amato has very respected credentials. He's worked both sides of the political fence.

[kpete]

25. 60 Minutes * CBS

60 Minutes * CBS

October 15: David Kuo, TEMPTING FAITH: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, Free Press

http://news.bookweb.org/mediaguide/674.html

[RamboLiberal]

30. Whoa - he's also listed for Faux Monday

Oh boy, another fun week. Wonder what show they'll bury him on. :kick:

Fox News Channel

October 3: Laurie David, STOP GLOBAL WARMING: The Solution Is You!, Fulcrum
October 16: David Kuo, TEMPTING FAITH: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, Free Press

[Lasher]

35. The Sunday talk shows are going to be so much fun!

Revelations in Bob Woodward's book continue to astound.

North Korea nukes and all Junior can say to defend this collosal failure is to blame Clinton. No bounce in the polls on this one.

The Foley mess just won't go away, and evidence of a coverup looms large.

There's so much bad news about The Decider's adventure in Iraq, their complicit corporate news media can't cover it up anymore.

And now this book comes out.

Right now the Idiot-in-Chief is trying to change the subject to the economy. But that won't work either because the media is now doing a little more than just reading the latest fax of talking points from Rove. Also, the general public has realized what a liar he is and doesn't trust him. The fact is, Junior's economic performance is a collosal failure.

[Divernan]

39. Great info! - just forwarded this to the same 30 "faithful".

Givin them the old one-two punch! Back to back emails forcing them to face how Bush/GOP ridiculed them and used them.

[davekriss]

29. You have to be a brain-dead Christian not to know...

...that Bush has been playing the Christian Right for suckers. The Republican Party has controlled the Senate and House since 1994, the White House since 2000, has Reagan-GHWB-GWB-packed courts, and a complicit media. And what has it done to outlaw abortion, the number one issue of the so called Christian "whackos"? Absolutely nothing. And they never will.

The Republican Party knows that the persistence of abortion as a problem is the glue with which they hold the Evangelical vote together, it wins elections for them. So they perpetuate the issue. Without it (and a few select others subject to the same non-treatment) they know these same votes will start to question why we invaded another country with no evidence whatsoever of imminent threat; why so many jobs are shipped overseas, shipwrecking the middle class while bolstering the profits of the Fortune 50; and on and on. So nothing is done on abortion. Instead, they pluck the emotional strings of the Evangelicals every once in a while so "the nuts" continue to serve as unquestioning foot soldiers marshalling up Republican votes from the woefully uninformed.

Yet away from the glare of news cameras and jounalists' pens, the Regime commits crime after crime so dispicable that even a casual mainstream Christian's blood would boil, and Jesus spins in his ... on his throne at the right hand of the Father, building a tsunami of wrath to rain down on the apostatic heresies that make up so much of the Christian Right and for our Political "leaders" that lead these Christian astray.

Some day these folk will have to wake up and see they've been had. Their future social security benefits evaporating due to the Bush decision to cut taxes on the very rich now, creating a future financial situation that makes it impossible to honor the several trillions invested in U.S. Treasury Bills our FICA taxes are building up now (while nevertheless honoring the full face value of the global financial elites that also buy our Treasury Bonds). A THEFT, pure ans simple, folks.

Some day these folk when a friend or relative comes home in a body bag, and others alive but wishing they weren't -- then the Christian Right might question why Bush was so intent on war when no evidence of WMD were surfaced by the Weapons Inspectors. And when the yellow cake the scared us with might serve best with chocolate icing and a glass of cold milk.

I could go on and on, but as the intertwining meme that Bush is a man of God, in power to do the work of their church erodes under the realization that, like his father and Reagan before that, the Republican does nothing (as there's no profit it it for the plutocracy), instead they use the Christian Right as a means to an end, i.e., the political power to further their own self-serving agenda and to hell with the rest of us, all just so much cannon-fodder and useless eaters.

But, in conclusion, there are many "brain dead" Evangelicals roaming the countryside like so many flesh eating zombies in The Night of the Living Dead. Scary times, these.

[flyarm]

31. United Methodists Calling for Accountable Leadership Oct 19 2004

must read the whole petition!! by *hies own church !!


United Methodists Calling for Accountable Leadership

I have this in my files from Oct 19 2004

*hes church had a petition: A Letter of Complaint Against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney


http://www.petitiononline.com/tmrloc03/petition.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


To: George W. Bush; Richard "Dick" Cheney
George W. Bush, Richard "Dick" Cheney (respondents)
Rev. Mark Craig - Sr. Pastor of Highland Park UMC
Rev. Michael L. Nichols - D.S. of the Dallas South District
Bishop William B. Oden - Bishop of North Texas Annual Conference United Methodist Council of Bishops

A Letter of Complaint Against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney

We, the undersigned, do hold that George W. Bush, a member of Park Hill United Methodist Church (UMC) in Dallas, Texas, and Dick Cheney (local membership unknown) are undeniably guilty of at least four chargeable offenses for lay members as listed in 2702.3 of the 2000 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church. These offenses are: crime, immorality, disobedience to the Order and Discipline of The UMC, and dissemination of doctrine contrary to the established standards of doctrine of The UMC. For these offenses, we the undersigned call for an immediate and public act of repentance by the respondents. If the respondents do not reply with sincere and public repentance for their crimes, we demand that their membership in the United Methodist Church be revoked until such time that they sincerely and publicly repent.

Chargeable Offenses

Crime
George W. Bush, in his role as President of the United States of America and Commander in Chief, and Dick Cheney in his role as Vice-President, led the United States into an illegal war against the sovereign nation of Iraq. In article 23 of our Doctrinal Standards and General Rules (2000 Discipline, p.65) the U.S. government is described as "a sovereign and independent nation, and ought not to be subject to any foreign jurisdiction." We hold that Iraq is also a "sovereign and independent nation" and is granted the same rights as the United States, no matter what anyone's opinion is of its former head of state. Attacking a sovereign nation except in cases of legitimate self-defense is a violation of international law. This war, and subsequent occupation, dishonored the sovereignty of the people of Iraq as world citizens and as fellow children of God, in violation of Article 23. In Article 15, on page 71 of the Discipline, we claim to believe that "…God is owner of all things and that individual holding of property is lawful and is a sacred trust under God. Private property is to be used for the manifestation of Christian love and liberty, and to support the Church's mission in the world…" With no credible army to defend themselves and no clear evidence that they possessed weapons of mass destruction, Iraq posed NO threat to our immediate national security. Our destruction of their property, murder of thousands, torture of many, and usurpation of their oil fields are unnecessary and deplorable violations of article 15 and our sacred trust under God to honor liberty, freedom, the sacred worth of human life and our mission in the world.

[Greeby]

32. I'm actually relieved

I'd sooner Shrubco turn out to be just corrupt and venal politcos who play the fundies for suckers. Rather than the other theories banded about, that Shrub is in fact a full-blown fundy himself who wants to bring on the End Times :scared:

[and-justice-for-all]

33. I hope the implosion is so bad....

..that is registers on the ricter scale.

[and-justice-for-all]

34. Could someone explain the "getting nothing in return" part...

...Because I see the GOP handing xtian orgaizations 'everything'. Please explain.

[tanyev]

49. They want abortion to be made illegal. They want a constitutional

amendment prohibiting gay marriage. They get lots of talk about it, but no real action even after 6 years of Republicans controlling all branches of government.

[Hubert Flottz]

36. K&R

It even sounded better after sleeping on it from his show last night! The Old Rugged Crutch is turning into a rubber crutch for the prince of pricks!

[PATRICK]

37. A long time ago

The GOP had settled down as a core into a local, conservative business tradition that had a narrow emotional base and no appeal beyond its members. Attrition today is even easier because the GOP abandoned that non-dynamic core to achieve political power. Holding their nose they reached across the conservative divide for the Conservative-for-conservatism's sake and the peculiar grass roots Moral Majority Christian Right. The had scorned rebuffed or merely been forced to the sidelines by the dynamism of the two groups. Nixon had preferred the mass control of angered people of the "Silent majority" and later the power elite tried to ride the waves of the "angry White Male" and the "Reagan Democrats", both concepts meaning use of an uninvolved non-competitive broad support.

The least concession won by any real inner party competition against the corporate plutocrats was in Reagan, a malleable not too overpowering figure who carried in the original plutocratic wing hardened in the fifties and sixties with the Bush/Cheney people and representatives of other corporate powers and GOP regimes. The Reagan Conservatives, as such, have been shoved aside. The Christian Right is the last nuisance, but they cannot provide acceptable leadership and still are in the influence game despite being the only dynamic grass roots within their closed circles. This has wrought havoc with the staid and still non-dynamic business Republican where money, power and opportunism has only temporarily strengthened their ranks at the price of economic lunacy and a crooked, incompetent dictatorship.

About the only things they have in common now is the craziness of contradictory alliances, incompetence, immorality, fraud and turning against democracy(or reality) in which they all simply dissolve. For all their power not one group can attain what they want, not one can survive without the other as a major political force, not one can represent the interests of the majority or nation, not one likes the other and not one can trust the perpetual game of fooling the electorate in general every single time. And each tends to bring the other down with attrition among the sane all along the way.

[npincus]

40. Pre-order yours now! HAR HAR HAR:

http://www.amazon.com/Tempting-Faith-Inside-Political-Seduction/dp/0743287126/sr=8-1/qid=1160657974/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-3767826-0385505?ie=UTF8

[BlueEyedSon]

41. I'm shocked, i tell you, SHOCKED!

not.

:eyes:

[AnneD]

43. I have been saying that to every CC I know....

for 6 years now. In fact my exact phrase was-"They are playing you folks like a Stradivaris." I got more than a few cold shoulders and frosty receptions at church (in fact my attendance has wained a bit-not because I don't want to go-more because I haven't felt welcome). Guess I need to go back and see what folks are saying now. We have a small contingent of loyal liberals at church. I'll have to check in with them. Should be interesting.

[RedStateShame]

44. I commented on this earlier, but....

Who exactly was deceitful, here? Last I checked---and my mom dragged me to Baptist churches for all my childhood--Jesus Christ preached helping the poor, selflessness, and loving your enemy!! So far, I have yet to find "ownership society" "pre-emptive strike," or "tax cuts" in the bible. Maybe this is the time that fundamentalist Christians will realize that Jesus was, if any political affiliation could be tied to the Christian dogma, a liberal.

[Stuckinthebush]

45. But where will they go?

The fundamentalist Christian vote is strongly allied with Republicans. They sure as hell aren't coming over to us, so where will they go? Will they vote independent or stay at home?

Interesting developments to be sure.

[nxylas]

52. Possibly the little RW "Christian" parties?

The Constitution Party, America First, parties like that, perhaps?

[w4rma]

60. Try not to use absolutes. They should be voting Democratic, because it is

Democrats who support Jesus's teachings.

They need to get over using the law to *force* people to do things. They need to love folks who are different from them, and who want to live their lives in peace with others, instead of trying to punish them.

That's really the bottom line. It's not that they can't (or even perhaps shouldn't) hold their beliefs. It's that they need to quit trying to *force* those beliefs on others.

Democrats should have no problem working with evangelicals that love their neighbors (rather than fearing them or wishing to punish them) and who don't believe in forcing others to obey their beliefs.

[Stuckinthebush]

65. Yes, but evangelicals and fundamentalists are not the same

Evangelicals such as Jimmy Carter would agree with you 100%. Fundamentalists are not as theologically aware.

[RamboLiberal]

47. KO helped sales of this book

Checking at 10:50Am it's 32 on Amazon and 79 on B&N. I bet it goes up even more after tonight's show and if the author is on 60 Minutes this Sunday I'll bet it will be in top 10. Woo Hoo! :bounce:

[IWantAChange]

48. DNC should buy 10k copies and distribute

them to churches across the country. Time to stand up and play Rovian politics.

:bounce:

[Dems Will Win]

50. THIS IS HUMONGOUS

Everyone should post on blogs and write letters everywhere on this book, especially in MO, TN and VA where there are key Senate races and big evangelical/conservakook voter blocs.

[Old Smokey]

51. Fantastic !!!!!

looks like a great book. will make great Christmas presents for my freeper relatives who voted bush because of his faith and all.

[progressoid]

53. ummm...because they ARE suckers?

[Donovan61]

54. SURPRISE, SURPRISE!

As Gomer Pyle used to say.

I've always thought Dubya, Cheney and other top GOP leaders were simply amoral hustlers. They will do and say anything to gain and hold power. I recommend John Dean's excellent book "Conservatives Without Conscience" to those who want to better understand the enemy.

I have to say, as a practicing Christian who knows many evangelicals, this revelation will most likely not change the mind of most fundamentalist Christians as they simply do not hear or see anything that does not already correspond to their narrow beliefs.

[Shakespeare]

55. Then why does Rove meet with their leaders every Monday?

I would LOVE for this to be true, but WH actions speak way louder than this author, so far.

[nealmhughes]

56. Shocking! Does really really think that the BushCo, Inc would stoop

to pandering and then dump the Talibangelists once they were done with power consolidation like an old worn out whore is tossed out by a pimp?

Shocking! Shocking, I say!

Hey, the neocons are next. All the True Believers are going bye-bye. Chaos is ensured in Iraq, ergo, the bases to protect the oil flow at OPEC controlled prices are soon in place.

Let us remember the acronym O.I.L. ...

[confludemocrat]

57. Screw this Kuo, as if the fundies are victims. They're co-conspirators

they've gotten everything they asked for. how is that cause to whine about being betrayed by Bush. What, they wanted even more gay bashing, creationism taught everywhere and censorship of everything and their incompetent sugardaddy couldn't deliver? Yer breakin my heart poor baby. Now eat shit and die, fuckhead.

[girl gone mad]

64. Exactly.

They can't weasel their way out of responsibility, just because Bush played them like a cheap guitar. They were on board with the whole Republican agenda, all in the name of taking rights away from people they don't like.

[Dob Bole]

58. Um...duh?

That's why I left the GOP in the first place.

Of course, by "left the GOP" I mean voted Republican one time when I was 18. But still.

[Uncle Joe]

59. As Mr. Spock would say "fasinating",

this means Bush is a liar!? Who could have possibly seen that coming!?:shrug:

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

61. The get the understatement of the week award.

So, Bush is a liar.

What a concept!!

[Up2Late]

62. Who but the so-called "Christian Right" didn't know this?

DUH!

[sarcasmo]

63. Kick and Nom for "the NUTS"

[Selteri]

66. Again with public servents liek this, who needs enemies. NT

[TheBaldyMan]

67. check out part 2, it's up now n/t

[stlsaxman]

68. Let's all remember- This is a BOOK.... Xtian wackos can't read.

When you hear a fundie say "The only book I read is The Bible", you can bet they're functional illiterates and had to have the book read to them from a pulpit.

Let's hope MSM coverage of it gives them the verbal "Cliff Notes" so they have some idea what it says.