It is no surprise that Rove and others in the White House are treating them with a lack of respect now. I was listening to Countdown tonight, and it reminded me of these statements about George W. Bush from someone who knew him and worked with him as governor. Keith Olbermann was reviewing a book coming out called “Tempting Faith” by David Kuo.
It should be no shock that this administration holds the Christian right in contempt, just as they do most everyone and everything else. This statement is from a book that came out in 2004 in the fall.
There is no link, as it is transcribed from the book called “You Have the Power.”
From pages 2 and 3 of You Have the Power:
I ran for president because I was angry about where our country was going and I thought we could do better.
I was horrified by the way George W. Bush was governing our country. Mortgaging our future with irresponsible tax cuts for his friends. Despoiling our environment with huge giveaways to industry. Dividing us in the worst possible ways. Endangering our children with air pollution and draconian cuts in health-care services. Turning America into a monster in the eyes of the rest of the world.
He goes on to say that he had been surprised at Bush’s presidency because he had not seen those qualities when they were governors together.
I hadn’t started out a Bush-basher. In fact, I’d been predisposed to like George Bush. I knew him personally and had dealt with him professionally when we were both governors. He’d always been charming and hospitable to me and my family, both in the Governor’s Mansion in Texas and at the White House. He’d always been more than upright in the business dealings between our states, keeping his word when he had no legal obligation to do so. What I knew of his record in Texas bespoke a moderate man who was willing to put pragmatism before ideology, to raise taxes when necessary to equalize state education spending, and to take some heat from the right wing of his party for doing so. (“I hate those people,” he’d once snarled at me when I ribbed him at a White House governors’ gathering about some trouble he was having in Texas with the Christian Coalition.)
I’d approached his presidency with an open mind. ‘I hadn’t voted for Bush,
but I didn’t expect the worst of him, either. After all, I’d always been in
the moderate middle of my own party — a staunch advocate of fiscal
discipline, a devotee of balanced budgets, pro-choice but also pro-gun
owners’ rights, and in favor of the death penalty in some instances.’
— Howard Dean
From his book, ‘You Have the Power’
The contempt they have shown to a group of good people who trusted them by letting the Mark Foley situation go on so long is going to hurt them badly. Despite all the articles today saying it won’t have an effect…it will. The cover-up was in itself a form of contempt. This book by Kuo appears to be the icing on the cake.
