Christian Conservatives and the White House

Author and former White House insider David Kuo claims the Bush Administration has little regard for its Christian conservative base.

Tavis: What got my attention, and the attention of so many others, obviously, is how little regard the Bush administration, according to you, has or had for its key, critical, Christian conservative base. You say in the book that the administration inside the White House really is dismissive of Christian evangelicals. That they refer to them as boorish; they refer to them as nuts. They refer to them as goofy. They refer to them as out of control.

These are all in quotes; things that you've heard and witnessed in meetings with regard to how the White House views or doesn't view, as it were, its critical conservative Christian base. I assume you stand by all of this.

David Kuo: Oh, absolutely. And this is not surprising. This is not rocket science. Frankly, any honest person who has been involved in Republican politics will confirm this story. Will say the same thing. And that's why this book is a book about seduction. It's a book about how Christians have been seduced into politics. Seduced into thinking that somehow politics is the answer, and it is also, I hope, an eye-opener for them, because they need to understand that politicians are starved for their votes. Starved for their votes.

But they don't care about them as people. They'll say anything that they can to get their votes. Because they think, frankly, that they're easy to manipulate. And that's important for people to know, because it's not that - you've got the Christian political leaders who are the mouthpieces of the White House, and who go and talk to the really, really well-meaning. The moms and the dads, the grandmas who give 15, 20, 25, 50 bucks.

Because they think they're really supporting godly activities, and that's their goal. I saw tonight that the RNC has raised $200 million in this campaign. Right, but they're doing it with a false promise. They're doing it by presenting this picture of President Bush as sort of pastor-in-chief. And Christians need to look at him and say, "No," right? He's the president. We need to look at him through critical eyes. The same critical eyes and cold, political eyes with which the White House looks at us.

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