Book Says Faith-Based Programs Just Political Ploys

David Kuo, a conservative evangelical who was second-in command of the Bush administration's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, has come out with a book in which he says that Bush's people privately made fun of the faith leadership and used faith-based program money mainly to gain votes.

In public, Bush and his top advisers coddled and kissed up to the born-again religious leadership, but behind their backs called them "nuts," "ridiculous," "out of control," and "goofy." Faith-based program initiatives were thinly disguised events to get out the vote for Republican candidates, and awards of faith-based funds were made mainly on the basis of loyalty to the administration. Read more. Bush's faith-based addiction treatment funding initiatives, misleadingly called Access to Treatment, can be seen as part of this cynical framework. More about that here and here.