Bush's 'compassionate conservative'
agenda driven by politics, not policy, says former White House staffer
Ex-'Faith Czar' DiIulio Criticizes 'Reign Of The
Mayberry Machiavellis'
Press release from Americans United for Separation
of Church and State, dated December 3, 2002
UPDATE: DiIulio has been
"corrected" by the White House
[12-6-02]
The Bush
administration emphasizes politics over policy and has failed to advance
its highly touted "compassionate conservative" agenda, the
former head of the White House "faith-based" office has
charged.
John J. DiIulio,
head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
until August of 2001, told Esquire magazine recently
that top Bush political advisor Karl Rove and his allies control the
administration's domestic policy, not policy experts.
Said DiIulio,
"There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going
on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus. What you've got
is everything -- and I mean everything -- being run by the political
arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis."
DiIulio, now a
professor at the University of Pennsylvania, described Rove as
"enormously powerful, maybe the single most powerful person in the
modern, post-Hoover era ever to occupy a political advisory post near
the Oval Office."
DiIulio said the
Religious Right and other conservatives believe Rove will make sure Bush
toes their ideological line. They trust Rove, he said, "to keep
Bush 43 from behaving like Bush 41 and moving too far to the center or
inching at all center-left."
"There is a
virtual absence as yet of any policy accomplishments that might, to a
fair-minded nonpartisan, count as the flesh on the bones of so-called
compassionate conservatism," DiIulio observed.
The White House
quickly dismissed DiIulio's allegations, calling them "baseless and
groundless." Under what Washington observers believe is intense
pressure from the Bush administration, DiIulio issued a statement
parroting the White House line and agreeing that his criticisms were
"groundless and baseless due to poorly chosen words and
examples."
But Barry W. Lynn,
executive director of Americans United, said DiIulio's comments in the
January Esquire are revealing and that evidence shows
that DiIulio's original observations are right. Earlier this year,
The Washington Post reported that White House strategists and Jim
Towey, the new head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and
Community Initiatives, were using the promise of "faith-based"
funding to churches to sway voters in tight Senate and House races.
"At last the
truth about the 'faith-based initiative' has come out from someone who
ought to know," said Lynn. "This 'compassionate conservative'
agenda has less to do with helping the needy and more to do with
electoral politics. It's a shameful use of religion for partisan
purposes."
DiIulio oversaw
the "faith-based initiative" for about eight months. He
resigned due to health reasons but had reportedly clashed with Religious
Right activists and their allies in the administration who pressed Bush
to back the most extreme version of the initiative.
Lynn said the new
revelations should encourage religious and political leaders to oppose
the faith-based initiative. "The Bush administration is trying to
buy political support from religious leaders with the promise of a
government grant," said Lynn. "This crass overture only
underscores the dangers inherent in any plan that directs government
funds to houses of worship. Our nation's religious leaders should reject
his misguided gambit."
When Congress
convenes in January, the faith-based initiative is expected to become a
point of sharp controversy. The scheme passed the House in 2001, but
failed to move in the Senate.
| UPDATE:
DiIulio has been "corrected" by the White House
Since Mr.
DiIulio's statements were published in Esquire,
White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer has stated that there is
no basis for them, and DiIulio has retracted them.
Here's one
sharp comment on the whole sad saga by Joe Conason in
The
New York Observer. |
Americans
United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington,
D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the
importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.
