"'We've never been 'stay the course,' George!'"And the sad thing is that this type of spin has historically be effective for them. They switched their defense of the war several times. During the campaign, Bush hammered Kerry for suggesting that he wanted to reform Social Security with private accounts, then made it the halmark of his second term. Hard to take their moral foundation seriously when they lie all the time.
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More on Kuo. Several interesting nuggets including the idea that John Ashcroft was far more moderate before he had Presidential aspirations. He is the guy pushing back at Dobson and others who want to fully incorporate converstion efforts in the faith based money. He is the guy respecting other beliefs. Not sure where that guy went.
Kuo also relates leaving Ashcroft's office to work full time on his charity. Dan Quayle put him in touch with several high powered donors who could help. Only one donated money. At first, Kuo thought it was his own lack of stature, and then suspected that they really didn't like Quayle that much. But he realized that they weren't interested in anti-poverty efforts. "Had I called with a proposal for a new political organization that took on the Clintons, funding would have been lavish. That wasn't speculation; it is what donors told me."
And on Bush himself--the one who now is saying that he never asserted "stay the course"--Kuo writes of meeting him in 98. He notes how concerned the man was about the poor. He also notes how Bush recognized that the South Carolina primary (obviously in 2000) cost him a lot of credibility. His early speeches emphasized addressing social ills and social justice. Kuo clearly believes that Bush was earnest about it. I hope he has some kind of explanation for where that went, because it is hard to see in an administration that values tax cuts over even military families.
More later.
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