Franken-Lies-And-the-Lying-Liars-Who-Tell

It is why he is pushing abstinence-only sex education, which does more to prevent
condom use than to prevent sex. It's why he appointed Dr. David Hager, an obstetrician/gynecologist
who opposes prescribing contraceptives to single women, to chair the Food
and Drug Administration's panel on women's health policy. And it is why Bush continues to
feed us his born-again story. Which I'm sure has some truth to it. But, Jesus, do you have to
wear it on your sleeve?
And do we have to hear all this stuff about reading the Bible? Remember that conversation
I had with Don Evans at the White House Correspondents Dinner where it became
clear that he (and perhaps, by extension, Bush) had absorbed amazingly little from his Bible
study boot camp? That story eerily parallels an excerpt from a January 2000 interview Bush
did with Howard Fineman and Jonathan Alter of Newsweek.
At the time, the campaign had been making a big deal about Bush reading the Bible
every day. So Fineman asked, "What Bible passage did you read this morning?"
At this point, according to Alter, Bush started "getting really peeved."
"You know something," Bush said, "I think you're trying to catch me as to whether or
not I can remember where I was in the Bible ... it's like that question when I was asked about
tell me about Dean Acheson ... I was asked that question because most of the press corps didn't
think I read that book." 1
Has Bush read the Bible? I'm sure he has. But from the little I know about the New
Testament, Christ had a special place in his heart for the meek and the downtrodden. For the
most publicly religious administration in memory, to me, anyway, this one seems the least
Christian.
1
The incident Bush was referring to is a funny one. In an early Republican presidential debate, Bush was
asked what book he was reading. A biography of Dean Acheson (Truman's secretary of State), he answered.
Twelve days later, in the next debate, moderator Judy Woodruff asked him what he had learned from the biography.
Bush couldn't think of anything directly related to the life or work of Dean Acheson and went directly into his
stump speech about how we have to be strong to keep the peace. When John McCain fielded his next question,
he answered it quickly and used the rest of his time to talk in great detail about Acheson's role in the creation of
NATO and the Marshall Plan.