"Faith-based funding"....BushCo suckers....

From American Progress:

RELIGION -- FAITH-BASED DIRECTOR LEAVES AN OFFICE THAT SERVED POLITICS OVER POLICY:

While the White House shake-up stories in the press this week have focused largely on Karl Rove, Scott McClellan, and new chief of staff Josh Bolten, a less-noticed departure was that of Jim Towey, the outgoing White House director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

Kevin Drum at the Washington Monthly writes, "Towey was a good man...[but] he always chose to mouth the Bush administration's fiction that government discriminated against faith-based groups until George W. Bush came to save them."

John DiIulio, the director of the faith-based office who preceded Towey, proclaimed that the White House focus on faith-based issues was more driven by a concern for politics. "It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis," declared DiIulio of the White House political operation.

Towey's former deputy at the White House, David Kuo, similarly said there was "minimal commitment" from the White House on the faith-based agenda. Kuo argued the White House never really wanted the "poor people stuff."

Loyal conservative allies of the administration have declared the faith-based agenda little more than a political showpiece. Towey's departure shifts the focus from him, who was personally well-liked by the religious community, to "the White House's actual faith-based accomplishments, which are few and far between."

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