FAMILY VALUES….Why did George Bush’s domestic policy czar, Claude Allen, resign last week? Was it really to spend more time with his family?
Allen, a former top aide to Jesse Helms and a darling of the evangelical right, left shortly after the Pentagon announced that it had loosened its policy on religious expression at the service academies. Henceforth superior officers will be allowed to proselytize as long as it’s clear that “the discussions are personal, not official” ? good news! ? but the new rules also require prayers at official ceremonies to be “nondenominational, inclusive prayer or a moment of silence.”
This was good enough for James Dobson, but according to the Washington Times it wasn’t good enough for Allen:
In a Jan. 22 conversation with Rep. Walter B. Jones reported in The Washington Times, Mr. Allen promised the North Carolina Republican that President Bush would pressure Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld into allowing military chaplains to be more explicit about their faith.
According to a military source, Mr. Allen resigned to protest the White House’s refusal to lean on the Pentagon about the issue.
So the theocon base of the Republican party helps him get reelected, and George Bush repays them by stabbing them in the back yet again? Tsk tsk. When will they learn?
