Conservatism, Religion and the Bush Administration(FindLaws)

[RedEarth]

Conservatism, Religion and the Bush Administration:
A Review of Two Recent Books on the White House, the Law, and The Influence of Christian Fundamentalists
By ELAINE CASSEL
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Friday, May. 20, 2005

Charles Tiefer, Veering Right: How the Bush Administration Subverts the Law for Conservative Causes (University of California Press 2004)
Esther Kaplan, With God On Their Side: How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, and Democracy in George W. Bush’s White House (New Press 2004) The two books under review -- Charles Tiefer's Veering Right and Esther Kaplan's With God On Their Side -- make similar arguments: Influences of evangelical Christians and secular conservative are moving the Bush Administration to the far right.

Tiefer -- a University of Baltimore Law School professor who has served both as Solicitor of the House and Assistant Legal Counsel to the Senate -- takes the broader view of events. His book explains the religious, corporate, and legislative forces behind the administration's social and foreign policy agendas.



In contrast, Esther Kaplan -- who writes for The Nation and The Village Voice - focuses on the religious influences. Kaplan makes a compelling case that conservative Christians are the predominant ideological voice in politics today.

Taken together, these books explain how Bush's broader conservative agenda - well-detailed in Tiefer's book -- has merged with the right-wing Christian agenda. Moreover, when read in conjunction, they offer particular insight into current events, such as the fight over Bush's judicial nominations and the promise of conservatives to end the Senate filibuster.

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More important to the understanding of current events is Tiefer's chronicling of how Senate and House rule changes, combined with Karl Rove's Machiavellian tactics and strong-arming by congressional leaders Tom DeLay and Bill Frist, have all but removed Democratic party (and even centrist Republican) participation in the legislative agenda. He notes how in the rare instance when moderates of either party were able to prevail in the first Bush term, it was often due to the rules as they then existed- including the now-endangered rule permitting filibusters.

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