We have known for quite some time that the Bush administration does not give a damn about the American people. Only yesterday did Bush tell the media that the Iraqi people are willing to "tolerate" hundreds of thousands of war dead in that country.

As an aside, I ran the below exchange yesterday but it's worth another look into how people act when they realize they are responsible for the deaths of others. I hope no one reading this has killed anyone. The closest analogy is getting into a car accident: that sickening feeling that something terrible has happened and it might be your fault. Imagine what it feels like to start a war that is going badly and the war dead are piling up. One way to deal with it is to say that the victims tolerate this misery.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN: Thank you, Mr. President. Back on Iraq, a group of American and Iraqi health officials today released a report saying that 655,000 Iraqis have died since the Iraq war. That figure is 20 times the figure that you cited in December at 30,000. Do you care to amend or update your figure and do you consider this a credible report?

PRESIDENT BUSH: No, I don’t consider it a credible report, neither does General Casey and neither do Iraqi officials. I do know that a lot of innocent people have died and it troubles me and grieves me. And I applaud the Iraqis for their courage in the face of violence. I am, you know, amazed that this is a society which so wants to be free that they’re willing to — you know, that there’s a level of violence that they tolerate.

We always assumed that the Bush administration does care about evangelical Christians who comprise an important part of his base and who are loyal to the Republican party. When all else fails, you can count on the religious conservatives for support. What the religious conservatives did not know was that the Bush administration thinks they're crazy.

A new book reveals that the Bush administration has as much contempt for the evangelical right as they do for every other segment of American society.

According to MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, an upcoming book titled Tempting Faith: An Inside Account of the Rise of Christian Conservatives, and Their Betrayal by the Bush White House is guaranteed to create a stir among Bush's evangelical base. According to the book's author David Kuo— a self-proclaimed religious Christian and the former Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives— the Bush White House used the evangelical right and its leaders for their votes with no intention of following-through with their campaign promises once elected.

Kuo's book claims that Bush's right-hand-man, Karl Rove, referred to the religious right as "the nuts," "out of control," "goofy," and "ridiculous," while recruiting them to ensure a strong turn-out in the 2004 election.

From Tempting Faith:

"National christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as 'ridiculous' 'out of control' and 'just plain goofy.'"

MSNBC reports that Tempting Faith underlines how the White House "uses evangelicals for their votes while consistently giving them nothing in return." The book details how leaders, such as James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and Ted Haggard, were granted meetings and phone calls with the White House to appease them but that, according to Kuo, "the true purpose of these calls was to keep prominent social conservatives and their groups or audiences happy."

Further, Kuo says evangelical leaders were allowed to meet with Bush and attend his political gatherings when he was visiting their respective states to pad their egos. The White House awarded evangelical leaders with trinkets (such as cufflinks bearing the presidential seal) to show how influential they were.

"Making politically active christians personally happy," claims Kuo, "meant having to worry far less about the Christian political agenda."

In regard to his tenure at the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, Kuo claims that "the White House staff didn't want to have anything to do with the faith-based initiative because they didn't understand it any more than did Congressional Republicans.... they didn't lie awake at night trying to kill it, they simply didn't care."

According to Kuo, Bush even fabricated the amount the White House intended to spend on faith-based initiatives to mobilize his evangelical base. Kuo recalls one conversation with Bush where the president endorsed inflating the amount of money he planned to secure: "Eight Billion. That's what we'll tell them," said Bush. "Eight Billion in new funds for faith-based groups." Kuo claims the White House was especially interested in attracting evangelical voters with inflated promises since "the faith-based initiative.... had the potential to successfully evangelize more voters than any other."

Kuo ultimately resigned from his White House post after claiming that "there was minimal senior White House commitment to the faith-based agenda." He told Beliefnet that "from tax cuts to Medicare," Bush never cared about the "poor people stuff."

As Olbermann pointed out on MSNBC, Kuo was not alone in his frustration. His former boss also resigned from his White House post claiming that politics were king in the Bush administration.

Tempting Faith claims the White House is "mocking the millions of faithful Christians who put their trust and hope in the president and his administration. Bush knew his so-called compassion agenda was languishing and had no problem with that."

Tempting Faith is due to hit the shelves next week.