Dick in the Doghouse

On 9/28/06, Focus on the Family's Citizen Link verbally flogged arch-conservative Dick Armey for the following (quoted from the Citizen Link e-update):

In the interview, Armey responded pointedly when Sager asked why he thought Christian conservatives seemed more powerful now than in the 1990s.

"To a large extent, because Dobson and his gang of thugs are real nasty bullies," Armey said. "I pray devoutly every day, but being a Christian is no excuse for being stupid. There's a high demagoguery coefficient to issues like prayer in schools. Demagoguery doesn't work unless it's dumb . . . These issues are easy for the intellectually lazy and can appeal to a large demographic."

Dick Armey said that?! LOL.

Jim Daly, the president of Focus on the Family Action[TM] responded:

"Values voters expect to hear such cruel insults from the Left," he said, "but not from a champion of family values, as Mr. Armey once claimed to be."

"Cruel insults from the Left?" Mr. Daly, you are a frickin' whiny baby. And can't you people even keep your story straight? Are liberals wimpy, spineless, and ineffectual, or are they cruel insult slingers, such that they have the immense power to "huwwt yur wittle feewings"??? Sorry, you folks on the Right DON'T get to have it both ways--pick one myth and stick to it. No flip-flopping! :-D

Anyway, back to Armey... the email goes on to paint James Dobson as a poor put-upon victim of Big Bully Dick, noting that he [Dobson] "takes the hits and bullets for all of us," Souder said. "[Dobson] becomes the easy punching bag. And when someone sees trends changing or they want to pick on somebody, by Dr. Dobson becoming a public figure and taking the lead, he will get the criticism, but he's really taking it for everybody."

(Why, how noble of you, Dr. Dobson! I will send you a check today, right away!)

Pete Winn, the author of this email update, then pulls an interesting manipulation out of his fundie bag of tricks: he insults Armey in a very specific manner, calling him "bitter." This one is familiar to quite a few of us post-Christians. Apparently, it seems that Armey is "just bitter" that Christian conservatives chose to support former Representative Steve Largent (R-OK) for a House leadership post, instead of Armey.

Winn then went to Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) for a quote. Coburn obliged, stating Armey has no business expressing such an opinion. This, in spite of the fact that the U.S. is still--at least ostensibly--a free country.

Winn then threw Terri Schiavo into the stew, offering the observation that "Coburn took special exception to comments Armey made accusing Dobson of supposedly pressuring Congress in 2005 to pass legislation trying to protect Terri Schiavo from being starved and dehydrated to death."

Coburn, a strong conservative lawmaker as well as a licensed physician, rejected the charge.

(Oh, my. Tom Coburn is SO credible. A senator AND a doctor! His mom must be pleased as punch. And surely a senator AND a doctor NEVER EVER lie or NEVER EVER act in his own self-interest. Why, he sounds almost godlike, doesn't he?) :-)

But elsewhere in the email, Coburn states, "Dr. Dobson has done more to advance the cause of moral excellence [his definition of it, anyway] than anybody I know in this country."

THEN, Coburn was quoted as saying, "Dr. Dobson didn't force anything to happen here," he said. "The fact is, men of conscience and women of conscience in the Senate felt this was a situation that ought to be addressed — and they took action."

I'm confused. Dobson apparently works hard to "advance the cause of moral excellence", but OTOH, Dobson "didn't force anything to happen here (in the Schiavo matter)."

It all happened by magic, of course.

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A couple of recent and notable news items suggesting additional rifts on the Right, and about Republicans were losing their grip in Washington are these: a main story in Time magazine, and David Kuo speaking about how Bush's "Faith-Based Initiatives" were a total sham.