Haggard boasted close White House ties

[leftchick]

http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/15872

By LEE BOWMAN
Saturday, November 04, 2006
As president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Ted Haggard has advised the White House on issues ranging from judicial appointments to steel tariffs, but he also sought to widen the agenda of Christian evangelicals into areas the Bush administration _and many of his Christian brethren _ would rather avoid.

Haggard resigned as president of the association, which says it represents some 30 million evangelical church members, and stepped down as pastor of the 14,000-member New Life church in Colorado Springs earlier this week amid allegations that he paid a gay prostitute for sex and drugs.

Although he had been active in lobbying for conservative Christian causes before, Haggard's profile rose after he became head of the NAE early in 2003. He made frequent visits to the White House and was included in a select group of religious leaders briefed on the administration's agenda during a weekly teleconference with White House staff, to "feel the evangelical pulse," he's said.

"We have direct access (to the White House,)" Haggard told a Wall Street Journal reporter shortly before the last presidential election, adding he could take a concern to the president through staff and get a response within 24 hours.

Asked Friday about the Haggard controversy, White House spokesman Tony Fratto downplayed the pastor's connections to the Bush administration.

[Demeter]

1. And May the Disciple Follow His Rabbi Right Into Court and Prison

[Eric J in MN]

2. Did Ted Haggard promote Bush to his congregants? NT

NT

[physioex]

9. Not so much in a direct manner.....

That would violate his tax exempt status. But what they do is use key words. I personally don't like the guy, but one positive thing I can say about him was the fact that he did promote the environmental agenda.....

[leftchick]

12. haggard has three photos in his office on the wall

two are of he and bush. nuff said.

[ClintonTyree]

3. Bush never even knew the guy........

just like he never knew Kenny-boy Lay, or Jack Abrhamoff, or Jimmy/Jeff/Guckert/Gannon or a host of other Republicans now serving time in our wonderful penal institutions. Honest! If you can't trust George Bush who can you trust? :sarcasm:

[crikkett]

11. haha *snort*

... you said 'penal'

:rofl:

[IndianaGreen]

4. with Jeff Gannon no doubt

Gawd knows what sort of sexual stuff goes on inside the Bush White House.

[NOLADEM]

5. Would someon please ask Snow on Monday how many male prostitutes and johns have or had access

to the White House, other than Gannon and Haggard?

[badgerpup]

6. Just like Abramoff...

"Well, yeah, we may have seen him around the place a few times, but that's not to say we KNOW him real well, or that the President or anybody for that matter was close friends with him or anything.
In fact, I don't think that the President even knows his name or would recognize him if he saw him on the street."
:sarcasm:

[grytpype]

7. Haggard was on his knees in the White House many times.

To PRAY, pervert!

[truthisfreedom]

8. Haggard: "I had oral sex with President Bush"

THIS is the kind of headline we need to see tomorrow.

[ixion]

10. lol.. the adventures of 'coke jaw' and 'meth mouth'

:rofl:

I'm sure the intellectual level of the conversations is just staggering. :dunce:

[durtee librul]

13. I still say

the weekly calls were for phone sex with both of them screaming "HAAAALLLEEEEYUUUUAAA" at the end instead of goodbye.

[54anickel]

14. Wow, looks like he was getting off script a bit. I was wonder what that

"widening agenda" was all about. Sounds like a "complex" guy who was gaining too much power and complicating the narrow agenda. I've got a feeling Dobson, Fawell and friends might be looking on this revelation as a blessing. Poorly timed, but a blessing none the less.


At the same time, Haggard has angered some religious conservatives for urging Christians to protect Muslims in the days following 9/11 and more recently for urging missionary outreach to Muslims, but not to win converts or force Christianity on them.

Last summer, he joined an eclectic group of 27 religious leaders who ruffled the White House with a statement published in newspaper advertisements urging the government to "abolish torture now _- without exception" in dealings with prisoners, including those suspected of terrorist activity.

In fact, Haggard has argued almost as frequently for freedom from government intervention as he has freedom of religion. He was one of the few religious conservatives to endorse a 2003 Supreme Court decision striking down Texas' anti-sodomy law on privacy grounds.

snip>

Although the association's board approved some broad goals for social activism along those lines in a vision statement earlier this year, it has drawn criticism from many Christian conservatives for going beyond the "values" issues that have traditionally been the political focus of the community.


As a side note, wtf is a pastor doing touting the idea of free-markets? That one just really threw me off. :crazy:

[goforit]

15. Is this Manchurian canidate slipping?...LOL!

[rpannier]

16. They're downplaying his connections to scrub, because???

He's gay?

Being gay is NOT a crime.
Though if the American Taliban have their way we'll be dropping walls on them.

I wonder how long it'll take the log cabin republikkans to defend the 'scrub strategery' on this.

[badgerpup]

17. You know the drill...Bush's buddies are his BFF...until they get busted

for something.
Then he barely knows them...just another schmuck who coughed up $2500 so he could have his picture taken with "The Pretendisent President" in the Rose Garden. :+ :dunce:

Don't know whose idea this is...Bush must not be 'associated' with anyone who's been outed, busted, or convicted of anything, but IMHO it sure doesn't make for loyalty among the staff...

What do they say about fair-weather friends? No wonder that people write such nasty-ass tell-all books once they get caught...
:popcorn:

[upi402]

18. Schadenfreude -I like! n/t