Expert: Giuliani's pandering to Christian right could get ugly David Edwards and Muriel Kane

Published: Thursday November 15, 2007



del.icio.us

Print This Email This According to author Craig Unger, the Iraq War is not really about terrorism, but is the product of an unholy alliance between Neoconservatives and the Christian right which pre-dates 9/11. Unger believes that George W. Bush was the "perfect vessel" for that alliance because of his evangelical base, but the current crop of Republican candidates are not evangelicals themselves and are merely pandering to the Christian right, with potentially ugly results. Unger's new book, The Fall of the House of Bush: The Untold Story of How a Band of True Believers Seized the Executive Branch, Started the Iraq War, and Still Imperils America's Future, lays out his theory about the alliance between Christian Zionists and Neoconservatives and the impact of that alliance on American foreign policy. "You see the Neocons going down to Texas as early as 1998 to woo President [then-Governor] Bush, knowing that he had this electoral base," Unger told MSNBC host Joe Scarborough "Nobody has really elected Neoconservatives to high office, but with a base of Christian evangelicals, George W. Bush became the perfect vessel." "That's because he's a devoted evangelical himself," Scarborough commented. He then asked Unger why so many evangelicals are supporting Rudy Giuliani, despite his attitudes on social issues. "I think it's actually the other way round," Unger replied. "The leading candidates, who are not really evangelicals themselves, have been pandering to the Christian right. ... You see Giuliani making a very, very unlikely alliance with Pat Robertson. They need those voters." "Giuliani is, as you say, a very unlikely candidate for the evangelicals," Unger continued. "I frankly expect there to be a fair amount of blood-letting in the Giuliani campaign before the primaries are over." "I think it'll get much uglier," Scarborough agreed. The following video is from MSNBC's Morning Joe, broadcast on November 15, 2007.





