David Kuo, despite his suspicious timing, appears to proceed from genuine motives, but his concerns and solutions are woefully misguided. He seems most upset that Bush didn't secure the promised funding for his faith-based program and thereby betrayed Christian conservatives, who he took for granted.

Kuo laments the political naivete of certain Christian leaders for putting too much faith in political leaders. He believes they have been duped by the administration and intoxicated through their proximity to presidential power from holding the president accountable for failing to deliver.

But it is Kuo who is politically naive for believing that government handouts should be Christian conservatives' most urgent concern. President Bush might have failed to secure the funding he'd earmarked for faith-based programs, but he has most certainly delivered for Christian conservatives on policy -- and that's what is most important.

Kuo's naivete is further displayed by his reckless recommendation that Christians tell Republicans "we are fasting from politics for a season." To the contrary, it would make more sense for Christian conservatives to become political gluttons for this electoral season. If not, they will be directly participating in the acceleration of the decline of their culture, a cultural climate less hospitable to their evangelical duties and a less secure America, for starters.

In the meantime, Democrats are enjoying their popcorn as they watch the spectacle of these intramural GOP squabbles, hoping to laugh all the way to the polls secure in their knowledge of a depressed values voter turnout.

But, as usual, they can't leave well enough alone, as they are once again playing semantic games to convince values voters they are on their team. Their latest "values friendly" platitude designed to make this case, recently articulated by Bill Clinton, is: Democrats are striving for the "common good." I hope they just keep on insulting our intelligence. If nothing else will motivate Christian voters to go to the polls, maybe that will.