Bush Critic Kuo Goes Up in Flames: Claims Matthews 'Conflagrating' Issues

There's nothing the MSM loves more than a renegade Republican. The GOP maverick-of-the-MSM-week is David Kuo. He is the former #2 man in the Bush administration's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, and has written a book, Tempting Faith, claiming that the operation was a cynical attempt to woo faith-based voters whom top aides including Karl Rove looked at contemptuously.

Chris Matthews predictably had Kuo on this afternoon's Hardball. At one point, Matthews asked whether President Bush has "used faith to get votes" and then "how about the issues like stem cell - do you think he's using them politically?"

Replied Kuo:

"I think you're conflagrating a couple of different things here."

I had to laugh. "Conflating" is one of those 50-cent words that every DC pundit seemingly works into his lexicon, and here Kuo - trying a bit too hard for erudition - had mangled it.

You might say Kuo was . . . en fuego!