NEWS FROM KARL ROVE'S PLAYBOOK

Hey wingnuts, stop bitching about Reuters. They played right into your hands on this one:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush on Wednesday took on the Christian right core of his political base, denouncing anti-Islamic remarks made by religious leaders including evangelist Pat Robertson.

Bush said such anti-Islamic comments were at odds with the views of most Americans.

"Some of the comments that have been uttered about Islam do not reflect the sentiments of my government or the sentiments of most Americans," Bush told reporters as he began a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites).

"By far, the vast majority of American citizens respect the Islamic people and the Muslim faith. After all, there are millions of peaceful-loving Muslim Americans," Bush said.

"Ours is a country based upon tolerance ... And we're not going to let the war on terror or terrorists cause us to change our values."

As you may have noticed, he made these comments in the presence of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, so obviously they served the purpose of making Dubya look good in front of an international audience, particularly the Muslim community.

But these comments had a more important, domestic purpose. Bush is trying to distance himself, publicly at least, from the far right wing Christian conservative base of his party, because he wants to avoid the appearance of not only "gloating" in the wake of last week's election, but also "overreaching" by being in bed with the kook right agenda.

Like I said, this is only a show for the cameras. Let's check back in a few months, and see how the conservative agenda is doing under Dubya...