DUPE

WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 - Arthur Finkelstein, a Republican consultant known for hard-edged campaigns that helped conservatives in the United States and Israel, has said in an interview published in Israel that President Bush's campaign strategy to court evangelical Christians had divided the country as never before, to the possible detriment of the Republican Party.

"From now on, anyone who belongs to the Republican Party will automatically find himself in the same group as the opponents of abortion, and anyone who supports abortion will automatically be labeled a Democrat," Mr. Finkelstein told Maariv, a daily, in an interview published on Friday. "The political center has disappeared, and the Republican Party has become the party of the Christian right more so than in any other period in modern history."

Mr. Finkelstein, whose clients have included former Senators Alfonse M. D'Amato of New York and Jesse Helms of North Carolina and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, suggested that Mr. Bush's strategy could ultimately stunt the presidential aspirations of moderate Republicans like one of his close allies, Gov. George E. Pataki of New York.

"Bush's strategy secures the power of the American Christian right not only for this term," Mr. Finkelstein said in the interview. "In fact, it secures its ability to choose the next Republican president."

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/politics/campaign/11repub.html?oref=login

NO SHIT!!! :mad:

Well, at least somebody in the GOP has the courage to say it.

I'm glad he's acknowledging this. But he should look in the mirror. He's the architect of the politics of division, turning the word "liberal" into a slur and so much more. And any guy whose clients included Jesse Helms really doesn't deserve an ounce of sympathy from me.

Has he seen the light? Who knows. If so, great. But he has a lot of stuff he has to repent for before he can be accepted in good graces.

Personally, I detect just some jealousy of Rove. Probably Finkelstein wanted to be senior strategist for a president and is pissed that Rove beat him to it.

turn out. This is on their conscience, not on mine.

the last time was before Reagan.