Looks like he's lost faith in GW:
Faith-Based Initiative Head Leaves
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 17, 2001; 1:19 PM
CRAWFORD, Tex., Aug. 17 – John J. DiIulio, the University of Pennsylvania academic who became head of President Bush's Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives, is stepping down after seven months on the job, according to people who have spoken with DiIulio.
DiIulio had planned to stay in the post only for six months or so, to get the president's faith-based initiative underway. But DiIulio, who is a registered Democrat, sparred with conservatives and with some of Bush's political advisers. DiIulio sought to move Bush's effort to boost religious charities slowly through Congress, building broad bipartisan support along the way. But other Bush advisers, such as senior adviser Karl Rove, pushed the legislation through the House on a party-line vote, which sent it to the Democratic Senate where its prospects were much less certain.
Conservatives, who chafed at the concessions DiIulio made to build Democratic support for the effort, appeared pleased at DiIulio's resignation. "I think John is a fine professor and students will benefit from having him back in the classroom," said Marvin Olasky, an early architect of Bush's faith-based initiative who came to oppose the plan. Asked what Olasky meant by that, he said: "It's a way of saying he's a good teacher."
Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), the Democrats' point man in the Senate on the faith initiative, was said to be saddened by the departure of DiIulio, with whom Lieberman had worked closely. "John's been a great advocate," a Lieberman spokesman said.
Those familiar with the situation say DiIulio was not pressured to resign and did so largely for personal reasons – he had been making a demanding commute from Philadelphia for the job – rather than his political quarrels with conservatives and Bush advisers. On Thursday, DiIulio unveiled a report detailing all the bureaucratic barriers to religious charities that exist in the federal bureaucracy.
No replacement for DiIulio has been named.
© 2001 The Washington Post Company |
