{"id":1838,"date":"2007-09-12T20:08:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-12T20:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/09\/from-bush-to-bono.html"},"modified":"2007-09-12T20:08:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-12T20:08:00","slug":"from-bush-to-bono","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/09\/from-bush-to-bono.html","title":{"rendered":"From Bush to Bono"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day, I posted the item from the Washington Post about the implicit (or even explicit) Catholicism of rock and roll<\/a>. Now, as kind of a sideways addendum, there’s this interesting piece of news<\/a> about one of the people mentioned in the essay, Bono:<\/p>\n

<\/a>Bono, the lead singer of U2 and a self-proclaimed nonpartisan, has just made an intriguing hire to his operation: Matthew Dowd, a former top adviser to George W. Bush.<\/p>\n

Mr. Dowd, Mr. Bush\u2019s chief campaign strategist in 2004, began work last week as the chief strategist for the One Campaign, the anti-poverty organization that Bono founded, Mr. Dowd said today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt fit in with where I was in my life, which is no longer wanting to be in partisan politics,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cIt seemed perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bono has attracted both Republicans and Democrats, including Bill Frist and Tom Daschle, to lend their support to the One Campaign. But Mr. Dowd, while a former Democrat, has strong Republican ties that make him an unusual choice for what could be a visible position.<\/p>\n

He will be lobbying presidential candidates from both parties to support the One Campaign, a job that may be more difficult after he publicly distanced himself from Mr. Bush\u2019s presidency last spring. In an interview with The Times in March, Mr. Dowd expressed disappointment with Mr. Bush\u2019s leadership on Iraq and other issues, and said he felt \u201ca calling of trying to re-establish a level of gentleness in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be surprised if I wasn\u2019t walking around in Africa or South America doing something that was like mission work,\u201d he said then of his future career prospects.<\/p>\n

Now, Mr. Dowd said, people in politics probably don\u2019t see him as a member of either party. \u201cI don\u2019t want to be viewed as a Republican and I don\u2019t want to be viewed as a Democrat,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019d rather be viewed as a human being.\u201d <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How cool is that? Matthew Dowd may well have found the “mission work” he feels called to do. God love him. <\/p>\n

Photo: Matthew Dowd and Bono, from the New York Times <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The other day, I posted the item from the Washington Post about the implicit (or even explicit) Catholicism of rock and roll. Now, as kind of a sideways addendum, there’s this interesting piece of news about one of the people mentioned in the essay, Bono: Bono, the lead singer of U2 and a self-proclaimed nonpartisan,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Bush to Bono - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/09\/from-bush-to-bono.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Bush to Bono - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The other day, I posted the item from the Washington Post about the implicit (or even explicit) Catholicism of rock and roll. 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