[Rodeo]

Kuo's last day at the White House, after serious health issues had forced him to re-examine his life:

One day in December I turned in my badge and on my way out did the usual and customary thing and delivered my resignation letter to Andy Card. He accepted it, shook my hand, thanked me for all I'd done, wished me well on my future and health, and asked me if I had any thoughts on how the White House could improve. I had been through too much not to say something. I told him everything I thought. The president had made great promises but they hadn't been delivered on. Worse than that, the White House hadn't tried. Worse than that, we had used people of faith to further our political agenda and hadn't given them anything in return. I went on and on for a few minutes. He sat there a bit bug eyed. "Formality meetings" are supposed to be just that.

"And finally sir, this thought. I don't know if you are aware of this but your staff frequently refers to the faith-based initiative as the '****** faith based initiative.' That doesn't help."

He shook my hand, assured me that he would look into it and that the president was committed to the initiative. I was being spun. I was already an outsider.