Bush can’t mug Robertson. Nor Falwell. Nor Graham.

These leaders commit to keeping on keeping on.

What’s their party line? It’s that Islam is a religion of violence. Their source? The original source: THE KORAN.

So, to be politically correct on the side of good fellow Bush, why won’t these religious leaders just shut up?

After all, Bush and company have tried, from the start, to program the US mindset into understanding that Islam is a religion of peace. Only a few nuts have projected a violent overlay on the Islamic religious postulates.

The good man in the Oval Office, known for his own earnest prayers and Christian witness, continues to give forth with the p.r. that Islam is to be regarded as nice. Some of his cabinet, Colin Powell in particular, have endorsed his line.

After all, why can’t all well-meaning religions get along? Why all this madness? If we would only dialogue more logically and realize the goodwill foundations upon which all our God-talk rests, we could love one another, thereby establish community.

Yet Robertson and company continue to continue, in their face with media and politicians, just urging them to read the KORAN for themselves. "See who your real enemies are," Pat insists.

"To say the religion of Islam is peaceful, I do not think that is accurate," Robertson gave forth on his 700 Club TVcast. That was one day after Bush disciplined theological evangelicals for their preachings.

Robertson did respond to the President with courtesy, but he would not yield on his position.

"One minor disagreement among friends does not end a friendship ... I appreciate the president, appreciate what he's doing; and I want everybody to know that something like this does not sever the support that I have given him over the years," Robertson said.

However, "The KORAN teaches that the end of the world will not come until every Jew is killed by Muslims. Now that is what it says in the KORAN, written by Muhammad," Robertson said.

"Jews in Germany did not want to read [Hitler's autobiography] Mein Kampf and did not want to believe it," he added.

"There is no doubt that the religion of Muhammad and those who adhere to it firmly, such as the [Saudi Arabian] Wahabis, and the Taliban and the Iranian Mullahs and other mullahs operating in other parts of the world, is extreme and violent," Robertson said.

"Please read the KORAN and see what it says ... Please see what the mullahs are teaching the little children in Palestine and in other parts of the world about you. And when you get through, do us a favor, don't criticize your friends, but see who your real enemies are," Robertson said.

"In today's world, people say it is not possible for us to believe that a religious system could teach what the KORAN clearly teaches. It's the religion that's the problem, not necessarily the adherents to it," Robertson explained.

"Yet, if I tell the truth about this, I am criticized," he complained.

And that is just the nub of it all. TRUTH.

Robertson and company will not compromise truth. That, by the way, is the hallmark of a genuine conservative. Truth rules all. Truth molds logic. Truth guides conversation and policy and political correctness and friendship alliances and trust and all other variables good and beautiful.

So. . .Bush, being the nice fellow he is, will continue to be the nice fellow in the eyes of Robertson, Falwell, and Graham. But they, recognizing the President to be a man of sincere Christian faith, still will not cut through what they understand to be truth.

It is nothing new for persons of truth to suffer. It goes way back to Abel. Nevertheless, truth marchers never compromise what they know will be their ultimate judgment day.