Shake, Rattle and Roil the Grand Ol’ Coalition (Huck advisor says Reagan coalition is "gone")

New York Times ^ | 12/30/07 | Jeremy M. Lange

[ellery]

AS a Republican presidential primary candidate, Mike Huckabee is a puzzle.

A Southern Baptist pastor and thoroughgoing social conservative, Mr. Huckabee has struck a distinctly populist chord when it comes to economics. He has criticized executive pay, sympathized with labor unions, denounced “plutocracy,” and mocked the antitax group the Club for Growth as “the Club for Greed.” And when it comes to foreign affairs he sometimes sounds almost liberal; for example, comparing the United States’ place in the world to “a top high school student, if it is modest about its abilities and achievements, if it is generous in helping others, it is loved.”

Yet he has surged to the head of the pack in polls of Iowa Republicans in the week before their caucus and moved close to the front in national polls as well. Now his success is setting off a debate in his party over whether his success marks the fading of the old Reaganite conservative coalition — social conservatives, antitax activists and advocates of a muscular defense — or, rather, offers a chance for its rejuvenation.

“It’s gone,” said Ed Rollins, who once worked as President Reagan’s political director and recently became Mr. Huckabee’s national campaign chairman. “The breakup of what was the Reagan coalition — social conservatives, defense conservatives, antitax conservatives — it doesn’t mean a whole lot to people anymore.”

“It is a time for a whole new coalition — that is the key,” he said, adding that some part of the original triad might “go by the wayside.”

-snip-

[ellery]

The NYT is a must-excerpt.

As a small government conservative, I found this article a bit depressing. I don't think the GOP can win without small government conservatives or national security hawks anymore than we can win without social conservatives -- we need all three.

But maybe I'm wrong -- time will tell.

[Always Right]

Ed Rollins is an idiot. First he spends the last couple of months pimping reporters to write articles about how Huckabee is Reagan, and now he is saying Reagan’s coalition is gone. Rollins you are a buffoon.

[claudiustg]

-—“It’s gone,” said Ed Rollins, who once worked as President Reagan’s political director and recently became Mr. Huckabee’s national campaign chairman. “The breakup of what was the Reagan coalition — social conservatives, defense conservatives, antitax conservatives — it doesn’t mean a whole lot to people anymore.”-—

Translation: The truth has got to go if my guy Huck is going to win.

[cva66snipe]

They just now figuring it out? It was wounded in 1989 when Poppy started on the course of Operation Dismantle Reagan Legacy. It suffered the fatal blow when the newly elected GOP majorities began the sellout of 1995 headed by the likes of Trent Lott. The 1996 GOP Convention with Eulogy delivered by Bob Dole, Christie Todd Whitman and Susan Malonari who so much turned off the voters that got Reagan elected they stayed home instead.

[Def Conservative]

Well it definately will die if Huck is the nominee. Nothing for small gov’t or hawkish conservative sto vote for in that candidacy. Honestly, Hill is more of a hawk than Huckabee.

[Eric Blair 2084]

"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is. Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy. I believe there are legitimate government functions. There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom or we will have tyranny by individuals. The strongest man on the block will run the neighborhood. We have government to insure that we don’t each one of us have to carry a club to defend ourselves. But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are travelling the same path".

--Ronald Reagan

Inside Ronald Reagan: A Reason Interview from July 1975

"I haven't thought it through all together in terms of the legality of it. From a health standpoint, heck yeah, it makes sense."

"There are a lot of things pregnant women shouldn't do. That's just one of them. The point is, if you're going to make that against the law you're probably going to have to extend it to all the other things that are equally unhealthy for the child."

----Mike Huckabee on the Arkansas lawmakers proposed ban on smoking by pregnant women a few months after he threw taxpaying citizens of Arkansas who smoke out into the cold and rain

[stockstrader]

After the last election, Chuckie Schumer proudly boasted that the "Reagan Revolution is dead"!!!!

When you look at how many Republicans are willing to support a LIBERAL like Giuliani,,,,,there is no question about how correct Chuckie is. No question at all.

[Def Conservative]

Huh? Is Rudy still in the race? I’m more shocked at how fiscal conservatism is just a history book word nowadays and how the GOP is now the party of “agree with the Dems on everything but abortion” which will be furthered by Huckleberry.

[Eric Blair 2084]

New term I learned from George Will and his advanced Dennis Miller like vocabulary....Serial Non Sequiturs...(translation in plain language: the good thing in the first part of the argument means that the second part is true)

I am Christian therefore I am a Conservative.

I hired Ronald Reagans campaign manager Ed Rollins therefore I am Ronald Reagan.

[ding_dong_daddy_from_dumas]

What is strange to me is that Rollins was Reagan’s political director and was opposed amnesty. Now he is saying Huck is our savior.

Maybe Rollins was really desperate to get a job, or maybe Huck has some power to cloud men’s minds?

[gbscott1954]

Rollins is a really great one to have on your team! He managed Ross Perot’s campaign for awhile till Ross just got too nuts for even him! He has been a turncoat for years in my book!

[Kevmo]

Huckabee has surged because he won a couple of debates and he’s got evangelical support. If a quick rise can happen to the liberal pro-life evangelical Huckster, it can happen to the conservative pro-life evangelical Hunter.

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According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts

Why the smart money is on Duncan Hunter
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1926032/posts

In this poll Hunter is up 3% and even with Paul and Thompson.
http://www.wxyz.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=3481ef60-8195-46a9-af04-b87b907bcfdd

[Romneyfor President2008]

Reagan will never die.