I used to support Beasley on his probusiness agenda but he really is a liberal do gooder. Any doubts or questions I had about Huckabee are gone now. Beasley’s endorsement will actually hurt Huckabee in SC unless he is running on the Dem ticket. The Kennedy’s awarded DB the Profiles in Courage award for advocating removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse dome.
I was living in South Carolina during the flag flap—in fact, I stood at my girlfriend’s window two blocks from the Statehouse and watched them lower it for the final time. What Weaseley did in regard to the flag was nothing more than a political triangulating flip-flop. He ran on a platform of leaving the flag exactly where it was, and then as soon as he got in office, he started negotiating with the NAACP and black legislators to remove it.
I DON’T have much of a problem with the compromise as it ended up—an Army of Northern Virginia battle flag flies at the Confederate Soldiers’ Memorial, and the flag is off the top of the seat of government of the state. What I had, and still have, a serious problem with, is Weaseley’s total flip-flop on the issue. The GOP in South Carolina around that time was exceedingly strong, and he would’ve had no problem getting re-elected if he just stuck to his guns one way or the other—either hardcore for the flag, or for a reasonable compromise from the get-go. Instead, his flag flip helped cost him re-election and put Smilin’ Jim Hodges in power. After four years in the wilderness, the GOP came roaring back with Mark Sanford, a true conservative and an excellent governor.
Huckabee and Weaseley are two sides of the same coin, IMO.
}:-)4