Posted on 10/26/2007 8:37:20 AM PDT by pookie18
In some quarters, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee appears to be the flavor-of-the-month Republican candidate for president. Given his folksy charm, social conservative credentials, and embrace by the mainstream media, it is not surprising that some are increasingly enamored with him. But this flirtation does a great disservice to the conservative movement if it overlooks Huckabee’s stunning record of big-government liberalism.
During Huckabee’s tenure as governor, the average Arkansan’s tax burden increased 47 percent, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. A dyed-in-blue tax hiker, Huckabee supported raising sales taxes, gas taxes, grocery taxes, even nursing home bed taxes. He virulently opposed a congressional moratorium on taxing Internet access, and sat on the sidelines while his Democratic legislature pushed the largest tax hike in Arkansas history into law. What’s more, on his watch, and frequently at his behest, state spending increased by 50 percent, more than double the rate of inflation, and the number of state government workers rose by 20 percent. Yes, as a presidential candidate, Huckabee has signed on as a supporter of the Fair Tax and pledged against raising taxes, but when a candidate’s long and clear record flies in the face of his election-year symbolism, you can chalk it up to politics every time.
Of course, there is little actual chance of Huckabee winning the presidency — at least not in 2008. Notwithstanding his improved polling in Iowa, Huckabee isn’t really running for president — not with a near empty campaign treasury. Rather, the second iteration of the Man from Hope is trying to parlay his social conservative credentials and aw-shucks congeniality into the vice-presidential nomination next year. Before conservatives jump on that train, however, they should consider the likelihood that the presence of such a big government backer on the ticket would hurt the party’s prospects more than it helps.
In 2006, Republicans suffered a severe lashing at the polls in retaliation for years of out-of-control spending and government expansion. In the final days before last year’s elections, the Club for Growth commissioned a poll among voters in the 15 most competitive congressional districts across the country. The results showed a remarkable and painful erosion of the Republicans’ fiscal branding among these key swing voters.
For example, we asked voters whether they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: “The Republicans used to be the party of economic growth, fiscal discipline, and limited government, but in recent years, too many Republicans in Washington have become just like the big spenders that they used to oppose.” Sixty-six percent of voters in these key districts agreed with the statement, including 72 percent of Independents.
In order to earn back the public’s trust on economic issues, not to mention offer a compelling contrast with a Hillary Clinton-led Democratic ticket, Republicans must present a consistent message. A big-government liberal like Mike Huckabee, who takes pleasure in attacking the Republican party as the “party of Wall Street,” will only reinforce the image of Republicans as “the big spenders that they used to oppose.” A Huckabee nomination, even as vice president, will make it impossible for the Republican party to reclaim its brand of fiscal conservatism and limited government, without which it cannot be a majority party again.
Huckabee makes no secret of his desire to turn the GOP leftward, calling himself a “different kind of Republican,” adopting protectionist positions, and peppering his campaign speeches with the kind of class warfare rhetoric one expects to hear from John Edwards. No doubt, this is the reason that the liberal media is so smitten with him.
Instead of talking about curtailing government spending, Huckabee refuses to endorse President Bush’s veto of a vastly expanded S-CHIP. He is an unabashed fan of No Child Left Behind and an opponent of private school choice. Huckabee is also quickly becoming the labor unions’ favorite Republican, recently gaining a union endorsement along with Hillary Clinton.
In frontrunners Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and Mitt Romney, the GOP is well on its way to nominating a candidate for president with a strong fiscal record. Each of them would provide a great opportunity for the GOP to reestablish its vitally important brand as the party of pro-growth tax policy and smaller and more affordable government. But no Republican presidential candidate can effectively claim that mantle with Mike Huckabee standing by his side.
Beyond those currently running for president, the eventual nominee has any number of strong across-the-board conservative prospects for vice president to choose from within the GOP ranks. Surely, he can do so without assuming the tax-and-spend baggage Mike Huckabee would bring.
In 2006, Republicans paid a steep price for big-government conservatism’s record-setting domestic spending spree. That is a lesson we should take to heart as we consider the choices facing us in 2008.
— Pat Toomey is the president and CEO of the Club for Growth.
You’re a poster child for what’s gone wrong in the formerly GOP.
Another Man From Hope
Who is Mike Huckabee?
The business community in Arkansas is split. Some praise Mr. Huckabee’s efforts to raise taxes to repair roads and work with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. Free-market advocates are skeptical. “He has zero intellectual underpinnings in the conservative movement,” says Blant Hurt, a former part owner of, and columnist for, Arkansas Business magazine. “He’s hostile to free trade, hiked sales and grocery taxes, backed sales taxes on Internet purchases, and presided over state spending going up more than twice the inflation rate.”
Mr. Huckabee told me yesterday he also cut some taxes, and has taken the Americans for Tax Reform no-tax pledge. Former GOP state Rep. Randy Minton is not impressed. In 1999, he was urged by the governor to back a gas-tax increase. “I’d taken a pledge against higher taxes, but he sniffed that my constituents didn’t understand what we have to do in state government to make it work,” Mr. Minton says. “His support for taxes split the Republican Party, and damaged our name brand.” The Club for Growth notes that only a handful of the 33 current GOP state legislators back their former governor.
Mr. Huckabee’s reluctance to surround himself with conservatives was evident as governor, when he kept many agency heads appointed by Bill Clinton. Zac Wright, a spokesman for incoming Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, was asked this year why 15 Huckabee agency heads had been retained. Most of them were “Clinton people,” he replied, not “Huckabee people.” Mr. Huckabee told me many of his agency heads had “apolitical” responsibilities.
Many Huckabee supporters have told me their man should be judged by what he’s saying on the campaign trail today. Fair enough. Mr. Huckabee was the only GOP candidate to refuse to endorse President Bush’s veto of the Democrats’ bill to vastly expand the Schip health-care program. Only he and John McCain have endorsed the discredited cap-and-trade system to limit global-warming emissions that has proved a fiasco in Europe.
read the whole thing:
http://opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110010782
Possibly Huckabee, McCain, and Undecided - a little to Romney too, ignoring the past 2 days or so.
No, he doesn't.
Huckabee supports the Illegal Invasion.
True, but I don't care about Huckabee, he's not my choice anyway.
bttt
Thompson/Romney '08, or
Romney/Thompson '08.
Which is better? Which is more likely? Looks like all other options are no longer operable.
The only way you can believe that is if you've completely bought the bill of goods that has been sold by the Democrat Media and the elites.
It's still several months before a single actual Republican will have cast a single ballot.
That's forever in politics.
LOL ! Nice try. Romney’s numbers are going down , thanks to the Huckster .
I’m with you:o)
I knew I wasn’t alone.
Balloting begins in ten weeks. Not exactly forever from now.
Exactly, and that is the last thing we need.
Remember folks, the federal government is gonna spend 3 TRILLION dollars of your money next year. Want to give more, vote for Huck or let Hillary win by staying home? Not me.
No, he's worse. GWB didnt hike taxes as Governor like the Huckster did. This is a stunning indictment of a man without a fiscal conservative bone in his body:
"He has zero intellectual underpinnings in the conservative movement," says Blant Hurt, a former part owner of, and columnist for, Arkansas Business magazine. "He's hostile to free trade, hiked sales and grocery taxes, backed sales taxes on Internet purchases, and presided over state spending going up more than twice the inflation rate." Mr. Huckabee told me yesterday he also cut some taxes, and has taken the Americans for Tax Reform no-tax pledge. Former GOP state Rep. Randy Minton is not impressed. In 1999, he was urged by the governor to back a gas-tax increase. "I'd taken a pledge against higher taxes, but he sniffed that my constituents didn't understand what we have to do in state government to make it work," Mr. Minton says. "His support for taxes split the Republican Party, and damaged our name brand." The Club for Growth notes that only a handful of the 33 current GOP state legislators back their former governor. Governors who served with him praise Mr. Huckabee for his ability to work with others, but say he was clearly a moderate. "He fought my efforts to reform the National Governors Association and always took fiscal positions to my left," former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a supporter of Mitt Romney, told me.
“Huckabee is what the democrats might have become if the hippies didn’t take over the party in the ‘60’s, and the Republicans didn’t make a play for the southern conservative vote.”
Good observation. 30 years ago, this man would have been a Democrat and would have fit right into the party of Humphrey, Scoop Jackson, LBJ and Lloyd Bentsen.
Paul supports the Jihadists. Yes. He does.
The plan is for the social liberal Rudy to get ‘balance’ on the ticket by bringing on a fiscal liberal Huckabee.
That way conservatives will KNOW where they stand. Aw jeeeez.
The beatings will continue until morale improves
Dittos on this thought.... Together they would make one great candidate.
Oddsmakers say Romney is more likely. Romney is still leading Iowa. Polls says Thompson is #2 nationally. Thompson should be soaking up all the support Huckabee is getting, this Huckabee boomlet is a real missed oppty for FDT to get out in front.
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