First of all, the Arkansas Journal, a conservative blog, broke this story, not the Arkansas Times or Max Brantley.
Second of all, the tax that Huckabee was seen “begging” for in the video had absolutely nothing to do with Lakeview. As a matter of fact, the special session called to address the Supreme Court mandate took place later in 2003. This tax increase was for “general revenue” and generated a very large surplus the following year.
The point is that Huckabee is trying to run for president as a tax-cutter when, in fact, he raised taxes multiple times in Arkansas and greatly increased spending. Huckabee’s campaign is trying to muddy the waters by bringing up Lakeview and that’s how he got caught telling a fib to Fox News yesterday.
Even if the tax increase was being shoved down his throat (which it wasn’t, as the Arkansas Journal documented), his actions were not in line with someone who is being forced to raise taxes. Have you seen the 2003 video? He looks elated to raise taxes. “You’ll have nothing but my profound thanks” ?!?!? Probably because he was thinking of all of his nanny-state programs he would be able to fund with the increased revenue.
Also, I am not accusing Brantley of stirring this pot now. he's done with it. The pot is now in Republican hands. Brantley was the one who took him on originally and coined the term "The Huckster".
Huckabee spent a entire year explaining how this went down in dozen of televised interviews, to no avail because the facts continue to be twisted.
Frankly, I would not vote for a preacher to be a dog catcher, but the facts are the facts.
I don't like to see them screwed with.
Yes, there was a surplus, but it followed many consecutive months of growth in the tax base and was not forcasted at the time.
I did not want that tax increase. I wanted them to scrub the budget of the hundreds of special projects done with State money and Federal matching funds that were, are still scattered all over the state. This place sucks on taxes. Absolutely sucks!
I'm not defending the sob. Just pointing out that the teacher pay raise combined with the education dollar outlays largely increased by construction costs and repairs to schools in a totally screwed up system that Huchabee try hard but failed to fix, was the culprit behind that tax increase, and the Dem's were quite successful in blaming Huckabee for it.
It was always the fault of the legislature, and still is. It will always be.
The damn funny thing is that I never can vote them out, because I am a registered repub and can't vote in the primary because there is nobody to vote for.
Just one more reason this place sucks....but I'm not switching so I can vote against the dummies..
Frankly, from the looks of the RNC these days, It does not matter anyway. They are all at the pig trough.
If you republicans want to go after Huckabee, stop using the democrat commie talking points that were used and discarded by the likes of Brantley over three years ago.
Use the fact that he demanded the in State tuition be granted to illegals, and welcomed them with open arms, and now pretends to be a border hawk. He is not. Use any of the dozens of BS lines he is using, but leave him be on a tax increase he was forced to make by the Demo-rats who control this State. He did not go on a spending spree. There is no evidence of that.
What he did do, is fail to deal with his rat controllers, and he set himself up to be blamed for all of it
The Governors office is Constitutionally weak in this State. It is at the mercy of the legislature. They make damn sure it stays that way, but nobody in the dumb as rocks voter base knows about this little secret.
The average IQ in this State is slightly more than a houseplant, yet they think they have it going on, as they say........Kinda like Nascar race where the guy a lap down thinks he is in first place. This is in reality at the bottom of the poorest States in the country.....ever....! The problem in poor States is that most of the employment comes from government and they don't tolerate a government that is frugal with the taxpayers money. They won't tolerate it at all.
As far as I am concerned, you can keep this place just the way it is, because it's easy living, but don't mess with the facts. Huckabee did not do that tax surcharge for his own personal reasons. He did it because he thought it was his duty to balance the state budget, and since his veto's failed, he had no choice. The fact that a surplus was generated later, only tells you that it was not a big increase because the growth came after the surcharge.
This is much ado about nothing, and why people on this board are concerned about Huckabee ever ascending to the presidency is totally beyond comprehension. This is based on Arkansas inside baseball (always ridiculous) and Huckabee is not a threat to anyone. In fact, I would guess he will likely endorse Romney when his cash dries up. Maybe Rudy. McCain will endose Thompson or vice versa in a few short weeks, and we will be paring down the list.
This entire episode will be totally forgotten.