Posted on 12/13/2007 5:43:42 AM PST by Kaslin
When Mike Huckabee asked a New York Times' reporter, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers," he crossed a line he cannot uncross.
Previous to this he had played a game of teasing the anti-Mormon vote, and had been called on it by Charles Krauthammer and others.
But Huckabee had maintained deniability.
No more. Huckabee's obvious attempt to salt the mine and get the reporter to carry antt-Mormon rhetoric into the paper without Huckabee's fingerprints on it backfired, and the transparent attempt to use the MSM to further the anti-Mormon message was repulsive.
Until he crossed that line, Huckabee remained a viable protest vote for conservative evangelicals who distrusted Romney's conversion on life issues. The hard core anti-Mormon fanatics are actually few in number and many of them are on the left --like Larry O'Donnell-- and Romney had successfully put the issue of his faith behind him with his speech at the Bush Library.
But Romney still needed to connect with movement social conservatives leery of his embrace of the cause of the unborn. Until he unfurled the banner of Christian identity politics, Huckabee provided these voters with a place to park their vote, even though the effect would be to elevate Rudy Guiliani. Some of these values voters were going to vote their conscience, regardless of the result.
But there are millions and millions of evangelicals who will want no part of the appeal to "vote against the Mormon."
With his recent rise in the polls, Huckabee began to experience a scrutiny of his record that was already eroding his appeal to social conservatives. The Committee for Growth blasted Huckabee for his record of hiking taxes in Arkansas. The former Arkansas governor looked not ready for prime time when he was caught flat-footed on the NIE. Huckabee's advocacy for Wayne DuMond could not be fast-talked away, and the argument for isolating victims of the AIDs virus set off alarms as beyond any reasonable position even though Huckabee made the proposal in 1992. Suddenly Huckabee began to appear as a light-weight, and the charming,,joking second-tier fun guy took on a distinctively different look.
Then comes the below the belt hit on Mormons, so profoundly off-putting to Republicans who believe in the big tent as well as to evangelicals and Catholics who know the gulf between their theology and that of the LDS Church but who would no more verbally assault their Mormons friends, neighbors and business colleagues than they would any other American different from them on matters of faith. It just itsn't done. "Republican voters will not tolerate attacks on faith," pollster Frank Luntz declared on my program yesterday. I think he is right, and I hope he is right.
Such attacks on different religious beliefs have been part of American history, but aren't part of the American future. The common creed of moral convictions that Romney referred to his his College Station speech on faith now includes as one of its tenets that you do not mock or insult another person's religion.
Buck Mike Huckabee did. To the world's most influential newspaper.
Huckabee ought to have apologized during the Des Moines Register debate, but he didn't, perhaps waiting for the moderator to provide a moment to show some feigned regret.
So he went to CNN immediately thereafter and asked for forgiveness.
Will that put Huckabee's anti-Mormon genie back in its bottle. I don't think so. "That which is said while drunk has been thought out beforehand," goes the old saying. In the modern media world, candidates for the presidency don't say careless things to the New York Times. It was a premeditated aside, an attempt to get a virus into circulation. It didn't work, but it did tell us a lot about Mike Huckabee.
Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the the sea! for the devil is come unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time...Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number...for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundred three score and six.
so, when Huckabee, does the math it and applies it to the alphabet, does it up to "MITT"?
No, he’s not. But that wasn’t what the author said. The author said that evangelicals don’t criticize Mormons. I pointed out that I thought that was both false and wrong-headed. Sometimes certain things need be said, even if certain people perceive them as ugly.
I’m a member of one of those religions that has had lots of ugly things said about it. We have freedom of speech, as well as freedom of religion. However, I would not vote for someone who has said those ugly things, if they are not true.
“...and his supporters are that dumb....”
I’m not going to try to argue that I’m not dumb but I know enough to see that Romney lacks integrity and Character and changed sides just to get elected and if he wins, he’ll change sides to get re-elected. I’m not a Huckabee supporter either. However, he’s the only front runner I could hold me nose and vote for.
OK but just as a joke... we all know what a person REALLY believes becuase of that extrasensory perception we all have. No converts need apply. Sorry if I was a little short. I’m just tired of the same arguments again and again and again...I’m ready for the primaries to get underway. I guess the flip-flop doesn’t bother me so much because 1) I’ve changed my opinion myself on some issues, especially as I grew older. 2) Romney has demonstrated that he will at least listen to conservatives and even if we think he’s just saying it to get our support it means we will continue to have an impact on him if he’s elected, and 3) I watched him do some good things and stop some bad things in an almost impossible state where all the power is vested in the Democratically controlled legislature. So with that respect he’s been battle tested even if he did come away with some scars. I don’t love everything about him and I could end up supporting someone else when it comes time for me to vote but I think Romney stands a good chance to pull in independents which like it or not we are going to have to have to win. Again, sorry if I was short with you.
If I read you right, you are saying the New York Times wants to be doing the splitting ... which if true, means that it was Huckabee, not Hewitt, who played into the hands of the Christianophobes.
Huckabee showed poor judgment in letting that comment slip out to a journalist.
“However, he’s the only front runner I could hold me nose and vote for.”
Of the front runner candidates, Huckabee is the worst for many different reasons:
1. Soft-on-crime, paroled violent criminals like he was God ...
http://holycoast.blogspot.com/2007/12/huckabee-was-commutation-and-pardon.html
http://www.arkansasleader.com/frontstories/st_07_21_04/huckabee5.html
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Questions+remain+about+rapist-turned-murderer&articleId=8ca3c723-a927-4f5f-83ab-a5d2780e7911
Here’s more stuff the liberals have on him and will use at their convenience (and our inconvenience) - the pleas from the Dumond victims to please not release Dumond the rapist:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/10/new-documents-revealed-in_n_76186.html
Huckabee’s Willie Hortons:
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2007/12/huckabees-willie-hortons.html
2. Soft-on-illegals, giving in-state tuition for illegals was his “Jesus juice” ... HIS RECORD ON IMMIGRATION STINKS ...
Mike Huckabee disses Americans, Mexicans, promotes illegal immigration: http://lonewacko.com/blog/archives/005609.html
While Gov. of Arkansas, Huckabee was AGAINST proving citizenship in order to register to vote. He called those who were in favor of this “racists”... http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050218/news_lz1e18perkins.html
Huckabee has personally attacks advocates for a bill he disagreed with as “unAmerican” and “unChristian”.
Huckabee fought hard to kill an Arkansas bill which would have cut off social services for illegal aliens. Huckabee called the bill, “anti-Christian” and “un-American”... http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2005/01/28/News/316347.html
“Even if benefits to people who are in the U.S illegally could be stopped, “I don’t understand how a practicing Christian can turn his back on a child from this or any other state,” Huckabee said.”
Huckabee supported in-state tuition for illegal aliens... http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2005/03/11/News/318458.html
Huckabee’s ‘drank different Jesus juice’ in opposition to the illegal aliens bill: http://www.diggersrealm.com/mt/archives/000718.html
“Huckabee, also a Republican and a Baptist minister, said Arkansans should be welcoming hard-working immigrants of all races. He singled out Holt, who often talks of his strong Christian beliefs, saying, “I drink a different kind of Jesus juice.”
Wallace interview on Fox, Huckster flipflops back to pro-amnesty:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316253,00.html
3. Huckster was and is a tax-and-spend-aholic:
According to the Democrat-Gazette, “the average Arkansan’s tax burden grew from $1,969 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1997, to $2,902 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2005, including local taxes,” a whopping tax increase of 47% under Huckabee’s tenure. Tax legislation passed while Huckabee was governor totaled “a net tax increase of $505 million, a figure adjusted for inflation and economic growth,” according to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.
In February of 2004, Huckabee joined with two other Democratic governors in urging Congress to reject a bill that would make the Internet access tax moratorium permanent and embrace a temporary two-year extension of the ban instead.
Every two years, the Cato Institute grades the 50 governors on fiscal stewardship. Here’s last year’s assessment of Tax Hike Mike [emphasis added]:
Thanks to a final term grade of F, Huckabee earns an overall grade of D for his entire governorship. Like many Republicans, his grades dropped the longer he stayed in office. In his first few years, he fought hard for a sweeping $70 million tax cut package that was the first broad-based tax cut in the state in more than 20 years. He even signed a bill to cut the state’s 6 percent capital gains tax—a significant pro-growth accomplishment. But nine days after being reelected in 2002, he proposed a sales tax increase to cover a budget deficit caused partly by large spending increases that he proposed and approved, including an expansion in Medicare eligibility that Huckabee made a centerpiece of his 1997 agenda. He agreed to a 3 percent income tax “surcharge” and a 25-cent cigarette tax increase. In response to a court order to increase spending on education, Huckabee proposed another sales tax increase.
http://taxhikemike.org
Just because Huck talks a good talk doesn’t make this tax-and-spender a real conservative. Huckabee’s record is one of a tax-and-spend liberal.
“One of the governor’s biggest weaknesses is his record in Arkansas. While Huckabee did cut taxes during the early years of his tenure, the fact remains that he had a net tax increase under his watch, and the increase in Government size is terrifying. 21 tax increases went into effect, increasing tax revenue by almost $890 million under Governor Huckabee. These increases include the income tax, the sales tax, a cigarette tax, and a gas tax. Not only did he raise taxes, spending “more than doubled under Huckabee. “During Huckabee’s 10 years as governor, state spending more than doubled, from $6.6 billion to $16.1 billion in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006.” There was an increase in state spending of over 65% during his tenure, and the size of the government increased by 20%. According to the Americans for Tax Reform, the states general obligation debt went up by “almost one billion dollars.” Arkansas state tax burden was at 9.8% when Bill Clinton left office in 1992. Under Huckabee, it was at 11.1%, reaching the rank of one of the top fifteen state tax burdens.”
Huck is simply NOT a fiscal conservative at all. His record on taxes is abysmal.
http://taxhikemike.org/
4. When challenged on points #1, #2 and #3, Mike Huckabee and campaign have lied and dissembled on his real record.
Example: He claimed falsely that the Ark supreme court forced a tax increase when they did not; his explanations about the Dumond case are contradicted by the evidence; he has played the ‘amnesty isn’t amnesty’ game on immigration.
5. IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE
“[Huckabee] 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.”
Randy Minton, chairman of the Arkansas chapter of Phyllis Schlafly’s national Eagle Forum, said, “We called him a pro-life, pro-gun liberal, when I was in the state legislature and he was governor.” Phyllis Schlafly herself was even more direct.
President and Founder of Eagle Forum, Phyllis Schlafly, said this about Governor Huckabee: “He destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles.”
6. Lousy ethics.
http://therealmikehuckabee.blogspot.com/
Soliciting gifts from public: “Gov. Mike Huckabee and his wife, Janet, are registered for home furnishing gifts at Target and Dillard’s department stores as they prepare to leave the Governor’s Mansion in January and move into a house they recently purchased in North Little Rock. “
Even more on Huck’s hand-in-cookie-jar and using-public-money-for-private-purpose ethics issues here:
http://realmikehuckabee.blogspot.com/
http://realmikehuckabee.blogspot.com/2007/12/meet-huckster-san-diego-union-tribune.html
Over the years, Huckabee has:
-Used campaign funds to pay himself $14,000 for being his own media consultant.
-Used campaign funds to pay himself $43,000 for use of his private plane while attempting to hide what the payment was actually in return for.
-Used an account set up to cover operational costs of the governor’s mansion to pay such obviously personal expenses as fast-food and dry-cleaning bills.
-Set up a nonprofit organization that paid him $23,500 without disclosing the source of the money.
-Attempted to take $70,000 of furniture with him when moving out of the governor’s mansion.
-Took more than 130 gifts worth more than $300,000 – while suing to overturn a law that made him disclose the gifts. “
File this under: “Will be used by Hillary two weeks before the election”.
7. FLIPFLOPPER - flip-flopper on immigration and other issues ...
POWERS: “And another issue that’s come up is that you had previously been lobbying President Bush to lift the embargo on Cuba. And then in a recent debate said the opposite. What changed?”
HUCKABEE: “What changed was I’m running for president.”
Huckabee does a flipflop
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-huckabee11dec11,0,7354822.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntothtml
8. On foreign policy, he’s an ignorant boob.
Huck is completely ignorant on foreign policy, and when he gabs about it, he sounds like Jimmy Carter. He will be a disaster, and closing Gitmo and stopping waterboarding (which today’s report indicates actually worked and saved lives) is not the toughness we need:
“This is the kernel of Huckabee’s foreign policy. He wants to anthropomorphize international relations and bring a Christian commitment to the Golden Rule to our affairs with other nations. As he told the Des Moines Register the other day, “You treat others the way you’d like to be treated. That’s to me the fundamental issue that has to be re-established in our dealings with other countries.”
This is deeply naïve. Countries aren’t people, and the world is more dangerous than a Sunday church social. Threats, deception, and — as a last resort — violence must play a role in international relations. Differences cannot always be worked out through sweet persuasion. A U.S. president who doesn’t realize this will repeat the experience of President Jimmy Carter at his most ineffectual.”
9. HE WILL LOSE TO HILLARY. BADLY.
http://drudgereport.com/flashhu.htm
DEMS HOLD FIRE ON HUCKABEE; SEE ‘EASY KILL’ IN GENERAL ELECTION
Tue Dec 11 2007 10:27:53 ET
**Exclusive**
Democrat party officials are avoiding any and all criticism of Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, insiders reveal.
The Democratic National Committee has told staffers to hold all fire, until he secures the party’s nomination.
The directive has come down from the highest levels within the party, according to a top source.
Within the DNC, Huckabee is known as the “glass jaw — and they’re just waiting to break it.”
In the last three weeks since Huckabee’s surge kicked in, the DNC hasn’t released a single press release criticizing his rising candidacy.
The last DNC press release critical of Huckabee appeared back on March 2nd.
[DNC Press Release Attack Summary:
Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) – 37% (99 press releases)
Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) – 28% (74)
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) – 24% (64)
Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) – 8% (20)
Governor Mike Huckabee – 2% (4)]
In fact, as the story broke over the weekend that Huckabee said he wanted to isolate AIDS patients back in 1992, the DNC ignored the opportunity to slam the candidate from the left.
“He’ll easily be their McGovern, an easy kill,” mocked one senior Democrat operative Tuesday morning from Washington.
“His letting out murderers because they shout ‘Jesus’, his wanting to put 300,000 AIDS patients and Magic Johnson into isolation, ain’t even scratching the surface of what we’ve got on him.”
The discipline the Democrats have shown in not engaging Huckabee has earned the praise of one former Republican Party official:
“The Democrats are doing a much better job restraining themselves than the GOP did in 2003 when Howard Dean looked like he was on the brink of winning the nomination.”
Huckabee’s got all the warning signs of an electoral disaster waiting to happen.
Liberal Columnists Heap Praise on the Huckster (Conservatives Beware!)
http://realmikehuckabee.blogspot.com/
Bill Clinton + Jimmuh Carter + Pat Robertson + Barack Obama + Gomer Pyle = Mike Huckabee
Mike Huckabee links:
http://realmikehuckabee.blogspot.com/2007/12/meet-huckster-san-diego-union-tribune.html
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2007/nov/14/taking-stock-tax-hike-mike/
http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/09/tax_hike_mike_1.php
Huckabee vetting files:
http://realmikehuckabee.blogspot.com/2007/12/meet-huckster-san-diego-union-tribune.html
http://www.taxhikemike.org/
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2007/nov/14/taking-stock-tax-hike-mike/
http://www.redstate.com/blogs/rightsideredux/2007/dec/11/the_huckabee_most_wanted_list_location_unknown#comment-588732
http://redstate.com/blogs/perico/2007/nov/29/is_this_the_slow_and_painful_death_of_the_republican_party_as_we_know_it#comment-576559
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/10/new-documents-revealed-in_n_76186.html
http://www.nysun.com/article/67835
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2007/12/019245.php
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2007/12/019244.php
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2007/12/019208.php
The best thing for any candidate is to stay as far away from the times as possible unless they are a hardcore divide America type. I don't know if any of the other candidates have given them the chance to smear (I mean interview) them. Do you?
Flip-flopper? That label belongs on Huckabee ... flipflopped a round trip from amnesty for illegal aliens to against it and to for it. He’s out-pandered himself into incoherence.
And this ...
POWERS: “And another issue that’s come up is that you had previously been lobbying President Bush to lift the embargo on Cuba. And then in a recent debate said the opposite. What changed?”
HUCKABEE: “What changed was I’m running for president.”
Huckabee does a flipflop
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-na-huckabee11dec11,0,7354822.story?coll=la-tot-topstories&track=ntothtml
To be fair, they all have to deal with MSM journalists.
I’m sure they are all granting interviews, they have to.
They just have to be very careful - like handling snakes.
But we are seeing a lot of cases where Huckabee is just not ready for primetime, e.g., when his response to Imus about ‘what is your foreign policy experience?’ he cracks “not much, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express’. Yikes... In this case, I have a suspicion he was letting something out in seemingly subtle way, but it came back to bite him. Whether intentional or unintentional, not good.
“Ingraham and others with good political saavy can easily see that a Huckabee nomination would pidgeon-hole the Republican Party into an “evangelical only” party — and thus feed directly into the notion that we are a narrow-minded private club.”
... and give the Democrats a huge liberal majority in 2009.
Hopefully the GOP primary voters will pick up on what the DNC has figured out.
http://drudgereport.com/flashhu.htm
DEMS HOLD FIRE ON HUCKABEE; SEE ‘EASY KILL’ IN GENERAL ELECTION
Tue Dec 11 2007 10:27:53 ET
**Exclusive**
Democrat party officials are avoiding any and all criticism of Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, insiders reveal.
The Democratic National Committee has told staffers to hold all fire, until he secures the party’s nomination.
The directive has come down from the highest levels within the party, according to a top source.
Within the DNC, Huckabee is known as the “glass jaw — and they’re just waiting to break it.”
In the last three weeks since Huckabee’s surge kicked in, the DNC hasn’t released a single press release criticizing his rising candidacy.
The last DNC press release critical of Huckabee appeared back on March 2nd.
[DNC Press Release Attack Summary:
Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) – 37% (99 press releases)
Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) – 28% (74)
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) – 24% (64)
Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) – 8% (20)
Governor Mike Huckabee – 2% (4)]
In fact, as the story broke over the weekend that Huckabee said he wanted to isolate AIDS patients back in 1992, the DNC ignored the opportunity to slam the candidate from the left.
“He’ll easily be their McGovern, an easy kill,” mocked one senior Democrat operative Tuesday morning from Washington.
“His letting out murderers because they shout ‘Jesus’, his wanting to put 300,000 AIDS patients and Magic Johnson into isolation, ain’t even scratching the surface of what we’ve got on him.”
The discipline the Democrats have shown in not engaging Huckabee has earned the praise of one former Republican Party official:
“The Democrats are doing a much better job restraining themselves than the GOP did in 2003 when Howard Dean looked like he was on the brink of winning the nomination.”
Huckabee’s got all the warning signs of an electoral disaster waiting to happen.
It’s a Cluster-Huck
“Your pastor is not running for the most powerful elected office in the history of the world.”
.... and Thank God for that!
I don’t need another President from Arkansas.
There must be something in the water in Little Rock that makes politicians think they are superior to everyone else.
Let me clarify my stand. I am not a Huckabee supporter, I’m against the notion that the slimes is trying to put forth. This whole election has been open season on Protestants with the idea of bringing down all of religion in the long run. Romney is not helping by feeding them. Let’s not let them win this battle.
“As usual the main victim is the language. The word Christian has now become fuzzy and over broad. We will now have to use the modifier Trinitarian when precision is needed to represent what 99.99% of Christians believe.”
I doubt that 50% let alone 99.99% of US Christians can give an authoritative definition of trinitarian orthodox belief.
Can you recite the Nicene creed by heart? And understand the consequential meaning of “one in being with the father” and all the other details that comprise the theology of the Trinity?
People call themselves Christian because Christ is their savior, not because they understand let alone adhere to full trinitarian orthodox belief. The term Christian is used flabbily because, frankly, the body of the church is so.
Go ahead and call Mormonism a heresy but let’s not cast stones without looking to our own churches.
If a gay Episcopalian bishop who thinks the resurrection is a metaphor says he’s Christian, you’ve got a pretty ‘wide stance’ among the faithful!
All of ya’ll are missing the point. Try researching the LDS teachings. Here’s a starting point.
http://www.aomin.org/index.php?itemid=2403
If thats the case then Huckabee needs to call out catholics as well. Let some other evangelical call out what they think are false religions. If huck doesnt have enough sense to keep his mouth shut about that then he doesnt have the smarts to be President. I am a born againer and I would have more trouble voting for him then any other rep cantidate.
He should change his name to half a bee because he can take both side of the issue.
I don’t like Huckabee and don’t think much about Mormons except they seem to share my values in this century.
But so what.
Huckbee disagrees with Mormonism.
Let Mormons defend themselves.
Don’t hide behind the bigot finger like every minority does today.
I can see it now .....Gawd....Mormons join the ranks of Blacks, Homos, Liberal Jews, Indians, Indian Indians, Latinos, Anyone of Color, Womyn, former Dog Fighters, Dog himself.
Hell...everyone is offended and being prejudiced against....the horror I tell ya.
30 years ago this would be called a “copout”
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