Posted on 01/18/2008 4:37:51 PM PST by wagglebee
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Presidential candidate Fred Thompson is going after Mike Huckabee for comments the former Arkansas governor made about his support for a human life amendment to the Constitution. Huckabee characterized the Constitution as a "living, breathing" document -- using code words normally associated with pro-abortion judges.
Huckabee talked with CNN on Friday about his views.
He said he has been outspoken on the issue of a human life amendment, which has been in the Republican platform since 1980.
"I'm one of the few Republican Party candidates who actually supports our party platform on that," he said.
He said abortion is one of just two areas "where I believe we ought to amend the Constitution right now. But I do believe we should and settle this issue of having 50 states running around trying to decide what's right and what's wrong in relationship to the sanctity of human life and the dignity and worth of people."
"The Constitution and the genius and brilliance of it was that it was intended to be amended," Huckabee said.
He rattled off a list of the current amendments that he feels were important.
"The Constitution is a document -- it's a living, breathing document written in order that it could be changed," Huckabee explained.
"Life is something that we always treasure," Huckabee added saying that the founding fathers meant for all people to be treated equal. "Now if we really believe that ... then we would understand that no one person is more equal than another, therefore there is no such thing as a life unworthy to be lived because someone has deemed it less than equal to another life."
Fred Thompson's campaign sent LifeNews.com a statement saying the former Tennessee senator took issue with Huckabee's used of the term "living, breathing document."
"Frankly, I assumed this came from Senator Clinton or Senator Obama," Thompson said.
"It is identical to what Al Gore said when he was running for President in 2000, when he said he would look for judges 'who understand that our Constitution is a living, breathing document, that it was intended by our founders to be interpreted in the light of the constantly evolving experience of the American people,'" he added.
"Now I know Governor Huckabee was talking about amending the Constitution, but I don't think he understood that he was using code words that support judicial activism," Thompson explained.
"He does not appear to understand that reliance on the notion that the Constitution is a living, breathing document is precisely the kind of wrong-headed thinking about the Constitution that gave us Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion across our nation," Thompson added.
"I do not believe the Constitution is a living, breathing document. I am committed to appointing strict constructionist judges to the bench if I am elected President, strict constructionists who believe the Constitution has a fixed meaning that can be applied to cases that come before the courts today," Thompson said.
Thompson said he feared "this loose language about our Constitution calls into question Governor Huckabee's appreciation and understanding of the issue of judicial activism and raises questions as to what kind of judges he would appoint were he to become President."
Pro-Life Ping
Fred Ping
I agree. But he also needs to get after McQueeg if it is not already to late. So far all of his exposing for the most part has been against Huckabee.
Huckster doesn’t understand the difference between “an amendable Constitution” and “ignoring what’s written and re-interpreting it how you want.” The LATTER is what lefties mean by “living, breathing document.” And if Huckster doesn’t understand that code-word, then he’s dangerous to the Pro-Life movement as well as the Constitution itself!
Fred needs to stop talking about Huckabee and tell us whey he should be President. “I’m not Huckabee” doesn’t cut it.
If the Constitution is “living and breathing,” then that also means it can die.
This, plus the few who are attracted to the Huckster's "holier than thou" pontifications are the only reasons he is still in the race.
Any pro-lifer who thinks it through, however, understands that the Fred Thompson position on abortion is exactly correct.
In the present political environment there is ZERO chance of passing a human life amendment just as there is ZERO chance of passing a national sales tax, another Huckabee pipe dream.
There is, however, an excellent chance of repealing Roe v. Wade with one more honest supreme court justice. The pro-life infrastructure to rescue the unborn in lightyears ahead of where it was in 1973. And with the individual states deciding, you are actually going to get lives saved rather than have a pipe dream about getting them saved under a human life amendment.
You are also going to get many states joining the pro-life movement once those already with it show the fears bandied about by the abortion crowd (millions of unwanted and abused children, back-alley abortion) do not materialize.
At that point, a human life amendment might actually have a chance of passing. But not before.
It's pretty sad because Huckabee will destroy the GOP just as badly as Rudy would.
the living breathing document business goes back to Woodrow Wilson and his social Darwinism and is quite insidious. It became a mantra with the New Deal appointments such as Frankfurter, who used the term Zeitgeist to justify taking liberties with the clear language.
Better Fred then Red.....
Fred needed to be out on the campaign trail saying this stuff many MONTHS ago.
Oh, what could have been.....
Then Fred is dead man talking.
Is a moth-infested overcoat a “living garment”?
It’s a toss up..who’s worse for the GOP, McC, or Huckabee?
Sure can...that's EXACTLY the danger.
ROFLOL....
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