Posted on 01/08/2008 8:59:38 PM PST by DogByte6RER
The Chuckabee facts
Chase Cooper
IDS
1/8/2008
Chuck Norris doesn’t endorse – he tells America how it’s gonna be.” So says Mike Huckabee , anyway, in a campaign ad featuring his biggest endorser, Chuck Norris. In the ad, Norris and Huckabee, who is known increasingly in conservative circles as the “Huckster,” go back and forth for 60 agonizing seconds telling “facts” about each other, performing a skit patterned after the “Chuck Norris facts” seen in Facebook groups and chain e-mails. Here are a few “Huck Chuck facts” that you may not know about:
Fact: Chuck Norris is so corny that ethanol producers believe him to be a vast, untapped source of alternative energy.
Fact: Mike Huckabee calls himself a Republican, but functionally he’s a pro-life Democrat. He’s a big government, tax-and-spend proponent of the Nanny State, who supports a nationwide smoking ban, government-sponsored wellness programs and more government regulation of private industries, such as minimum wage increases. He also has a grossly liberal record on illegal immigration.
Fact: Chuck Norris is so painful to watch that nine out of 10 Americans would rather take a roundhouse kick to the face from him than sit through an episode of “Walker, Texas Ranger.”
Fact: Mike Huckabee granted over 1,000 pardons and commutations during his 10 years as governor – roughly one clemency every four days. In 17 years, Huckabee’s three predecessors – which included Bill Clinton, by the way – granted only 507 clemencies combined. The Huckster’s clemency recipients included violent criminals who reputedly “got religion” in prison. Should this man have the power of the presidential pardon?
Fact: Chuck Norris is so pathetic that Jack Bauer tracked and killed him in only 21 hours, then took a three-hour nap.
Fact: According to the Arkansas Leader newspaper, Mike Huckabee, while governor of Arkansas, raised more taxes than Bill Clinton did while governor of Arkansas. His tax record is so bad that even the members of the Arkansas Republican Assembly chose to endorse Fred Thompson rather than Huck. When the Club for Growth, a prominent conservative anti-tax organization, sharply criticized his tax record, Huckabee responded by calling them the “Club for Greed.” There’s nothing greedy about the concept that the money you’ve earned belongs to you.
Fact: Chuck Norris is such a bad actor that even Keanu Reeves flips the channel whenever he sees Chuck on TV.
Fact: Mike Huckabee has little to no foreign policy experience. When confronted with this fact in an interview with Don Imus on Dec. 4, the Huckster stated, “I may not be the expert that some people are on foreign policy, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.” If he likes Holiday Inn Express so much, I’d much rather he sleep there than at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Fact: A Huckabee nomination would be disastrous to the conservative movement, the Republican Party and the United States of America, and the Democrats would almost certainly take the White House, regardless of who they nominate. If conservatism is to be advanced in the next four years, the Republican Party needs to chuck Huck – soon.
At least we can agree that Huck’s a definite horned mammal. It’s a shame that he is also a very charming and intelligent man...but strength of personality doesn’t hide his record as Governor or his prior stances while in that position.
If that was excusable Romney would be acceptable.
Fallacious logic, if I may say so. Mike Huckabee is a strong supporter of the 10th Amendment.
Actually it is YOUR LOGIC that is fallacious. The part of the Government that Mike Huckabee had control over GREW because of the tax hikes Mike Huckabee supported and passed. The part that he did NOT have control over, the Federal part, did NOT GROW an actually shrunk a bit because of the Bush tax cuts.
It's absurd to give Mike Huckabee credit for Bush's tax cuts as a way to defend his record when he had nothing to do with them. Rather slick and phony argument, but Huckabee has been slick and phony on a lot of his defenses of his record.
Why do you bother defending such a tax-and-spend liberal? Why dont you just admit he's bad on this issue and move on? What do you see in this unqualified, nonconservative, and ethically-challenged candidate anyway?
“At least we can agree that Huck’s a definite horned mammal. It’s a shame that he is also a very charming and intelligent man...but strength of personality doesn’t hide his record as Governor or his prior stances while in that position.”
Obama’s a charming man too ... Actually, while I couldnt stomach Hillary’s speech or Edwards, I was able to sit through Obama’s speech. That he’s a nice man doesn’t make him any less a socialist.
Same with Huckabee. real personable charm ... but a populist non-conservative and ethically challenged agenda and record behind it.
Obama is the Democrat’s new Jimmy Carter.
Huckabee is the Republican’s new Jimmy Carter.
“Nased on your profile i think I love you, but your source is a wet behind the ears doofus from a student newspaper.”
If even a College student can nail Huckabee so easily on the facts, what chance does he have in the general election?!?!
Notice this: Not a single Huckabee supporter has successfuly refuted the claims made. They are true, and they disqualify Huckabee completely.
Too bad Arkansas state government has to take care of roads, education, court orders, leftist legislatures, and health issues.
“Calling Huckster-bee a RINO is an insult to real RINOs everywhere. He’s a Democrat that can’t spell, if you ask me.”
He’s far to the right of a few other prominant candidates on some issues that actually matter to some voters, and sadly that’s what this race might come down to.
“Sadly I predict that if he becomes the nominee, 80% of FReepers will turn pro-Huckster and all these points will be forgotten.”
Then I’ll just leave FR, and maybe politics. What’s the point?
A Huck nomination will in my view lead to the destruction of the Reagan coalition.
Conservatives have to support conservatives or our ideas will be tossed out after the election.
I just posted his immigration plan. What else do you want to ignore?
“Too bad Arkansas state government has to take care of roads, education, court orders, leftist legislatures, and health issues.”
Feeble, feeble, feeble. You can take care of those things without raising taxes IF you are a fiscal conservative. The thing is - Huckabee is not.
All states had budget issues in 2002. So did Masssachusetts, but Mitt Romney managed to close their budget gaps without broad tax increases. Cato ranked him 15th and Huckabee 45th on fiscal responsibility scale, giving ROmney a C and Huckabee an F.
Huckabee could get some lessons on how to be a fiscal conservative from Mitt Romney, for sure. And what’s most feeble is your “leftist legislatures” - nobody had the most leftist lege than Mitt but he still managed to keep spending increases to BELOW THE RATE OF INFLATION, while Huckabee increased it 2 times inflation.
Huckabee has his defenders - but they are mostly LIBERAL DEMOCRATS who agree with his tax hikes:
http://www.arkansasleader.com/2007/12/top-story-lawmakers-are-split-on.html
“He supported the gas and diesel tax in 1999, when redoing the interstate highways. We could have worked the highways without a tax increase if he had committed part of the General Improvement Funds,” said Minton, who was in the Arkansas House at the time.
Minton said that during Huckabee’s 10-year term as governor, net taxes increased $505 million and state spending increased 7.4 percent, about triple the consumer-price index.
He said Huckabee added about 10,000 state jobs, even as the number of federal jobs was decreasing.
Huckabee’s policy concerning the tobacco tax was not fiscally conservative, according to Minton.
“He says he’s pro-family. If you’re raising taxes on the families of Arkansas, causing wives to go out and get jobs to make ends meet, that’s not pro-family,” Minton said.
Huckabee was steadfastly against taking the sales tax off groceries, Minton said, which was a top priority of new Gov. Mike Beebe.
Not surprisingly, Democratic lawmakers, who helped pass those taxes, have a kinder assessment than Minton, saying tax increases were needed to fund adequate education and repair state roads.
How did Huckabee have control over the Lakeview case? I thought that was controlled by the state Supreme Court.
How did Huckabee control the road conditions? Could he have gotten them magically repaired without paying for it? Everyone here seems to be satisfied with the road improvements with the pay-as-you-go program.
How did Huckabee control federal mandates for Medicare and Medicaid?
Two Jimmy Carters...oh my!
Actually I thought they were doing their best to emulate that awesome Bill Clinton charm. Beautifully ironic to see Obama using it against Clinton’s wife - a far larger threat to our Republic than he would ever be. (fit of laughing)
Seriously though, now that McCain has diffused the Republican field it’s still a real contest. No contenders out until two shots are applied to the head and no pulse is found. That’s the rules.
Great post on the Huckester.
How does this trailer trash from a few yr. bible school
and gov. of a state with the population of my county, San Diego become one of the leaders for Commander in Chief of the Free World.
and from the same burg as Clintoon.
Would be interesting to see who is really funding and supporting him.
Watching all the Romneyites come on these threads and criticize Huckabee’s liberalism is kinda like watching Clintonites attack someone for being disloyal to their marriage vows.
And he is not telling the truth about the reasons for his enmity against Huckabee.
The Supreme Court doesn't raise taxes. It merely required equity in education. Here in Texas the Supreme Court did the same thing - made a decision that required the education funding to be changed. Liberals wanted more money and a broad-based tax increase. The Texas Republican leadership added a tax, but then cut property taxes by one-third, rejiggering in a way that was a tax cut. Not net tax increase.
Huckabee showed zero fiscal conservative leadership in response to the decision. He could have held the line on spending or gone another way than a large tax increase. HE DID NOT. He begged for a tax hike, got it, and signed it. And now he squeals like a stuck pig for his lack of leadership and lack of conservative cohones?!? pathetic!
How did Huckabee control the road conditions? Could he have gotten them magically repaired without paying for it? Everyone here seems to be satisfied with the road improvements with the pay-as-you-go program.
Every other governor faces the same challenges you mention. And yet Huckabee was ranked 45th out of 50 among governors by Cato on how he met those challenges. He was one of the most fiscally irresponsible governors. The state tax burden climbed from 30th place to 13th place; spending grew faster than the economy (which it did not under Mitt's watch in Massachusetts nor in most other states). The points you make are not refutations of Huckabee's tax-and-spend record THEY ARE EXCUSES THAT BASICALLY SAYS WE SHOULD BE TAX AND SPENDERS. That mindset is a liberal tax-and-spend mindset. It is wrong.
Why in the world would Huckster raise taxes so high that a surplus developed in the first place?
I think I know why he likes to raise taxes. Because then he can give the money to as charity. It is very admirable to give money away to charity AS LONG IT IS YOURS. No one has the right to give away money which does not belong to you, it belongs to the Tax Payers.
“He’s far to the right of a few other prominant candidates on some issues that actually matter to some voters, and sadly that’s what this race might come down to.”
Not in any practical reality.
they will be voting for a man who is bad on real consequential issues to satisfy litmus tests that are satisfied just as well by other more rounded leaders.
“Seriously though, now that McCain has diffused the Republican field it’s still a real contest. No contenders out until two shots are applied to the head and no pulse is found. That’s the rules.”
LOL.
Seriously, I think only Huckabee, McCain and Romney have a chance at this point.
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