ROMNEY ON A ROLL
Fresh off landing the endorsement of David Keene, the long-serving chairman of the American Conservative Union, Mitt Romney scores a major endorsement by highly-regarded conservative magazine National Review.
“Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate,” explains NR. “In our judgment, that candidate is Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Unlike some other candidates in the race, Romney is a full-spectrum conservative: a supporter of free-market economics and limited government, moral causes such as the right to life and the preservation of marriage, and a foreign policy based on the national interest.”
“Uniting the conservative coalition is not enough to win a presidential election,” continues NR, “but it is a prerequisite for building on that coalition. Rudolph Giuliani did extraordinary work as mayor of New York and was inspirational on 9/11. But he and Mike Huckabee would pull apart the coalition from opposite ends: Giuliani alienating the social conservatives, and Huckabee the economic and foreign-policy conservatives.”
There’s a lot more in NR’s endorsement editorial for conservatives to chew on. Read the full text HERE
HUCK’S HUG-A-THUG
“The U.S. shouldn’t try to kill Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Mike Huckabee declared when he first ran for office. . . . When asked (in a candidate survey for his unsuccessful 1992 Senate race) whether the U.S. should take any action to kill Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, Huckabee replied: ‘The U.S. should not kill Saddam Hussein or anyone else.’”
- Associated Press, 12/12/07
COMPLETELY SHAMELESS FLIP-FLOP
“(GOP presidential candidate Mike) Huckabee completely repudiated his past support for lifting the trade embargo on Cuba, which he cheerfully signed on to in 2002 as governor of Arkansas. . . . As flip-flops go, Mr. Huckabee was completely shameless in saying his change of heart was born out of pure political expediency. He stood yesterday in a Cuban restaurant in Miami and simply said that back in 2002 he was in the parochial business of helping Arkansas rice growers who wanted to export to Cuba. ‘Rather than seeing [my new stance] as some huge change, I would call it, rather, the simple reality that I’m running for president of the United States, not for reelection as governor of Arkansas,’ he said. . . . This is breathtaking.”
- John Fund, Political Diary, 12/11/07
MEN & WOMEN LIVING TOGETHER
“Huckabee also expressed his opposition to heterosexual couples living together, calling it ‘demeaning. I reject it as an alternate lifestyle.”
- Boston Globe, 12/12/07
HUCK AND THE SUBMISSIVE WIFE
“Here’s part of the text of a Southern Baptist Convention full-page ad in USA Today in 1998 that Mike Huckabee signed: ‘A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.’ . . . It seems to me that Huckabee should be asked if he still stands by that. And if he thinks it applies to Senator Clinton.”
- Columnist Andrew Sullivan
ELECTORAL TOAST
“In August of 1998, Huckabee was one of 131 signatories to a full page USA Today Ad which declared: ‘A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.’ . . . Add ‘graciously submit’ to his ‘Take back the nation for Christ’ statement, and if the media does its job, he’s well on his way to being toast.”
- Daily Kos, 12/10/07
ROMNEY TAKES OFF MITTS ON HUCK
“Mitt Romney stood up, and vetoed in-state tuition for illegal aliens, opposed driver’s licenses for illegals. Mike Huckabee? Supported in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrants. Huckabee even supported taxpayer-funded college scholarships for illegal aliens.”
- Clip from new Romney ad in Iowa
THE ILLEGAL ALIEN SHUCK-AND-HUCK
“Just two years ago, (Mike) Huckabee appeared before the open-borders Hispanic group, The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), preaching an open-door policy. According to the Arkansas News Bureau, Huckabee also criticized state legislation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and enhanced reporting of illegal aliens as un-Christian, un-American, irresponsible and anti-life…
“He actively invited the Mexican government to establish a consulate in Arkansas — giving its office a $1 per year special office space rate — so that its foreign officials could start dispensing security-undermining matricula consular ID cards to illegal aliens for banking and employment purposes. And he’s not only for government in-state illegal alien discounts, he’s for expanding them far beyond what the federal DREAM Act proposed.”
- Columnist Michelle Malkin
HUCK SMEARS MORMON FAITH
“Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, asks in an upcoming article, ‘Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?’ The article, to be published in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, says Huckabee asked the question after saying he believes Mormonism is a religion but doesn’t know much about it…
“The authoritative Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published in 1992, does not refer to Jesus and Satan as brothers. It speaks of Jesus as the son of God and of Satan as a fallen angel, which is a Biblical account. A spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Huckabee’s question is usually raised by those who wish to smear the Mormon faith rather than clarify doctrine.”
- Fox News, 12/12/07
WHAT WENT UP, MUST COME DOWN
“I think Mike (Huckabee) was desperately hoping that we would get through this (GOP presidential primary election) without people taking a close look at his positions and his record. But his record on immigration, on pardons for criminals, on reducing the penalties for meth lab dealers, on taxing and spending — he increased spending from $6 billion to $16 billion. I think those features in his record will cause those (rising poll) numbers to turn around.'’
- GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Associated Press, 12/12/07
TEACHERS UNION LUVS HUCK
“Today, Mike Huckabee will receive the recommendation of the New Hampshire affiliate of the National Education Association along with Democrat Hillary Clinton in their respective presidential primaries. ‘No doubt, the NEA’s endorsement has something to do with Huckabee’s opposition to private school choice and his support for a federally mandated and funded arts and music curriculum,’ said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. ‘Like Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee puts the interests of a labor union ahead of children’s education.’”
- Club for Growth press release, 12/11/07
DEMOCRATS EYE THE GLASS JAW
“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.”
- Drudge Report, 12/11/07
NOT DRINKING THE HUCKSTER KOOL-AID
“My wife and I watched (GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee) interviewed on Hannity & Colmes last night. At the end of the interview, I turned to her and said, ‘You know, if it came down to Huckabee versus Obama, I think I’d vote for Obama.’ She looked surprised - not because of what I said but because she had been thinking the same thing. We think he’s every bit as much of a con man as Clinton was. Maybe its an Arkansas thing.”
- News & Views reader Greg Scandlen
“Regarding Huckabee, I am glad to see your eyes are opened. I am a Believer but would never vote for that man. He sends cold chills up my spine. He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, literally. It grieves my heart to see my fellow Christians taken in by him.”
- News & Views reader Sandra Blauvelt
Posted on December 12th, 2007 by Chuck Muth
Filed under: National
Here’s the thing about Mike Huckabee. He’s engaging and likeable, and a very good flesh-pressing retail politician. He’s a Southern Baptist preacher, so it’s no surprise that he can give a speech.
But rather than get lost in the rhetoric and the smile, or wonder about the purity or basness of his motives, we need simply to examine his conduct. He stands for numerous positions bound and destined to alienate the economic and limited government conservatives and split the Republican coalition. He is, in many ways, the un-Ron Paul, constantly convinced that every problem has a governmental solution, and all those solutions are better off federalized. It appears he’s never bothered to read the Constitution or, if he did, didn’t “get it.”
Moreover, it’s not clear that Governor Huckabee has even a remote working acquaintance with foreign policy issues. Sadly, as we may have learned from hard experience, it is significant that a president know the players and the rules of that game. As we see with our last two Democrat presidents, that’s a real handicap for governors as presidential candidates. It can be overcome (See Reagan, Ronald) if one is willing to find top people and listen to them. Sadly, however, it is endemic to the sort of people who run for president that they already think they know everything.
I haven’t even the vaguest idea what Jim Gilchrist was thinking, but I say this to hin and to all of you now: if Gov. Huckabee gets the nomination, I”m voting for myself, and I’ll take your votes too. I may not believe everything you believe, but I believe in the Constitution, limited government, a strong foreign policy, and conservative positions on most social issues. And I believe that a person who has been a governor for a decade and an ordained minister for a quarter century doesn’t suddenly “discover” truths that lead to major policy shifts. If Mike thought you were “nativist” last year, guess what he things now when you’re kissing his derriere? He thinks you’re a sucker. At least he’s right about somethingl
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