It really is pretty awesome watching the Republican panic about Mike Huckabee set in, especially as he moves ahead in the polls in several states. This quote from Sullivan really sums it up:
Every complacent secular Republican who has scorned those of us worried about the fundie right is beginning to squirm in the face of Huckabee’s surge.
And squirm is putting it lightly. Also via Sully, Ace:
Not that what one blogger thinks matters that much, but if Huckabee gets the nomination, I’m voting Democratic. It’s not just an idle threat; I just won’t vote for him and in fact won’t even vote third party or stay home.
That Presidential “R” in 2008 will stand for nothing I believe in. The guy is slick but doesn’t even look competent. And if Republican primary voters are that stupid, they deserve to lose next Fall. To pass over McCain, Thompson, Romney and Giuliani ONLY because someone’s slick and a Jesus Freak, which makes him your average televangelist – forget it.
We will pause for a moment to let it sink in that the Dan Riehl right now views actual social cons as “Jesus Freaks.” Moving right along, Captain Ed (not freaking out like the others, but seeing the writing on the wall):
Huckabee has gained credibility at an amazing rate in this race. The biggest question is why. It appears that the evangelicals have begun to make their voice heard in this race. For months, they complained about the lack of choice for their constituency, even at one point threatening to splinter into a third party. Instead, they seem to have collected themselves and looked for the most representative candidate in the race — and Huckabee has the strongest record on pro-life and social-conservative causes.
james Joyner has a solid round-up of what the op-ed writers are saying, including Peggy Noonan:
I wonder if our old friend Ronald Reagan could rise in this party, this environment. Not a regular churchgoer, said he experienced God riding his horse at the ranch, divorced, relaxed about the faiths of his friends and aides, or about its absence. He was a believing Christian, but he spent his adulthood in relativist Hollywood, and had a father who belonged to what some saw, and even see, as the Catholic cult. I’m just not sure he’d be pure enough to make it in this party. I’m not sure he’d be considered good enough.
I simply can not tell you how much I am enjoying this. The GOP has been pandering to these stupid bastards for years, and every time I pointed it out I was called “anti-Christian” or something or other. Those of us who saw what the party was becoming were told to shut up, that it was good politics.
Enjoy your new GOP, folks. And here is something else to think about- are the evangelicals going to support Romney or Giuliani if you do manage to trash Huckabee enough to secure the nomination for them? Will the eye for an eye crowd learn to forgive and forget? Have fun!
*** Update ***
Someone else is enjoying this as much as me:
This, to me, is the critical distinction between a Christianist and a mere Christian. One wants to infuse politics with religion; the other wants to respect both, separately, and to keep religion private. I should add I do not want to banish the word “God” from the public square. But I do want that invocation to be as thin and as empty and as formal as the Founders intended. The current Republican party has reinvented itself as a force on opposite grounds. The party of Huckabee and Romney, the party of Hewitt and Dobson, the party of Ponnuru and Neuhaus is emphatically not a secular party.
And that is why part of me, I confess, wants Huckabee to win. So he can lose. So the GOP can lose – as spectacularly and humiliatingly as possible. If we are to rid conservatism of this theocratic cancer, we need to start over. Maybe it has to get worse before it can get better. But it is certainly too late for fellow-traveling Christianists like Lowry and Krauthammer to start whining now. This is their party. And they asked for every last bit of it.
Can schadenfreude be fatal?
demimondian
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just another Democrat-loving loser trying to pretend that the DFH crowd was right. Next, you’re going to tell us that the war in Iraq was unwise, right, and that Saddam didn’t pose any threat to America, right?
JustSam
Not that what one blogger thinks matters that much, but if Huckabee gets the nomination, I’m voting Democratic.
Wait – didn’t Ace just smear Huck by saying Huck was a Democrat? Wouldn’t that mean that Ace will vote for him?
Carnacki
One of the regular lurkers at West Virginia Blue who is an evangelical Democrat worries that Huckabee would do very well here in West “By God” Virginia if he is in the general. From my experience canvassing, I fear he’s right. Now West Virginia isn’t the nation, but for those of us focused on state issues, I worry he’s the one who would hurt us the most down ticket in WV-02.
cleek
i have no doubt all those clowns would find something to love about the Huckster, should he win the nomination.
Tim F.
Let’s be honest, Giuliani is just as New GOP as Huckabee is. They have so little common because the party genuinely has gone schizophrenic. Jesus heads and torture-fetishizing neocon trotskyites managed to get along because G-dub expressed the worst aspects of each more or less in equal measure.
Too bad for them G-dub can’t run again. Instead Jesus and Trotsky have their own candidate, and the supporters of one won’t consider supporting the other. Best of all, the non-trivial number of Paul/Buchanan paleocons won’t vote for either. The complete implosion couldn’t happen to a scummier bunch of incompetent self-pitying clowns.
ken
Yes, the evangelists will gladly vote for Romney or Guiliani if the alternative is voting for Obama. They would sooner eat broken glass than vote for a black man whose extended family is mostly living in Africa and is mostly muslim.
Zifnab
Maybe it wasn’t Clinton after all. Maybe Republicans just have some visceral dislike of Governors from Arkansas.
KG
yup, Huckabee will be enough for me to vote Dem in a presidential election for the first time in my life (granted, I’m only 29, so it’s only been 3 elections thus far).
Zifnab
Horray! Democrats are victorious by default!
*Que Overhead Announcer*
Tell them what they’ve won, Jonny!
The mealy-mouthed, capitulation caucus of the 110th Democratic Congress for TWO MORE YEARS!
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG!
(This comes with a receipt, right?)
Jake
Shorter fRighties:
Holy Shit! This guy actually takes this God crap seriously!
Shorter me:
Bwahahaha muthafuckas!
Doug H.
The GOP base is just warming to the isolationist faith-based “compassionate conservative” they thought they were getting seven years ago.
Dreggas
I really hate saying “I told you so”….wait a minute, no I don’t. This is what they wanted, this is what they cultivated, they can reap what they have sewn.
Faux News
I have been patiently waiting for over 20 years for the evangelical chickens to come home to roost and ruining the GOP. 20 plus years ago it was “The Moral Majority” who made it clear they gave Reagan his two term win AND they expected payment in kind. Now the bill is due and Huckabee is here to collect.
For the Psycheout trolls: do note that Huckabee as the R Prez candidate in 2008 is a wet dream come true for the democratic party. Hence why you won’t hear too many negatives from the D’s right now. If he gets the slot, look for a Reagan type 1980 landslide. Only this time it will be the Dems, not the R’s who win.
Robert Johnston
That’s easy to say now that Alan Keyes is in the race. No one holds up the “scummy imploding incompetent clown with self esteem issues” banner quite as well as Alan does. He’s made it the centerpiece of every campaign he’s ever run.
Tim F.
Huck has had years and years to deal with the Wayne Dumond story, and yet he still can’t deal with it. His latest defense (he had “no way of knowing” that a convicted rapist murderer would be dangerous if they released him) was so pathetic, and easy to disprove, that you have to assume Huck has no answer and he knows it.
I can’t wait for the General.
J sub D
I’ve voted for Harry Browne for president more times than I’ve voted for a Democrat (1-0). If Huckabee gets the nomination, I’m going to campaign for Hillary or Obama.
You can probably guess who I’m supporting this cycle.
Dreggas
Huckabee – Giuliani 08 – torturing in the name of god.
Walker
Que Overhead Announcer
Tell them what they’ve won, Jonny!
The greatest financial disaster since 1929. Should the Democrats win the presidency (which is likely) they are going to have a hard time not looking like another Hoover (who’s primary sin was being incompetent in dealing with the mess Coolidge left him with).
Carnacki
Bruce Bartlett predicted this although he got the time frame wrong:
grumpy realist
Huckabee is the “None of the Above” candidate and the Jayzus-lovers love him. That’s why he’s got traction.
Put this together with the continued collapse in the economy and the continued pandering by the Republican Party to the great unwashed (where everything that goes wrong is due to the US not being a Christian Nation) and well….gearing up for The Great Civil War in which the Religious Nuts go after the Unbelievers.
Why is anyone surprised? The US was founded with a population of religious nuts, the Founding Fathers managed to tie a good strait-jacket around them for 200 years, but now they’ve finally wriggled out. And the power-brokers have decided to pander to them because they think they can get them back in the cage Whenever They Feel Like It.
Problem is, once you enable the fundamentalists, it’s hard to control them. Either the US slaps down these sillies during this next election, or it lets them run loose.
When push comes to shove, are the people pandering to these idiots (such as Fox, etc.) going to go along with it or suddenly shift gears? My feeling is that they have enough sense of self-preservation to realize that egging the crazies on to start a religious/civil war within the US isn’t going to be good for anyone, particularly not for business. Question is–what happens if we have someone like Huckabee as president and one of those loopy Christian fundies in the Air Force decides it would be a Good Thing to nuke San Francisco?
Ah well, bring on the popcorn.
jcricket
I think Huckabee is GW’s logical heir. Big government spending + tax cuts + evangelical Christianity. What’s not “GOP” about that?
Rudy and Mitt are desperately trying to grab the GOP banner from Huckabee because it just doesn’t come as naturally to them.
demkat620
I remember thinking that something like that was coming myself. I watched that MTP the Sunday after the ’04 debacle and Timmeh had, Land, Perkins, Fallwell, and I can’t remember who else and it was Onward Christian Soldiers for the full hour. I thought then well this won’t end well for the GOP. Anybody who has a clue about our history could have told you this was coming.
TheFountainHead
I think perhaps the most under-reported of this election cycle thus far is the growing number of “Republican refugees”. A large swath of moderate Republicans, long languishing over the election of GW twice and now utterly fed up with the warhawks and fundies who have ignored their clamor for smaller government and less care-free spending, are going to defect from the party line and stay home or vote Democrat. The only way the GOP can avoid this is if they manage to get so lucky as to have Hillary win the Dems nomination. Not even a moderate Republican could vote for her, there’s too much history.
Michael D.
I have to say, John:
This is The Most Fun Post Ever.
I am enjoying it every bit as much as you are!
JGabriel
WTF is it about Arkansas?
Why does this poor, low population, backwards state, this microcosm of petty corruption, bigotry, and Jesus Freaks(tm) warrant so much national attention?
More precisely, why does it warrant so much Republican attention?
Whither Huckabee? Wayne Dumond?
Why go to the trouble of framing an *Arkansas* governor?
I mean, it’s fucking ARKANSAS!
Will someone please explain to us the importance of Arkansas in Republican mindset? I. Just. Don’t. Get. It.
I mean, it’s gotta be more than just Clinton. Doesn’t it?
JGabriel
WTF is it about Arkansas?
Why does this poor, low population, backwards state, this microcosm of petty corruption, bigotry, and Jesus Freaks(tm) warrant so much national attention?
More precisely, why does it warrant so much Republican attention?
Whither Huckabee? Wayne Dumond?
Why go to the trouble of framing an *Arkansas* governor?
I mean, it’s fucking ARKANSAS! Will someone please explain to us the importance of Arkansas in the Republican mindset?
I. Just. Don’t. Get. It.
I mean, it’s gotta be more than just Clinton. Doesn’t it?
JGabriel
Whoa. Sorry for the double post.
Someone please delete one of them (and this post as well) if they get the chance. Thanks.
Mike
The Fundies loved Reagan because he charmed them, but he really did nothing for them.
Bush 1 was forced to pander to them on stuff like criticizing abortion, but you could tell he didn’t mean a word of it.
Bush II purports to be one of them, but hasn’t delivered much: slowing down stem cell research, the Schiavo fiasco, etc.
Now they say “We’ve been good GOP soldiers for thirty years. We want a president who’s really going to push our agenda.” You can’t really blame them.
Shinobi
Does anyone else feel that this election is like being forced to chose a babysitter from a line up of convicted sex offenders?
Dreggas
Only if I were voting in the republican primary.
Salty Party Snax
Talk about ingratitude. Jesus picks a presidential candidate and the Satan Wing of the GOP starts a-writhing and a-steaming like Linda Blair after a healthy splash of Holy Water.
Let them burn in Hell, I say.
Punchy
Maybe in yer parts, but I think most ‘Mericans can see the danger in someone who believes literally in the story of Adam and Eve. Aside from their outstanding catalog, they have no real resonance in Mainstream ‘Merica.
With this much consternation in the Republican party, I’m gunna make a fortune selling 55-gallon drums of my new Cheetos Orange Stain Remover…
Salty Party Snax
You know what I’ve heard? That when Pastor Hucklebee speaks in tongues, it is actually ICBM missile launch codes!
And you just know that means we’re all going to Heaven!
Except for you guys, of course.
Bubblegum Tate
A small part of me wishes I had been a Republican all this time so I could really capture the full schadenfreude of this, but I’m enjoying it quite a bit all the same.
horatius
Ah, how naive thou art John!! Forgive? That pussy notion must be some kind of pagan belief.
demimondian
All politics is local, Punchy. If Huckabee will hurt the Dems in WV-02, I wonder how many other places will be affected. Yeah, WA-01 won’t change, except that our local lunatic fag-bashing preacher will get louder, but I ain’t so sure about WA-05.
Emma Anne
I can’t think that Huckabee is very smart. Because even I could have dealt with that one: “I was acting out of an excess of Christian compassion and the desire to belive in redemption. I have asked God for forgiveness, and I ask the families of the vitims for their forgiveness as well.”
Doesn’t that hit all the right notes? And how do you argue with it? You try to bring up Clinton derangement syndrome, and he can just repeat it: “I was acting out of . . . ” etc.
This refusal to take any responsibility is the worst possible response, because it spurs people on to dig up more details as to why it was, too, his responsibility.
Dreggas
It’s even spread to WALES!
Dreggas
errr make that AUstralia…
Charlie
Makes me want to move to South Carolina so I could vote for the Huckster and stick it to the republicans
Jake
No, no, no. Here’s how it works: The i4i crowd gets to do all the shrieking, threatening, name calling and fist waving it wants. When their actions finally cause people to turn on them, the i4is suddenly remember the turn the other cheek stuff.
Bet: The Talevan will re-discover the New Testament by Nov. 2008.
grumpy realist
The major problem about the Dumond case (aside from Huckabee’s running away from taking any responsibility at all for the decision, on which he’s already been called a liar) is that it shows he’s a total patsy for anyone who plays the “Praise JEEZUS! Ah been BORN AGAIN!” line.
I bet he answers Nigerian spam letters as well. As long as the individual claims to be a “God-fearing Christian.”
What a sucker.
Rick Taylor
*nods sagely* Well yes, but remember, Democrats allowed Michael Moore to attend the convention.
Seriously,this is wonderful, and long overdue.
SenderC
What was more foreseeable — Dumond’s rape/murders after his release or Noonan gushing over Reagan in her article? She’s such a fangirl that Ronnie could’ve tapped that at any time and not even worry about her being upset when he didn’t call her.
horatius
Yeah, Nooner’s handwrining and sanctimonious columns are getting on my nerves.
Andrew J. Lazarus
Let me, of all people, stand up for Huckabee, whom I picked for the GOP nomination in the spring.
Huckabee is probably a teetotaler, but (other than somnolent Grandpa Fred), he’s the only GOP candidate who looks like he’d be willing to invite Pelosi and Reid in for genuine compromise over a couple of root beers. Giuliani would try to waterboard them into submission (not hard, GW Bush has shown). Giuliani, Romney, and McCain are Frankencandidates who have the aura of nasty, wicked science fiction aliens in human bodies. Yeah, Huckabee is getting the flat-earth Jesus Freak vote, but he’s also getting those Republicans who oppose torture and haven’t yet realized how unwelcome that sissy position is in the rump Republican Party.
Wilfred
Attaboy Mike!!
Don’t hide your light under a bushel…take that torch, fling it in the barn and burn that motherfucker down.
Dreggas
After her Savor column the bitch can rot in hell with the rest of ’em.
J sub D
Nope, it’ll stay up there, forever testifying to your internet ineptness. Your grandchildren will find this thread one day and ask, “Grandpa JGabriel, were you always a cyber-putz”?
bob
G. Zeus Crisp for President
Darkness
Unlike the NY subway, there unfortunately were no Muslims around to save the day. Clearly more Muslims are needed to break up fights.
FIVE years? Wow, plausible deniability must go a helluva long way downunder in Godsown.
Punchy
If Huckabizzle winz da Presnitsee in duece-double naught-snowman, $100 says he nominates Jesus to the U.S. Supreme Court and The Holy Spirit as Secretary of Education.
And if you though Bush was hostile to stem cell research…(cue EEEL)….
Tsulagi
Yeah, the comedy level is rising. I remember a month or two ago reading a few posts at RedState by socons saying if Rudy got the nod, they could not vote for him and would seriously consider third party. They actually sounded half-way serious and sincere.
Now that The Huck’s star is rising, you got the guys on the other side of the aisle within the Party of Bush saying the same thing. Or threatening they’ll vote Democratic. Funny stuff.
I’m calling bullshit on just about all of them. They would drink the Huckade. If Huck had the nomination, you can bet he would dial the Jesus down in the general. Except for “secret code” the vangies would pick up on. See Bush and McCain in 00. AoS, Riehl, and the rest like them would get in line. Remember, Rule #1: No matter how much proven you’re incompetent, retarded, and just in general fucked up, any Democrat is always worse. Jesus dittoes that. Known truth.
Ted
I think John is enjoying this more than any Democrat can right now.
Darkness
Holy moley, I followed that link and boy she writes like she takes whole bottles of something that mellows some key circuits of the brain, and has been for extended periods of time.
Savor? Savor what? Are you serving food? AARARRG! Must irrigate my brain now.
grumpy realist
Question: is it possible for Peggy Noonan to write an op-ed column where she doesn’t drag in St. Reagan? (Geez, lady, stop fellating the guy, ok? You’re giving a blow-job to a corpse.)
Oh, and John, thanks for the popcorn. Watching the pundits run around screaming in circles wringing their hands about the Huckabee has been a hoot.
dnA
Roffle
Kevin K.
As much as I’m disillusioned with the Democrats lately, it sure is enjoyable seeing that we’re more on message and united than the Republicans appear to be. I know a few Dems/libs who have “Hillary problems,” but overall I don’t see anything even remotely close to the sniping Repubs are doing now over pretty much every candidate, except Thompson who has been one of the biggest pre-hyped duds in the history of primaries.
Rick Taylor
There’s no reason they should. I think the fundamentalists and the economic conservatives among the Republican’s should bite the bullet and compromise on McCain, a candidate who seems like he ought to be marginally acceptable to both. Sure doesn’t seem like much sign of it though.
RSA
As I see it, the trick that establishment Republicans have to pull off is a) bringing Huckabee down, with respect to their base, b) keeping their hands clean, and c) avoiding a direct attack on his fundie-ness. I’ll be surprised if we don’t start hearing a lot more about Wayne Drummond and his serial rapist ways in the near future. (There’s even a distant Clinton connection.)
Punchy
And it’s not like he’d even remember it, anyways.
Nylund
The village republicans always thought so highly of their ability to con the rural religious into voting for their party of corporate interests. They viewed themselves as the puppet master, but like Dr. Frankenstein they are now realizing that they have created a monster, one they are now beholden to and it scares them shitless.
A party that represents the true teachings of Jesus, humility, helping the needy, that all have an equal chance at paradise, and the idea of putting God before your earthly rulers goes against everything the GOP wants to accomplish.
The Republicans are the money changers that Jesus railed against in the Temple Scene.
teak111
Agree completely with Tsulagi.
First off, the gop won’t nominate the Huckster, can’t happen. Jesus freaks are the must vocal now but the real juice comes from big business, by which I mean, $$$$ and lots of it and they don’t want a jesus freak candidate.
Secondly, in the general election, only thinking Repugs would have issues with Huck and possibly vote for Hillary. And how many thinking repugs do you know, present company excluded?
Jake
And you won’t because the Dems aren’t diving further into De Nile. The same Cause /= Effect mindset that allowed the fRighties to be surprised when Iraq broke down into complete chaos (Trans: The Iraqis showed they weren’t ready for Democracy) allows them to be sincerely befuddled by the rise of The Huckabee. Gorsh, no one could have possibly foreseen that clucking about Moral Majority/Family Values garbage for years and years would lead to a real Bible Banger making a serious bid for the White House.
I wonder how long it will be until they claim all of the GOP candidates are really stealth Democrats, bent on making the Party look bad.
John Cole
As an aside, I honestly do think that Huckabee really does want to do theright thing- I think he does care about the environment, does want to help poor people, does want to, well, do the right thing.
I still think he would be a wretched President. But I don’t think he is a complete fraud or fake or bad person.
grumpy realist
Teak, that’s my question. Is the big business sector cynical enough to allow Huckabee to get pushed forwards, figuring they can always get around the problems if the US gets taken over by the Talibangilists? Trashing the US’s science and technology base–no problem, they’ll just get the stuff done in Japan, China, or the EU instead. Anti-women/anti-gay legislation? No problem–any of the members of their family caught up in this can move abroad to friendlier locations.
Of course, I can’t see what Huckabee could actually bring to the table for them, and they’re probably much more interested in dealing with Romney, who at least seems to have enough horse sense to actually run things and might actually worry a bit about high-tech.
Dreggas
Dude…Sully is in rare form today
global yokel
I still think a GOP heavyweight is going to jump into the race and blow those other goofballs out of the water. Sooner or later it is going to dawn on the GOP hierarchy that they cannot win the Presidency with the current crop of candidates, and they are going to convince Jeb Bush or Reagan’s corpse or somebody to get into the race and save the party.
jcricket
No, he isn’t. That’s got to be what scares the conservative asshats like Riehl, Ace and Ed. When it’s all dog-whistles and code-speak, they figure the guy in charge won’t really do all that fundamentalist shit.
But when it’s wide out in the open and you’re saying “Earth is 6,000 years old” it’s hard to hide from it. And they start thinking, “Hmm, I don’t think this guy is kidding! He’s gonna take away my Internet Porn!”
That’s when they really freak out.
Tsulagi
Yeah, I would expect youtubes like this one from a grieving mother to get a lot more exposure. Of course, before Wayne Drummond got clemency from Huck, crime fighting Wingnut Central was calling Drummond a Gov. Bill Clinton political prisoner because he refused to take any time off the good Christian’s sentence. They always see the big picture, always calling the right shots.
OT, but a really funny youtube that could give Flipper some gas is this cartoon illustration of the origin of Mormonism. Evangelicals would love it. Did you know Jesus was Mormon? Multiple wives? Why some have black skin? Our extraterrestrial beginnings? This thing is a classic and already has over 600k viewings. And they call UFO Kucinich looney?
trollhattan
GOP heavyweight? They wish.
Although the Huckabee Christmas card photo indicates a certain heft.
Yup, this is gonna be some fun.
jcricket
Call me when he gets over his CDS and we’re not having another round of “black people are genetically inferior” and maybe I’ll go back to reading him.
jcricket
No, it’s basically like pot. You smoke enough schadenfreude and you just end up laying on the couch doing nothing but eating chips and laughing like Beavis at fart jokes.
Punchy
Are you a fraud, or just a completely insanely retarded ignorant fuckstain to deny evolution? It’s splitting hairs, IMO… I do agree with John, that if I had to stomach a R Pres, this’d be the guy least likely to start a pre-emptive war with Antartica for control of the world’s scarce penguin supply.
Jen
Yeah, Sullivan was good. I agree with a lot of this, I think Huckabee is a sincere person and not a Romneyesque poser, he’d make a wretched president, and he is exactly what the cynical wing of the Republican party deserves. They have courted these voters and swooned over them, and at the end of the day they haven’t given them much of anything. I have been wondering for months why more people weren’t behind Huckabee, he really seemed to me to fill a real niche, and I guess maybe his name recognition finally grew in to fill that demand.
It’s a crowded tent, the R’s, and I think they’ve kind of built a fragile coalition around Chimpy, and we’re going to have the inestimable joy of watching it implode. I think at the end of the day, they’ll go with Romney, and I think they’ll lose and lose big.
And I hope against hope that Paul runs a third party campaign. I’m doing my part here by talking up the blimp I saw today. He’s got a big-ass blimp! Go Nader, I mean Ron Paul!
Ted
At least alien spaceships are theoretically possible.
Tsulagi
Just saw that Mormon tuber today and still cracking up at how the Dobsonites would take it. They might really like the part where the Big Mormon in the Sky came to Earth in human form to screw Mary so she could then deliver the baby Mormon Jesus. That would go over well.
horatius
That’s some kind of pussy interpretation of Jesus. The Republican Jesus kicks ass, takes names, waterboards unbelievers and generally carries an NRA approved extra-long-barrelled gun.
Chris
If they knew that “compromise” trick, they’d be able to get things right and stay in power. The gas pedal is stuck, and their going to go full throttle at who’s on camera at the time. Because they’d just DIE if Those People were actually talked to, and McCain would talk to Those People. Making him one of Those People.
The only thought going through the 27%’s head: Those People.
Same thing with 43. I’d definitely have a beer with the guy. If he weren’t the guy that sent our country into free fall, that is.
43 taught us one important thing: extreme awareness and studiousness is exceedingly vital to this office, otherwise you start paving the Road to Hell.
Yes, I’m trying to say that Huck is exactly Bush 43. I don’t know that he’d be as bad… maybe he’d put the brakes on somewhat. But he’s still driving off the same exact cliff. He gets his instructions from God, and Jesus is his parachute.
Chris
Meh. I think the genetics is like an itch that when scratched paralyzes him. He just can’t stand the concept that black people are treated like younger, poorer, pathetic brothers; he’d rather see them as equals. I have an uncle like that. Some people assuage their white guilt by being nice, others do so by positing that there is no problem: Blacks are competent and ready, and the civil rights history chapter can end now.
Pb
If I wanted a real believer in office, I’d vote for Mr. T:
Face
He’d probably be acceptable to all the octogenarians, being that he’s one of ’em, or at least looks so…
Psycheout
What? No love for B4B in your linkfest?
Huckaboom Thanks to Brownback…
If Sam had just hung in there a little longer, Huckabee probably wouldn’t be where he is today. Think on that.
ColoRambler
Oh, pu-leeeze, Peggy. Reagan pandered like hell to the holy roller crowd during the 1980 campaign. Martin Gardner (of pseudoscience-debunking fame) has a lovely write-up of how he managed to out-evangelical Jimmy Carter back then, including a rather explicit criticism of biological evolution:
“Jimmy Carter’s 1976 election was strongly influenced by the growing born-again vote, especially among blacks. But in 1980, disenchanted by Jimmy’s attitude towards such things as abortion and school prayers, the fundamentalists flocked to Ronald Reagan, who did his best to appear even more born-again than Carter. Addressing a gathering of fundamentalists in August 1980 he announced that the theory of evolution was ‘just a theory’ and marred by ‘great flaws’.”
Nah. Reagan would fit in just fine.
Pro Torture Christian Repub
Hoohah!!!!!!!!
MikeL
Quid Pro Quo, Psycheout. If you want questions answered, you have to be willing to answer them yourself.
MikeL
But here’s one for free:
B4B is in John’s linkfest. Look at the bottom, under Blogs We Monitor and Mock As Needed.
Libby Spencer
Wow. 85 comments and no one linked to Russ who defines the new noun.
Which segues rather perfectly to Hugh Nitwit.
That is unless their neighbors happen to be Muslim of course.
Dreggas
For Huck I can answer this in three words. Devout Baptist Minister. The one in our town could be a really nice guy, gave out candy on Halloween as a secular tradition, was generally everything you’d hope a “good christian” would be. But boy did he rail against the libs and pagans and secularists oh my! He was just like the Huckster all nice and sweet when not behind the pulpit or closed doors.
Kinda like The Dee Snyder character in Strangeland…
Alan
What Sully misses is this Party is what Rush Limbaugh and Bill Bennett cultivated. Many on the Right just don’t get it, but it began with Rush’s caller abortions.
Back when Rush had his Rush to Excellence Tour people were actually carrying their Bibles with them to watch Rush. I used to be a fan but slowly began to realize my political beliefs didn’t meld with his. I believe in individual liberty. The Right believes in it only when it fits their religious beliefs. This is why they say Goldwater died a liberal when in fact he was consistent in his beliefs.
Chuck Butcher
There are two things required to be able to talk to Republicans reasonably: 1) theocracy sucks, 2) plutocacy sucks. Now if 08 is a disaster with Huck they might get (1) but I don’t think they’ll get (2) no matter who runs or how badly they lose. I am a left Democrat but I am also a small business man, I have some clue about that side as well.
Single payer, not for profit, universal health care is the only thing that doesn’t encourage a plutocratic view or drown business.
Dreggas
That’s the thing I don’t get the only business that will suffer from this is the insurance business BOO-HOO. They’re bigger thieves than enron.
All other business benefits because they no longer have to pay out the ass for their insurance plans for employees.
dslak
What if the tax code was changed so that even people who weren’t getting health insurance from their employer could claim a tax credit?
Rather than make the issue about going after the insurance companies, we should of course focus on who will be helped by changes in policy. Americans seem to have forgotten that solving longstanding problems often requires that somebody gets the shaft. I suppose a fair question is why it should be the consumers rather than somebody else, but I don’t know of any groups representing insurance consumers who can throw millions of dollars into elections.
Zifnab
Yes, but businesses are all heavily invested in the marketplace, and the marketplace is heavily invested in where money is, and a great deal of money is in insurance.
Imagine, if you would, a chicken that craps golden eggs. All you do is feed the chicken some scratch, and he shits bricks of money. To Wall Street, this is the Insurance Industry. And this is why a government-run non-profit health insurance system would be absolutely offensive to the Wall Street Wing of the Republican Party. Give people more money to buy more health insurance and get more screwed? Sure! Give people Medicare-style efficient health insurance? Hell no!
Chris
Bah. This issue rules but this topic of conversation blows.
All we’re doing is saying “Yeeeeeup” over and over again. Not even the limbaugh troll is saying anything inflammatory.
Someone start talking about the Flat Tax again. It’s Friday and nobody is throwing punches. Get to it.
Cindrella Ferret
Whoa! Chairborn Rangers without Internet porn. Even their hands will stop having sex with them.
I saw it first hand. Spent a lot of 1980 in Georgia and the Carolinas, and the Fundamentals were like a bunch of wild banshees at some of the Tent Revival-style rallies. The hand handwriting was on the wall. I left the Republican Party and voted for John Anderson that year. The party of anti-reason party has made its own bed.
dslak
Surely what’s wrong with the healthcare system in the US independent of whether it makes money for Wall Street investors. If it were theoretically possible to fully insure everyone, but one consequence is that a bunch of wealthy investors would become even wealthier, that wouldn’t be a reason to oppose such a policy, would it?
Alan
This video at HotAir.com is rich. Ann Coulter having problems with Huckabee after she peddled her idiotic book “Godless” to the GOP base. She also helped cultivate this Party.
dslak
That was so that the base would vote for business-friendly Republicans. Now the Jesus Freaks are just being ungrateful.
Wilfred
This is just delusional. As Libby Spencer implies, Republican blogs have savaged Islam and Muslims for years. I had so many stories and posts on file that I stopped copying them. These people are in denial.
Svensker
Shorter Ann Coulter: The evangelicals are being tricked by the MSM into voting for Huckabee. It’s the libruls’ fault!
Oh, God, if it is not taking your name in vain, please let Huckabee be the GOP candidate, just so I can see Ann Coulter miserable.
dslak
They haven’t been too fond of Hindu prayers in Congress, either.
Alan
No Svensker, asking God to let Huckabee win is not taking the Lord’s name in vain. Writing a book calling your political opponent “Godless” is.
Bruce Moomaw
The GOP now has a little more reason to panic: people have started to notice Huckabee’s endorsement (in a newspaper ad) to the Southern Baptists’ official line that “a wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband, even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.” As Michelle Cottle says, since he now also says that he has no objection to a woman becoming President, presumably he means that if Hillary makes it, she has the absolute duty to follow all of Bill’s orders. It will be interesting to see him try to squirm out of this one.
Meanwhile, one of Sullivan’s readers reports that the meme that Obama is “not just a Muslim but a terrorist sympathizer” is starting to catch on like wildfire in the white parts of Georgia. Whatever else happens, this is going to be a VERY weird election.
horatius
I think the people of Georgia can go Cheney themselves. It’s not like they’ll survive for long anyway what with Georgia running out of water and shit.
qwerty42
The reader identifies himself as living in a “…conservative county just north of Atlanta…”. These folks have very good incomes; they have been (or trended) Republican for years. I’d expect a very nasty campaign, and not just in the south.
jake
Nope. You’ll have to keep paying for it.
Strange. I’m going to guess the reader is talking about people who already know that DemoncRats are all terrorist sympathizers and all Muslims are terrorists, so why are they even bothering? Of course, I’m surprised that people are being so … circumspect.
Er…progress?
[sigh]
jcricket
It’s a suckers bet, but wanna guess how long they hold out before they demand Fed (FEMA and Army Corp of Engineers) help/bailouts for their inability to conserve early enough and come up with alternative plans (other than prayer).
And despite getting some massive bailout, they’ll go right back to voting Republican, denying global warming, laughing at environmentalists, calling themselves “self-sufficient”, and other hypocritical acts of stupidity.
sal
Who are these folks kidding? If Huckabee is nominated he’s got their votes.
Maybe it’ll be like the division between Sunnis & Shiites. Makes no sense to anyone outside the ring who can’t see an ant’s ass difference between them, but it’s a fight to the death between the two.
Conservatively Liberal
Fixed.
I have been reading the all of the fun and love/hate at Redstate lately regarding Huckabee, and it is very entertaining (to say the least). Right now they are discussing Ace and Dan Riehl saying that they would vote Hillary!/Democratic/Third Party if Huckabee gets the nod. The writer (Alexham) agrees and says that they will vote third party if Huck gets it. Watching the SoCons, the FisCons and the NeoCons battle this out has been some of the best entertainment money can’t buy.
The ‘old’ right courted and created this theocratic monster and now that it has arisen and taken on a life of its own, they are in abject terror of it. This is not the typical primary slugfest with the scheduled love-in for the general, no way. These people are ready to rip each other apart, and I hope it pounds the final nail in the coffin of the theocratic right wing nutjobs out there.
I think I may have to look into investing in popcorn. I think a lot of it is going to be consumed between now and November of next year.
John Doe
The GOP has been pandering to these stupid bastards for years, and every time I pointed it out I was called “anti-Christian” or something or other.
Come on John Cole, this is silly. You, of all people, should mostly like Huckabee, and this post shows why. The real reasons that neocon Republicans dislike Huckabee are the same reasons should make you like him: 1) he hasn’t drunk the Republican Kool-aid on tax cuts always and everywhere; 2) he criticizes Bush on Iraq; 3) he disagrees with torturing terror suspects; 4) he has criticized Guantanamo; 5) he talks too much about the poor; 6) he talks too much about the environment. Sure, he’s against abortion, but if you were a Republican at any point in the past 30 years, you were voting for people who were against abortion too.
Jake
Time to dust off a little treatise on that region of America.
Innocent Bystander
I’d pay big money to see the Huckster, in a debate, asked “Do you believe in the idea of Rapture? If so, when do you think it will occur and, if not, why?” Heck, I’d love to see every Republican candidate answer these questions.
AnonE.Mouse
What a fucking nightmare it would be if Georgia were to run out of water.Things aren’t exactly pretty in Michigan as it is right now.Thirsty rednecks from Georgia migrating up I-75 would be like something out of Night of the Living Dead.
The Other Steve
I have no comment, I just think this is great fun to watch.
Bruce Moomaw
Qwerty42: “I’d expect a very nasty campaign, and not just in the south.” Well, if Huckabee is the nominee, I suppose we’ll find out just how seriously he really takes Commandment #9.
TrishB
I mentioned it in the other Huckabee thread, but Wolcott linked to this post.
searp
John is overly complacent. I know professional politicians (is there any other kind?). One, who held national office for a decade, told me that the evangelists represent 40 million votes.
Do the math….
Dan
The Republicans who are really worried about the religious right takeover have only one real alternative. If they want to break from the fundies they’ll have to do it completely. You can’t go across a chasm in two half-jumps.
dslak
The fact that there are a lot of evangelical voters means they’re going have political influence for the forseeable future. What makes this campaign different from previous ones is that there is no candidate who appeals to the religious right as well as economic conservatives and neocons. Considering how brutal some primary campaigns can be, and how unforgiving the religious right is (just ask John McCain!), as well as how pissed the GOP establishment will be that the sheep are so presumptuous as to the they ought to be running the show, this has the potential to serious strain the faustian bargain the Republicans made with the religious right back in the 70s.
Whether that will lead to a divorce between the religious right and the economic conservatives remains to be seen. If it occurred, it would certainly make for saner policy, as compromise would no longer be with the Devil, but with actual human beings who disagree on the best solutions to problems.
low-tech cyclist
“For they sow the wind, and they reap the whirlwind.”
-Hosea 8:7
Sweet.
bob
Can we please admit that “movement conservatism” be it social or corporate conservatism has utterly failed. They administered the programs instituted by Roosevelt, Kennedy and Johnson so poorly as to make them fail, yet they STILL managed to ease some suffering. Any failure of social security, medicare, welfare, the military or any other government failure in the last 40 years can be laid to the incompetent administrations of Republicans. They lie, cheat, steal, obfuscate, obstruct justice and generally fuck up everywhere they go. And NO ASSHOLES, before you get started, Clinton DID NOT do it too. Neither did Carter. The fuckwad republicans have been the administrators of all this. Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush and Bush have run the country for all but 12 years since 1969. Going back to Eisenhower, they have run the country for 35 of the past 55 years. That is pretty much my whole lifetime; I was born 17 days before Ike was inaugurated. Fuck Christians. Fuck Republicans. Fuck corporatists. I’ve had enough of their bullshit. All of it.
bob
How the Randroids ever came to be in the same party as the snake handlers, I’ll NEVER understand. Even though they are both full of shit, they are full of shit in pretty much totally opposing ways.
dslak
Regarding Clinton, you’re generally correct, but what about “welfare reform”? Or do you blame the Republican Congress for that?
Pug
Makes me want to move to South Carolina so I could vote for the Huckster and stick it to the republicans
Well, I live in Texas and I can vote for him in a place where he will have a good chance to win. Imagine that, I’m going to vote for a Republican.
I do agree with John that, by right-wing fundamentalist standards, Huckabee is pretty decent. He isn’t a hater like so many of them.
bob
dslak, there is much to dislike Clinton for, not the least of which was welfare reform (and yes the republican congress did it) NAFTA, GATT, WTO, Telecommunications Act, and stepping up the drug war. But at least he was a competent administrator. All the republican administrations have been TOTALLY incompetent in administration, probably intentionally, to prove their contention that government doesn’t work.
numbskull
None of this matters. None of it. Not one thing those R bloggers wrote will be remembered, by them or anyone else, the morning after the R convention. The Rs will get behind ANYONE once a new Dear Leader has been anointed. Hell, they could nominate a coked-out, dry-drunk, psychotic fratboy and by the next morning every single R would be singing his praises.
Oh, wait…
dslak
Point taken, numbskull, but the getting in line has always been one-way. That is, the religious conservatives come in line with the rest after the primary. If Huckabee wins, it will be the theocons leading the way, and that’s what has neocons and economic conservatives worried.
Whether that will translate into large numbers of GOP voters either defecting or staying home, we can only hope.
grepthis
I will make this as simple as possible. I apologize for the use of caps but I have to yell, otherwise it won’t penetrate.
In its simplest form, we are PAYING TOO MUCH for INFERIOR MEDICAL CARE and denying it completely to a large part of the population so that the insurance companies and the medical care industry can make huge profits.
Any approach which at its core keeps the USUAL GANG OF GREEDY IDIOTS in the loop will force us to PAY TOO MUCH for INFERIOR MEDICAL CARE.
Bite the bullet. Screw the insurance companies and fuck big pharma.
Thank you. End of rant.
Jennifer
As an aside, I honestly do think that Huckabee really does want to do theright thing- I think he does care about the environment, does want to help poor people, does want to, well, do the right thing.
I still think he would be a wretched President. But I don’t think he is a complete fraud or fake or bad person.
Think again, John.
In 1998, as Governor of Arkansas, the Huckster published a book called “Kids Who Kill” two months after the murder of schoolchildren in Jonesboro. When asked if he would be donating profits to the victims’ fund, he became petulant and asserted his right to use the title of his office in order to profit however he liked, even on the murder of his constiuents. He donated not one penny, and despite the claims he made in this article written at the time, he went on to use the tragedy to pimp sales of his books.
I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what Jesus would have done.
One note – the source for both articles is an extremely rightwing newspaper – I think that comes out pretty clearly in the first article. I’m still searching for the one that relates how testy the Huckster became when it was suggested that there was something beyond tacky in him clinging to all that sweet sweet money he was making pimping dead kids. But he did, oh yes, he did.
lambert strether
So, how exactly did Mike Huckabee’s son David kill that dog, back in the day when he was a Boy Scout? The way Jesus would have done it?
blogenfreude
In 1999, we in the Reality Based Community knew that giving control of the country to a religious whackjob who’d fucked up everything he’d ever touched was a bad idea. Sure enough, Jesus told Bush to start an unwinnable, deadly, and expensive war against the wrong country; allow a great American city to remain in ruins; fill the federal judiciary with fools; and generally bankrupt the country. And the wingnuts cheered. Yet now, faced with another fundamentalist nutjob who would certainly continue Bush’s “policies”, they balk. A tacit admission that the administration they supported without question was a complete fucking disaster?
dirk gently
you see, the republicans WANT to lose this one. oh, not the individual candidates, nor the true believers in the base. but the powers behind the throne.
they need to step out of the room for a little while and let the janitors clean up some of the mess. then they will blame the janitors for creating the mess in the first place, and for not putting on enough spit-shine.
it’s a long game. we know there must be better candidates then the batch they are presenting – and that the differences b/t the front runners (mitt, rudy and huckleberry) are designed to dampen the enthusiasm of the base. the golden child won’t be released until 2012.
Xenos
CLinton did it, but he also took steps to limit or avoid the most draconian aspects of the reform. I won’t go into the boring details, but the fact that we did not have nursing home patients dumped on the street had a lot to do with how Clinton handled the process.
numbskull
dslak, I agree that the monied interests want to run the show. And they will continue to do so, they’ll just have to do a little more to control Huckleberry compared to the others if he becomes the anointed one . It’d much easier with Romney, who already does ‘bidness’ their way. It’d also be easier with Rudie, who is nothing if not a cheap lay. Have no fear, they’ll get it all lined out well in advance.
billy bob tweed
Mister Ed wonders, “Huckabee has gained credibility at an amazing rate in this race. The biggest question is why.”
The answer is straightforward – it’s all in the contrast of the shading. Huckabee has gained credibility at an amazng race simply because the others — save Ron Paul, who is off their plantation — have even LESS credibility or worse, ZERO credibility. The locked-in insane 32% Americans who’d pull a red lever even if Bush skullfu@ked their daughters in front of a statue of Moloch, is desperate. They’re settling for a preacher. He has a letter “R” next to his name and looks safe.
This election is the Dems to lose.
justme
BahhhHaaahaaa. Yes, children, after all that backseat groping and out of sight grinding, the time has come. Churchy Wanna Get PAID. There the corporate Republicans stand, pants around their ankles, pleading “Come on, baby.” Churchy has finally said “Not unless you take me to the prom.”
Frankly, A) I think it’s a fine thing that any voting bloc stand up and demand actual representation. Duh. The Republicans have been treating them like the ugly but reliable screw out behind the bar dumpster for nigh on forty years now. It’s about time they asked for breakfast.
And B) We all know that that sweet, sweet thing the GOP really wants, that fine Mainstream American Centrist, all done up in ribbons and smellin’ purty, would dump their sorry asses so fast the turd wouldn’t have time to splash if it came out just how close they are to ol’ Churchy there, in a functional way. A little flirting can be ignored, but oh, no, don’t you dare… And they already have shown a little hand holding. Much more than a Faith-Based Initiative here and there, though, and little MACy is gonna get pissed.
This presents a bit of a conundrum for the GOP, and man is it fun to watch. I worry sometimes that they might be able to figure out a way to keep them both happy, but that hinges largely on li’l MACy keeping her blinders on and not listening to the neighbors. I don’t see that happening so much lately.
Yep, this’ll be a fun one to watch.
Oh, and Tim F.? You may want to re-check your Trotsky to Stalin relationship. Offhand, I’d say that wing of the party is definitely more Stalinist than Trotskyite. Just sayin’.
Rick Taylor
Atrios writes:
eyelessgame
I think you’re missing one important thing about Hucky: his national sales tax.
The national sales tax is to Huck what “strict constructionist judges” are to previous successful Republicans — it’s the noise calculated to buy off the other half of the base.
Hucky may be all about the real religious right issues, but he’s dogwhistling the plutocrats with the national sales tax: he’s for radically redistributing the tax burden downwards. It reassures them that all his talk about “helping the poor” is so much hot air. (It’s not like the plutocrats care how much money the government spends. They care how much it taxes.)
I don’t know for sure if the sales tax sell will work. I don’t know if Big Business has the same tendency to salivate at dogwhistles that the Religious Right has shown. But it’s not as though he’s ignoring the other half of the base.
(As to the third half: he’s taken a stand against torture, which hurts him a great deal. But at least he’s flip-flopped on the Other Scary Brown People and now wants to build the Great Wall Of El Paso. That might be enough to bring the haters in line.)
donna
I still think the whackos just confuse Huckabee with Applebees in the polls.
Pollster: Do you like Huckabee?
Whacko: Yeah, We LOVE Applebees!!!!
Pollster: So you would vote for Huckabee?
Whacko: Yeah, we LOVE Applebees!!!
Etc….
And from the looks of Huckabees family, they must spend a LOT of time at Applebees…
Julia Grey
She [Noonan]’s such a fangirl that Ronnie could’ve tapped that at any time
Who says he DIDN’T?
Suzan
These republicans don’t care about Huckabee’s religiosity, they care that he thinks the Sermon on the Mount is part of his religion. You know, actually caring for the sick and the poor. Heck, it sounds like he might almost be tolerant or people who are not white. That completely freaks them out.
It’s easier to attack him for being too religious than to attack him for caring about the poor and not being a racist.
He might not reign entirely for the rich. Yeegads!
Greg M.
Schadenfraude is fun, John, and Lord knows you’ve earned it, but I don’t get the whole right-wing freak-out–to me, Huckabee’s *always* seemed the most electable of the bunch, which to me makes him EXCEEDINGLY dangerous. He doesn’t have the whole Bernie Kerik/took $ from a guy linked to 9/11 terrorists baggage Giuliani does (and he’s able to seem far more friendlier); he doesn’t have weird plasticity of Mitt Romney or the Mormon thing; he’s not a zombie like Fred Thompson; and he doesn’t have the horrific internal contradictions made external like John McCain. He *seems* likeable–in fact, he seems even better at putting a friendly face on conservatism than GWB was in ’00.
If I were a conservative, I’d be thanking my lucky stars for his rise. I’m not, so I’m worried. The Drummond thing is good, but beyond that…?
grepthis, rant away, brother.
RKC
It was fine all these years for the big business side of the Republicans to use the fundamentalists to get elected. Somehow there were the tax cuts, the crony capitalism, the manipulation on pollution, logging, etc., but never anything substantial on abortion, gays and so on. But now that the fundamentalists want their turn, the money side will have none of it. The shock is that they thought it would always be a one way street, all to their benefit. That is the fun part to watch.
Oberon
I don’t get the right-wing freak-out either. Huckabee is the guy who actually had to govern (unlike every Rep candidate but Romney) yet clearly has some principles (unlike Romney).
My theory on the freak-out: of all the Rep candidates, Huckabee seems like the one who might actually work with Democrats and get something done.
Or maybe it’s that he doesn’t seem to hate Democrats, liberals, brown people, furriners, etc enough for the right blogosphere.
db
Ditto what Oberon said.
Let’s keep in mind that “evangelical endorsements” are all over the map this cycle. This is freaking out over a unwarranted freakout.
Peter Principle
Sully: “If we are to rid conservatism of this theocratic cancer, we need to start over.”
The problem is that if the GOP dumps the “theocrats” (not easy to do, BTW, since they control the local party apparatus in many states) it will be down to about 10-15% of the electorate — a party of libertarians and supply siders at a time when the tide is definitely running in the other direction.
That would be REALLY starting over — as in, minor party status.
HyperIon
how about thread for the best bible verses on the subject of repub/religious crazies current dilemma?
Mr.Murder
It’s Dumond, not Drummond.
Guess you guys care so goddamned much that you get the name wrong all the time…
you know right wing sites are the only one to spell his name wrong, and did so for a very long time.
It isn’t helping the google searches on Huckabee now. Word is out.
Mike Huckabee should propose tax cuts for rapists, instead of freedom for rapists.
Then the GOP would vote for him in droves.
He would have lost an election in Arkansa to Jimmie Lou Fioscher, onlyh e had a compliant Scaife and Murdoch owend swath of protection from the issue in addition to Cox Cable(swift boaters) helping keep the item off the airwaves…
so the Democratic candidate cranked up a direct mail campaign.
Huckabee used illegal methods to block that in the postal service.
That’s right, amssive Federal Mail Fraud. Lucky for him the DoJ changed a prosecutor in his state and put a gag order on Republican lawbreaking prosecution…
shelleybear
Am I the only one who has read Heinlein’s “Revolt in 2100” and sees Huckabee for the Nehemiah Scudder clone that he is?
Richard H. Davis
Let’s see……Huckabee lies about his part in releasing a rapist/murderer who went on to……um, rape and murder. Rudy has the NYPD do taxi service for his mistress and does deals with supporters of Al Qeda. Mitt has awakenings on his social views that just happen to position him to get the most votes. Don’t anybody tell the Republicans that Fred Thompson was one of 10 Republican Senators to vote “not guilty” on the perjury charge in the Clinton impeachment.
JDinLA
Is the “mainstream” GOP really freaked about Huckabee’s fundie nuttiness, or is it that he is a heretic on their cherished economic issues: tax cuts for the wealthy, corporate deregulation, and social Darwinism? For Wall Street Republicans, Huckabee looks like a bible-thumpin’ FDR, truly a scary thought for the country club set who want low taxes for themselves and low wages for the hired help.
Ref
On the other hand, these fucking fools look at a comletely unqualified tool like Fred Thompson as a realistic candidate. ‘Nuf sed.
r€nato
love the comments here. Pissed I didn’t get here earlier in the thread becaue pretty much everything I wanted to say, has been said.
So let me get this straight: Republicans want money and foot soldiers and votes from the fundamentalist Right… but they don’t want them getting one of their own in the White House?
Well, too bad, when you dance with the devil, you don’t change the devil. The devil changes you.
r€nato
filthy left-wing lies!
Wayne Dumond was only a serial rapist until after Huckabee freed him. That’s when he graduated to murder as well as rape.
justme
Mr. Murder,
I’d like to hear more about this. Do you have any sources?
shelleybear,
Don’t worry, Scudder doesn’t get elected until 2012.
Hmm, I haven’t read any Heinlein for a long time. I may have to dig some up.
Nick
Please God, let Huckabee win the nomination.
This atheist liberal veteran couldn’t ask for a more appropriate GOP presidential nominee.
John Spragge
Maybe the GOP voters have a little more sense than you give them credit for, and want a candidate with a real moral center. Huckabee’s asking what Jesus would do may seem hackneyed to some commentators (if only because, apparently, he really means it; he doesn’t just say the right things to keep the mouth breathers in line). But, to take an optimistic view, maybe the rush to Huckabee comes out of a growing uneasiness with candidates who ask instead what Jack Bauer would do, besides get busted for DUI on the way to the ticking nuclear weapon.
I have some hope that Huckabee voters have some real unease about the “dark side” Dick Cheney talks about. I can’t prove it, and I don’t think Huckabee would make a good president, but I do believe that the groundswell of support for him reflects an inarticulate moral sanity.
Tuna
Wait a minute. Say what you will about Huckleberry, but at least he represents a consistent agenda. Underneath each layer of the Huckabee Onion is a confirmation that he is who he says he is: uninformed, evangelical, steadfast. In other words, he is the perfect representative of contemporary Republicans.
>Jesus|Freak
I’m sick of the big business GOPers using sincere Christians for their vote then turning around and lining the pockets of the corporations. It is about time for a person with some integrity to be elected. Have you even looked at Huckabee’s website? I looked at it and I liked what I saw. I am against abortion and I do feel that marriage is betwen one man and one woman. I certainly do not trust Hillary Abortion-on-Demand Clinton as far as I could throw her (And I have a hernia too). I don’t trust these other candidates either. It is also time we let God back in the schools. (Yes, there was prayer in public schools before the Sixties.) We as a nation have forgotten God. It is time for Christians not to be afraid of standing up and being counted as such.
>Jesus|Freak
goofticket
The concept is simple.
Religion in politics is insulting.
“Keep Your God our of My God’s face.”
diane
Riehl asked
If Republican primary voters are that stupid…….
OF COURSE THEY ARE!!!!!!!!!!!
They voted Bush / Cheney not once, but TWICE.
Talk about stating the obvious.
God help the US if we get 4 more years of a Repubublican rule, especially with Huck.
Margaret
I left the Republican Party before 1992 during the rise of this ridiculous theocracy movement and have never looked back. At that time I too was called foul names, likely by some of the same people who are now in a dead panic over cHuckabee. Though I was never as conservative as my dad for example, I voted for Reagan twice, primarily because he was a believer in science and now you current repubs are learning that the religious nutjob sect is the antithesis of Reagan’s philosophy. I’m not going to sympathize with you. You’ve earned every shred of it by refusing to see what was going on and then by refusing to accept it when it became so obvious that even Ray Charles could see it, preferring instead to close your eys, stop your ears and scream “La, la, la la,….” until I went away. You know what? Wallow in it. Wallow around and thrash about until you are all pruny. I’m not looking forward to a sHillary Clinton presidency but I am looking forward to the fringe nutjobs in the Republican Party going back to the fringe where they have always belonged. I’m looking forward to a world without the incompetence of the Bush cronies and the evil and violence of the Cheney gang. I’m looking forward to that very much. I hope that cHuckabee does get the nomination. It will be the most lopsided victory in the history of United States Presidential politics. Suddenly “anything to win” doesn’t seem like such a great philosophy now does it? Ideology ruined the Republican Party, just as it ruined the Democratic Party in the 80s. I hope you enjoy clutching at the wreckage of your fantasy of a “permanent Republican majority” along with Tom DeLay because that is all you’ll have for at least a generation and you have to look no further than your own mirror.
Margaret
Wayne Dumond was only a serial rapist until after Huckabee freed him. That’s when he graduated to murder as well as rape.
************************************************************
Untrue! Except for the part of not graduating to murder until after his release, which is true as far as we know. If the idea that he never committed rape before his release, how do you explain the fact that half a dozen of his victims wrote cHuckabee letters begging him not to release Dumond? You wingers wanted him released to discredit Clinton and at least two women and an unborn child payed for your Clinton revenge trip with their lives. Then he lied about it recently when he said that he never urged the parole board to release him when in fact the parole board itself says yes, he did. Get your head out of the sand. Don’t you realize yet that it was the very “us against them” and Liberal = lies and Conservative = truth that has put us in this very position yet? The world isn’t black and white my friend so stop with the simplistic viewpoint or get out of political discussion. You aren’t helping your cause or the cause of SANE Republicans with your knee jerk reactionary crap.
Phoenix Woman
Hi, John! There are martinis at the bar with your name on them.
Of course, Huckabee’s religious stances or his using Wayne DuMond as a bludgeon against Bill Clinton (over the objections of the families of DuMond’s victims, as Margaret notes) never bothered these guys.
What REALLY bothers them is that Huckabee has actually taken measures on occasion to keep the State of Arkansas from drying up and blowing away. These measures are known as “taxes”, and since many if not most con mouthpieces are in that upper five percent that have really cleaned up at our expense during Bush’s deficit-ballooning tax-cuts-for-billionaires rampage, taxes are to them as garlic is to vampires.
Yes, folks, the Cons are mad at Huckabee for the DECENT things he’s done, not for the scummy things.
Jennifer
Heh.
What REALLY bothers them is that Huckabee has actually taken measures on occasion to keep the State of Arkansas from drying up and blowing away.
It’s really not that simple.
The bulk of taxes that Huckabee raised were raised due to an order by the state Supreme Court to fund the schools. That ruling was actually Huckabee’s fault (though it needed to happen) which I won’t get into right now…but apparently the mouth-breathers haven’t noticed exactly how those taxes were raised, which was primarily through an increase in the state sales tax…this in a state with one of the lowest per-capita incomes, where food and clothing were subject to the full tax rate as well.
Previously, the moron had cut income taxes for the wealthiest citizens in the state because of the “surplus” of the late Clinton years (yeah, I know, I know, “surplus” in a state where some schools can’t afford books? but I digress) despite being warned by just about everyone that it was a bad idea and that the smallest economic downturn would send the state into the red (where it is not constitutionally allowed to go). Which happened pretty much as soon as the next Bush presidency began. The state was so broke it couldn’t even afford to mail out car tag renewal notices. But not to worry…the state made up the revenue shortage with – you guessed it – a sales tax increase.
If the feebs on the right could ever be bothered to go beyond knee-jerk reactions to what they see on the surface of things, they would actually find Huckster more and more to their liking.
pseudonymous in nc
I think we can think about the Dumond case in possibilities.
Either:
– Huckabee was too chickenshit to stand up to the ‘Clinton Files’ types who wanted Dumond released;
– He actually agreed with them;
– He just didn’t think too hard about it.
When the most mitigating option is indifference, the flipside of Bush and his one-page briefing from Gonzo before rubber-stamping a death sentence, it doesn’t look too good.
r€nato
re-read what I wrote! I wrote that he was a serial rapist BEFORE he was sent to prison.
rea
the best bible verses on the subject of repub/religious crazies
Matthew 7:22-23:
“Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Shamrock
Viewing this blog is like watching the correspondents fly in tighter and tighter circles so it is apparent they will eventually try to fly up their own assholes. Some of you guys (a non-gender expression) are funny, some hilarious, some merely angry, but if there be a consensus, it’s that you, as a group, are hopelessly fragmented.. You are concerned, frightened, disconsolate and feeling disenfranchised. So what’s my point? Well, the rhetoric in 1775 in pamphlets and editorials was more inflammatory than this blog. The presidential campaigns, at least beginning in 1800 make today’s attack tactics look like a cakewalk. The rule that emerges from history is that people who can think and express freely eventually get it right. So I want everyone to keep it up, but not only here, but on the candidates’ blogs. I have been as confused and as you. I will never trust someone who wears religion on his or her sleeve. I suggest we forget this current topical bullshit. Tomorrow’s topics are what we need be concerned about. My sympathies are tending to go to the person whose character has been tested. Maybe not what we think, but what he thinks is RIGHT. Maybe that’s John McCain. Somehow, I think that if McCain is tested by the things we cannot be aware of now, that he will do the right thing. Convince me otherwise.
Robert Morrow
THE BOTTOM LINE: HILLARY IS IRRESPONSIBLE WITH POWER
Dear American Friend, http://www.1984ArkansasMotherOfTheYear.com
I have attached my “Hillary file” which is culled from the 205+ books and other media that I have on Hillary and Bill. The Clintons are thugs. On the campaign trail in 2007 Hillary and Bill are play acting as the loving, respectful couple – singing each other’s praises on stage and engaging in public affection as they troll for votes.
In order to understand Hillary and Bill, one must first understand the wildly dysfunctional Jerry Springer lifestyle they have lived for 36 years. Hillary has covered for Bill who not only has had HUNDREDS of women, but also perpetrated several rapes and vicious sexual assaults, often involving biting the lips of the women victims. In order to cover up this Jerry Springer chaos, Hillary has often used Sopranos tactics: a secret police and criminal intimidation tactics to harass, intimidate and terrify Bill’s sex victims and girlfriends.
WE’VE HAD ENOUGH “EXPERIENCE” WITH HILLARY;
CLINTON BLACK OPERATIONS MUST STOP
These tactics include the savage beating/almost murder of Gennifer Flower’s neighbor (Gary Johnson – 6/26/92), criminal harassment campaigns on Kathleen Willey (1997-98 car vandalism, stole or killed her cat Bullseye, witness tampering), Liz Ward Gracen (who Bill probably raped [1983] while she was Miss America – harassed/threats, 1997), Gennifer Flowers (break-ins, threats, 1992), Sally Perdue (car vandalism, threats, 1992), Bobbie Ann Williams (break-in), Christy Zercher (a flight attendant, groped 1992, break-in, 1994), Patrick Knowlton (extreme harassment campaign Oct. 1995; witness tampering), Suzi Parker (a journalist harassed off Arkansas tainted prison blood scandal 1999, fearing for her life), Connie Hamzy (lying campaign, 1991) and Juanita Broaddrick (raped by Bill 1978, break-in and IRS audit when she went public in 1998). It is not a stretch to say that Hillary, Bill and Buddy Young may have organized the murder of their former contract employee Jerry Parks on 9/26/93 because he knew too much about the Clintons.
Hillary and Bill were well on the way to crucifying Monica Lewinsky as an unstable stalker, liar and fantasist – – and would have done so if Bill’s semen had not been found on Monica’s blue dress. Hillary’s private eyes were already digging into Monica’s past, when the real story was the Clintons’ criminal track record.
Additionally, biographer Roger Morris describes a vicious sexual assault by Bill on a woman (around 1980) on p.238 in his book Parters in Power. Journalist Michael Isikoff details a extremely crude sexual advance by President Bill in 1996 on a lady married to a Democratic VIP on p.162 of his book Uncovering Clinton. Additionally, pervert Bill exposed himself to Paula Jones in May, 1991 and also to Carolyn Moffet in 1979.
Other Clinton dysfunctions include Bill’s cocaine addiction as governor, Hillary’s lesbianism and the fact that Chelsea is probably the seed of Webb Hubbell, NOT Bill Clinton. Bill’s only offspring is probably Danny Williams, the product of deadbeat dad Bill’s cocaine-fueled sex orgies with (no condoms) drug-addicted street hooker Bobbie Ann Williams and her girlfriends back in 1983-84. Bill paid $200 to Gennifer Flowers so she could have an abortion in Jan., 1978, just 3 months before Bill’s double rape of Juanita Broaddrick on 4-25-78. Bill severely bit Juanita’s lip to disable her during the rapes. Also, wild Bill, brother “Roger the Dodger” and best friend Dan Lasater were partying with high school girls and providing them cocaine when Bill was governor in the early 1980’s.
And, of course, there is Hillary’s long and intense affair with Vince Foster who was her emotional husband while Bill was screwing everything in sight. Hillary has a long record of fomenting domestic violence with Bill. The Secret Service, fed up with this insanity, leaked to the press Hillary smashing a lamp during an argument with Bill. Hillary has often thrown objects at victim Bill.
Hillary has used criminal tactics such as a secret police and illegal IRS audits to go after both political enemies and Bill’s sex victims and girlfriends. It was probably Clintons’ FBI who put a rotating harassment team of 25 people on Patrick Knowlton, a witness in the Vince Foster investigation, on October 26, 1995, and continuing for a week. What the Clintons did to Patrick Knowlton was Clinton street fascism as well as witness tampering.
This was a prelude to the intimidation campaign waged on Kathleen Willey in 1997-98 before her deposition in the Paula Jones case. Paula Jones who Bill exposed himself to, rape victim Juanita Broaddrick, probable rape victim Liz Ward Gracen, and mistress Gennifer Flowers all got audited by Clintons’ IRS in the late 1990’s.
Floyd Brown’s offices were burglarized in 1992 and only his Clinton files were stolen. Brown’s private phone conversations were illegally wiretapped by Hillary’s goon Jack Palladino. Another one of Hillary’s thugs, Anthony Pellicano is in jail in LA for the same kind goon tactics he did for the Clintons in 1992.
Clinton biographer Emmett Tyrrell also had his offices twice broken into and his NY apartment invaded once. The manuscript of Tyrrell’s book Boy Clinton was stolen when he couriered it to Robert Novak for a blurb. Clintons thugs tried to intimidate 2 of Tyrrell’s researchers in Little Rock.
Also, at least one independent counsel in the 1990’s took to carrying a gun after being harassed by Clinton goons in yet another intimidation event.
HILLARY TREATS PEOPLE LIKE DIRT
LIKE THEY ARE “INVISIBLE”
Many people close to the Clintons describe Hillary as rude, vulgar and abusive, not just with staff and co-workers, but especially with Bill who she made a sport of ridiculing, according to L.D. Brown, Bill’s favorite state trooper. Hillary is well known for making mean, vicious and personally degrading comments often towards people who work for and with her. She probably got that from her dad Hugh Rodham, a deeply disturbed man.
Hillary and Bill are sociopaths, not unlike serial killers such as Ted Bundy. Seemingly personable and normal while brown nosing wealthy contributors or opinion makers, Hillary and Bill have no regard for the integrity and well being of others. They disregard rules and lie with practiced ease, not feeling guilt or empathy for others.
Bill is the kind of guy who can rape your sister upstairs and then come down to the living room and tell you what a great book he has read about women’s rights. Hillary is the kind of person who can be in the kitchen calling up a secret police to terrify your rape victim sister into silence, and then come out to the living room and ask what do you think about her latest speech on women’s and children’s rights.
Some of the goons that Hillary has used to cover up her and Bill’s Jerry Springer lifestyle and criminal activity include Ivan Duda (1982), Jerry Parks (1980’s), Jack Palladino (1992) and Anthony Pellicano (1990’s). Pellicano is now in JAIL in Los Angeles for the same kind of thug intimidation tactics that Hillary hired him for. Also, Buddy Young, the head of Bill’s trooper detail and who Bill made #2 at FEMA, is additionally a dangerous criminal that Hillary and Bill has employed in their black operations. Terry Lenzer is also someone Hillary has used extensively.
Please forward this information to your Democratic friends and co-workers and ask that they (and you) vote for and support John Edwards, Barack OBAMA, Bill Richardson or any other Democratic candidate, and NOT Hillary. The difference is Hillary will break your kneecap to get to the White House; the others will not.
Thank-you and have a great day!
Robert Morrow Clinton expert Austin, TX 512-306-1510
truth machine
Being both factually and intellectually dishonest has become a membership requirement of the Republican Party.
Gerry Shuller
Ah, what class – and stupidity – just two words (the first one starts with “s”, the second one with “b”) says it all. No need to read any further once bigotry has been so firmly established.
Thursday
Is Noonan kiddig? Reagan was a pre-milennialist who was certain that Jesus Christ was coming back in his lifetime and he let his policies be governed by that belief.
Any thought that he was “moderate” at all could only come from someone who either never knew him or had been blinded by Morning in America…