OCTOBER 29, 2007
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There is an interesting and, at times, unintentionally hilarious, piece in today's Washington Times about the internecine conservative conflict over Mike Huckabee. The interesting part is that conservatives are genuinely divided about Huckabee, the one true social conservative in the race. The unintentionally hilarious part is that the conservatives who oppose him have serious delusions of grandeur. See, for example this:
Critics want to block consideration of Mr. Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, as a running mate for Rudolph W. Giuliani, the pro-choice former New York mayor, or for Mitt Romney, a Mormon and former Massachusetts governor.
So let me get this straight: Conservatives, having failed to block the pro-choice, gay-friendly former mayor of New York, or the recently pro-choice, gay-friendly, immigrant-friendly Mormon former governor of Massachusetts, from winning the GOP nomination, are all of a sudden going to block the anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage former governor of Arkansas from taking the second spot on the ticket? Granted, conservatives will have some leverage at that point, since Giuliani or Romney will be trying to reach out to them and unify the party if/when one of them wins the nomination. I could see them torpedoing, say, a pro-choice veep nominee. But this scenario seems utterly absurd to me.
At the very least, it completely confuses the complants against Giuliani/Romney and Huckabee. Most rank-and-file social conservatives love Huckabee. It's the supply-siders who are suspicious of him. But Giuliani/Romney have already more or less won over supply-siders. They won't be reaching out to supply-siders at that point; they'll be reaching out to social conservatives.
--Noam Scheiber
8 comments
Make now mistake. The thing the conservative elites fear more than ANYTHING else is compassion for the poor.
- miceelf
October 29, 2007 at 11:56am
What the eff? I don't get it - is it because he doesn't loathe Bill Clinton? That he actually pays attention to what the bible says? He lost too much weight and now they all feel fat and pasty? All of the above?
- Wandreycer1
October 29, 2007 at 1:02pm
miceelf might be right about it -- he might actually be a compassionate conservative and the rarity of that species must be embarrassing to the "moral values" lobby...
It sure is hard otherwise to understand what social conservatives have against Huckabee. My theory is that the religious right has to flex its muscle just to show it still has some, so somebody has to get kicked - but why they are picking out Huckabee for the beating is beyond me.
- purcellneil
October 29, 2007 at 1:36pm
More evidence that the evangelical movement is past its prime, or that the fundie torch has passed to a new, more liberal, better-educated generation.
As I say, the GOP will either go back to its midwestern/northern anti-tax and boardroom economics roots, or go out of business. The fundie-based southern strategy is dead. Good riddance.
Which means that a lot of middle-class, educated suburban fundies across red state America are ripe for the poachin'. Go get 'em, boys and girls.
- teplukhin2you
October 29, 2007 at 6:13pm
I have been impressed by Huckabee for a while even though I don't agree with him on many policies. I like him in a way I never liked smarmy Bush who ostensibly possessed similar ideals, so I can only thank the Republicans for ruining one of the greatest threats to a Democrat victory in 08. Now if Democrats can just destroy Hillary and then we can have a real Dem rout.
- blackton
October 29, 2007 at 8:00pm
Huckabee's impressive only because our expectations of Repubs-- for honest dialogue and for a politics based on even a minimal level of social provision-- are so abysmally low.
The man is a creationist. Get a grip, Blackie.
- teplukhin2you
October 29, 2007 at 8:41pm
FWIW, the next Administration, Democrat or Republican, will not be mandating "creationism". Huckabee fielded the issue brillantly Sunday in an interview with Blitzer. He made it clear that he doesn't really know when the universe was created or the details of how--he just believes there was a Creator. If that's a disqualification for high office, I shudder to think who'll be left.
- Robert Powell
October 30, 2007 at 6:47am
From the Arkansas Times, a snapshot of the state of science education in Huckabee's Arkansas: www.arktimes.com/.../ArticleViewer.aspx
Seriously now, Bob, if you had children in the public schools, would you not be a wee bit concerned that none of the Arkansas science educators mentioned in this article-- neither the geology teacher who's prevented by the school board from _even mentioning_ any dates, or years, or "numbers" (!) in his discussions of rocks, nor the AP biology teacher, nor the science program administrator, WOULD EVEN IDENTIFY HIMSELF OR HERSELF for fear of being attacked by the creationist nuts?
Please don't respond with some kind of redirect a la "Hey, PC history or social studies is worse". The assault on science and reason by these people is a national disgrace, full stop. There are no excuses for it, and Huckabee cannot shuck and jive and pretend to be "neutral" or prefer an "evenhanded" approach. This is know-nothing Scopes-ism, period, and no parent who truly cares about his children's education can fail to be appalled by it. Buck stops with Huck.
And yeah, it gets real personal when you've got kids in the public schools-- and frankly it's insulting and outrageous to even suggest that this be tolerated for a second in post-Scopes America.
- teplukhin2you
October 30, 2007 at 4:57pm