Interesting take on Mike Huckabee from an Arkansas evangelical
By Pius Aeneas Posted in Breaking News — Comments (38) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Hmmm. Maybe evangelicals should be a bit more discerning with Mike Huckabee's positions.
An Open Letter From An Arkansas Evangelical
Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 5:41 PM
In the in-box:
A Plea from Arkansas: Christian Conservatives Need to Take a Closer Look at Mike Huckabee's Record as Governor
by David Thompson
As a conservative, evangelical, politically-active father of four in Arkansas I believe it is imperative for like-minded voters to become more familiar with the Mike Huckabee that just completed 10 years as our governor. I realize it’s sometimes hard to know what to believe during a campaign, so I've tried to include links to published stories, with most coming from years past when the events noted were taking place.
For those who don't know much about me, I attend a very conservative evangelical church in Central Arkansas that includes some other politically active members (past/present elected officials, lobbyists, candidates, etc), and our family currently homeschools our young children. Since 1996, I have been heavily involved in numerous Republican campaigns in Arkansas at all levels (even managing a few). I have also served as vice chairman of the Republican committee in Arkansas' largest county. Yet I don't know of a single person in these circles who is supporting Huckabee for President - although I do know many that are definitely not supporting him. Of course, this is anecdotal evidence, but consider that Huckabee just finished serving 10 years as our governor (and I am sure there are many Republicans in Arkansas who are supporting him - I just don't know them). The truth is, most conservatives in Arkansas had written him off long before his Presidential bid.
That said, here are 7 key reasons I cannot in good conscience support Mike Huckabee as the Republican nominee for President. This is based on his record here and is not a personal attack - I cannot speak for his or anybody's motives. This list is not the result of intense research - it's based on what I know and have experienced first-hand as a politically-active conservative Arkansan. It's a list I could have given you 6 months or even 2 years ago. And I am not attempting to echo or give validity to any criticism he is now receiving nationally (and I don’t think ALL of it is fair). This is the Mike Huckabee we know.
(1) Governor Huckabee did lasting damage to the Republican Party and conservative movement in Arkansas.
It's hard to go after Democrats with a conservative message when your Republican Governor is out front releasing violent criminals, providing state benefits to illegals, pushing tax increases, expanding government spending and programs, and constantly walking an ethical tight-rope (more on each of these items to follow). This tied our party's hands - many conservatives got frustrated, apathy set in, and some quit the fight. In addition:
Huckabee insisted on having "his people" controlling the Republican Party campaign organizations that are set up in Arkansas each election cycle. He also insisted that his guy remain as state party chairman when party leaders planned to make a change. The mismanagement and ineptness that followed was so great that the Republican Party plunged into debt and the Federal Election Commission levied the the largest fine ever against a state political party following an investigation of the 2000 and 2002 election cycles. Obviously, this set back the Republican Party of Arkansas for years.
When Huckabee started his first full term in 1998, Arkansas had just elected a Republican Governor, Lt. Governor, U.S. Senator, and 2 Republican Congressmen. Upon his leaving office in 2007, Republicans now hold no statewide offices, have no Republicans in the U.S.Senate, and only one Republican Congressman remains.
It was often said during Huckabee's term that Arkansas had 3 parties: Republican Party, Democrat Party, and the Huckabee Party.
"He destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party in shambles." - Phyllis Schlafly, president of the national Eagle Forum
"His support for taxes split the Republican Party, and damaged our name brand." – Former Arkansas State Representative Randy Minton (R)
"I think if they knew [his record] it would totally de-energize them . . . his policies are just wrong." – Former Arkansas State Senator Jim Holt’s (R) warning for conservatives around the country who think they have found their candidate in Mike Huckabee.
(2) Governor Huckabee's non-stop clemencies continually hindered the work of criminal prosecutors and miffed Republicans. The numbers are staggering - over 1,000 clemencies and commutations of criminals as governor. Most people now are familiar with his push to parole convicted rapist Wayne Dumond, who went on to rape and murder a Missouri woman less than a year after his release. But there are many more troubling facts regarding Huckabee’s pattern of releasing violent criminals. While I cannot speak for Huckabee’s motives, it seems clear that he used poor judgment and was reckless with this executive power.
Huckabee released more criminals than the combined total of every border state to Arkansas (made up of Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana) - even though the combined population of these states is 16 times higher than Arkansas'. He also issued more than double the clemencies of his three predecessors combined.
In many cases, Huckabee's actions set loose savage criminals convicted of grisly murders over the passionate objections of prosecutors and victims' families. This American Spectator story details some of these violent cases and explains the resulting difficulties they presented prosecutors working with other victims and their families.
Huckabee and his appointees ignored the laws on the books, including the requirement to notify victims' families and explain the reasons for those clemencies. He said to fully explain his reasoning would cost millions of dollars and "take money away from education and Medicaid and other things."
A 2004 investigative article by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette found that prisoners had a better chance of being granted clemency by Huckabee if they had a mutual acquaintance, labored at the governor's mansion under a prisoner work program, or a minister intervened on their behalf. Prosecutors say Huckabee was more inclined to release or reduce the sentences of prisoners if he had direct contact with them or was lobbied by those close to him.
He often refused to learn the facts of the cases (sometimes not even reading the murderer's own confession), made no attempt to get the police/prosecutor's case files, or even get input from the victims' families before making his decision.
The clemency granted to one multiple DUI offender was likely tied to large political contributions from the offender's family, including a soft money political organization run by Huckabee's people.
Good summary article
Last January, after Mississippi Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat, lost his re-election bid, he issued 16 clemencies, and there was a huge outcry. That's how many Huckabee averages per month. – Arkansas Leader, (August 11, 2004)
He seems to believe that granting clemency to murderers, rapists, drunk drivers and other convicted criminals is a part of the everyday affairs of the governor's office rather than something that he should approach cautiously and selectively. – Robert Herzfeld, Saline County Prosecuting Attorney during Huckabee’s tenure.
I know some of the people that Huckabee let loose have reoffended. Some of them we've caught and some of them we haven't caught......I used to be able to tell the families of victims, in all good faith and candor, that it was a rare event when a governor commuted a sentence and let a murderer back out, or a rapist back out or a child molester back out. But I can't do that anymore. - Larry Jegley, longtime Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney
I felt like Huckabee had more compassion for the murderers than he ever did for the victims. - Elaine Colclasure, co-leader of the Central Arkansas chapter of Parents of Murdered Children.
(3) Governor Huckabee's pattern was to ignore immigration laws, often in the name of Christianity.
Huckabee opposed immigration enforcement as governor on a number of fronts. Immigration enforcement groups call Huckabee’s record on immigration "a disaster" and reference him as they guy who "scares the heck" out of them.
In 2001, Huckabee’s human services liaison Robert Trevino pushed for legislation to provide driver’s licenses for illegals. It was understood by legislators that he acted with Huckabee's blessing.
In 2001, Huckabee opposed a measure to require proof of citizenship to vote.
In 2005, Huckabee supported a bill that offered illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates and made them eligible for the same merit-based scholarships to Arkansas state colleges and universities as legal citizens. The bill would have violated federal law and was not enacted by the legislature.
In 2005, he opposed a bill that denied some state benefits to illegals and required proof of citizenship to vote (patterned after Arizona’s Prop 200 that has been successful in curtailing illegal immigration in that state). In this story, Huckabee called the measure "un-American ...inflammatory ... race-baiting and demagoguery." He added that the bill "inflames those who are racist and bigots and makes them think there’s a real problem. But there’s not." He then singled out State Senator Jim Holt, also an openly professing Christian, saying, "I drink a different kind of Jesus juice."
In 2005, Huckabee criticized federal agents for a recent crackdown on illegals, saying that it wasn’t fair to the innocent family members of those targeted in the operation. (No word on whether he also opposes raids on other law-breakers who might also have innocent family members affected by the fruits of their illegal activity.)
In 2005, Huckabee promoted an "open door" policy on immigration as he addressed the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) national convention in Little Rock. LULAC is a left-leaning group that opposes virtually all measures of immigration enforcement.
He was an absolute disaster on immigration as governor. Every time there was any enforcement in his state, he took the side of the illegal aliens. - Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, a group that played a major role in rallying the phone calls that helped defeat this year's Senate immigration bill.
I would hope he could be trusted to secure the borders, but given his track record in Arkansas, I don't see the conservative he has portrayed himself to be in Iowa. - Jake Files, a former Arkansas state representative and current chairman of the Sebastian County Republican Party
(4) Governor Huckabee was no friend to fiscal conservatives in Arkansas.
Huckabee’s record on taxes, government spending, and growing government programs was miserable. Basically, when the economy got tough, Huckabee expected families like mine to tighten our budgets in order to help state government meet its spending whims.
In 2003, Huckabee called a special session of the legislature to push for a tax increase to make up for spending shortfalls. This led to his signing HB1039, an across the board income tax and tobacco tax increase. Huckabee even refused to consider a Republican proposal to cut spending and use general improvement funds (i.e., legislative pork) to make up for the budget shortfall. Ironically, the same day Huckabee was practically begging the Arkansas legislature to raise taxes (here’s the video), President Bush was also in Little Rock to push for his tax cut plan. (Note: When asked about this video recently, Huckabee gave a misleading response to Fox News, blaming his tax increase plea on a court order. This prompted State Representative Johnny Key, the current Republican Leader in the Arkansas House, to send out a letter correcting the accuracy of Huckabee's statement.)
If that weren't enough, Huckabee called a 2nd special legislative session in 2003 to pass a nearly one-cent state sales tax increase. The measure also expanded the sales tax to include previously exempted services (for more information and context, see reason #6 below).
During Huckabee’s term, Arkansas showed a net tax increase of $505 million, and the average Arkansan’s tax burden grew from $1,969 to $2,902. Governor Huckabee raised more taxes in 10 years in office than Bill Clinton did in his 12 years.
During Huckabee’s 10 years as governor, state spending more than doubled (from $6.6 billion to $16.1 billion), higher education and public schools got big increases, as did social services. Meanwhile, the state added about 8,000 full-time workers to its payroll during that period, a 19% increase (according to the Bureau of Legislative Research).
The conservative Cato Institute gave Huckabee an "F" for his final term as governor on its Fiscal Policy Report Card, saying, "Huckabee’s leadership has left taxpayers in Arkansas much worse off." His grade was lower than 15 of the 21 Democrat Governors. His overall grade as governor was a D.
The main reason for the drop was his insistence on raising taxes at almost every turn throughout his final term." – Cato Institute explaining why Huckabee had dropped from a "D" to an "F" on their Fiscal Policy Report Card.
[Huckabee] says he’s pro-family. If you’re raising taxes on the families of Arkansas, causing wives to go out and get jobs to make ends meet, that’s not pro-family. - Former Arkansas State Representative Randy Minton (R)
In the past, he blamed Democrats for raising taxes...We voted for them, but he proposed them. - Arkansas State Senator John Paul Capps, a Democrat
(5) Huckabee left a long trail of ethics questions while Governor of Arkansas
This is an area where I think Huckabee does receive some unfair criticism. Some of the ethics charges against him were frivolous and politically motivated. However, it has been concerning for some time just how much the governor accepted in gifts and how he was seemingly always pushing ethical limits.
During his tenure, Huckabee accepted 314 gifts valued overall at more than $150,000, according to documents filed with the Arkansas' Secretary of State office.
The Huckabees set up wedding registries at local department stores as Mike was leaving office – even though they had been married for 30 years. State ethics laws prohibited Huckabee from receiving gifts of more than $100 ... but there was an exception for wedding gifts.
Judicial Watch, a non-partisan group dedicted to fighting government corruption, listed Huckabee among their Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians of 2007. Huckabee was one of only three Republican politicians to make the list.
(6) Huckabee's education record shows him to be an advocate of the "status quo"
The New Hampshire chapter of the National Education Association (NEA) has endorsed Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee for the upcoming Primary elections. This is the first time in memory that they have recommended a Republican (in 2004 they endorsed Howard Dean). They likely chose Huckabee because:
Huckabee has consistently opposed virtually all proposals for education reform, including school choice vouchers.
The former president of Eagle Forum of Arkansas said Huckabee "continued the Hillary Clinton education plan" as our governor.
When the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that Arkansas’ public school funding was "inequitable," Huckabee took the ruling as a mandate to raise taxes in order to once again increase school funding...which he did. (To his credit, however, he also used the opportunity to consolidate some of the school districts in the state - although rural legislators severely watered down the proposal.)
(7) Huckabee has very little support for his Presidential bid here in Arkansas.
For the most part those in his party who know him best are not supporting him.
In October, a University of Arkansas poll showed that, among all Presidential candidates in both parties, only 8% of Arkansans said they were supporting Mike Huckabee.
That same week, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that only one-third of Republicans in the Arkansas Legislature said they were supporting their former governor's Presidential bid.
After this story, the Huckabee campaign published a list of supporters in his home state. The Arkansas News Bureau then reported that as some of the names on Huckabee's Arkansas endorsement list were used without permission and had to be removed.
This is purely anecdotal, but despite my involvement in Republican politics, I am unaware of any of my Republican friends who are supporting Huckabee. I have seen maybe 3 Huckabee for President bumper stickers – and I live in Republican west Little Rock and work 2 miles from the state capitol where Huckabee just completed over 10 years as Governor (my wife says she saw her first sticker today ... guess he's picking up steam here!).
...if Huckabee didn't have things sewn up with Republicans back home, what kind of message did that send?....The truth is that Huckabee hasn't had that much support from former and current Republican legislators. - David Sanders, conservative columnist for Arkansas News Bureau (November 11, 2007)
Conclusion:
I realize the Republican Presidential field does not leave true conservatives with much to get excited about. However, it is unlikely I will support Huckabee over any of the Republican frontrunners because of his liberal record, his questionable judgment, and his reckless use of power while Governor. Now is not the time for Republicans to compromise on core conservative values. More importantly, we need a leader with a history of using strong judgment as our nation continues to lead the world in the War on Terror.
Two final questions:
1) Given the many vulnerabilities in his record, what is the likelihood that Huckabee would win in a general election? Democrat National Committee officials have already been quoted as saying that they see Huckabee as "easy kill" and refer to him as "the glass jaw -- and they're just waiting to break it." The DNC has issued over 200 attack press releases on Republican candidates - only 4 on Huckabee, the last one coming 10 months ago.
2) Does his record as governor represent someone who should be given greater power and responsibility? Is he Commander and Chief material? Leader of the free world? National Review recently expressed concern, and Huckabee raised eyebrows with recent comments critical of U.S. Foreign policy and our role in the world - he was essentially repeating the Democrat talking points!
Feel free to pass this letter on or contact me if you have any questions about anything stated here. I have tried very carefully to be fair, accurate, and to stick to facts from Huckabee's record. But it's certainly possible I made a mistake somewhere or worded something poorly. I would be more than happy to further dialogue on any of these issues.
Sincerely,
David Thompson
Little Rock, Arkansas
Thank you for this "enlightening" information on Huckabee. My father has friends who USED to live in AR but left for many reasons but the greatest is they felt it was going "downhill fast".
They don't have much good to say about the predecessors to Huckabee, either. The main reason they were there was to take care of "elderly" parents. They got out of there ASAP upon the passing of her father.
_______________________________________________________________
Enforcement before Amnesty! Enforcement (even though it's attrition) works!!
if I could hold my nose and vote for Huck if he became our nominee.
I now know the answer: "@)(*%#@$ NO"
-TS
"When men fear work or fear righteous war, when women fear motherhood, they tremble on the brink of doom; and well it is that they should vanish from the earth." - Teddy Roosevelt
feeling about McCain... See, we do have some commonality.
Formally known as Deagle... "Golf is a way of life..."
First, your blog entry is poorly formatted. Second, this guy's facts are plain wrong.
along with links that back the information.
The Unofficial RedState FAQ
“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say. ” - Martin Luther
...although his facts are still wrong. Consider #7. Huck actually has an insane 50 point lead in Arkansas.
anteater, can you take all 7 points in this letter and create a new blog entry convincingly debunking the facts you claim are wrong? I'd read it. If it's compelling I would even recommend it.
absentee
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mbecker's dead white cat does the same thing.
What we need in a leader is to tell us not what we want to hear, but what we need to hear.
Fred Thompson 2008
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I have no idea what the facts are surrounding point #7, but hey, we'll give it to you anyway.
Now, respond to the other six. You won't get a free pass on those.
And The Doofus supports which version of the HLA?
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
Bridge for sale!...Bridge for Sale!...Bridge for sale!
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
Has zero credibility. He is insane in the amount of pimping he does for Romney.
I agree that Hewitt is a hilariously over-the-top and totally unobjective Romney shill, but this was an email sent to him, not something he wrote himself.
Anyhow, I don't think all the guys criticisms are fair, but a lot of them are.
I'll vote for any R other then He Who Shall Not Be Named in the general, but of the remaining ones, he's my last choice.
John Bolton for President
"FEAR THE 'STACH!!!"
At least Huck is 100% pro life which is more than some other candidates. Oh! And I guess Romney as the Guv off Mass. doesn't have a liberal record either. :)
http://www.betterimmigration.com/candidates/2006/HuckabeePres08.html
Huckabee’s comments on his immigration plan:
“But that pathway to get back here legally doesn’t take years. It would take days, maybe weeks, and then people could come back in the workforce.”
Mike Huckabee Touchback Amnesty illegal aliens back in days!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jKeWIrlzLw#GU5U2spHI_4
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316253,00.html
WALLACE: But last year in an interview, you said something somewhat different. You said this, “I think that the rational approach is to find a way to give people a pathway to citizenship.” Governor, in your new plan, the only path is to go home and to get on the back of the line, which, of course, would mean years of waiting. Why the change?
HUCKABEE: Well, I don’t think there’s an inconsistency. When I said a pathway, I didn’t say what the pathway was.
I now believe that the only thing the American people are going to accept — and, frankly, the only thing that really makes sense — is a pathway that sends people back to the starting point.
But this idea of the waiting years — no, I don’t agree with that. In fact, look, if we can get a credit card application done within hours, if we can get passports done within days, if we can transact business over the Internet any place in the world within seconds, do a background check instantaneously — it’s our government that has failed and is dysfunctional.
It shouldn’t take years to get a work permit to come here and pick lettuce. So part of the plan that I have is that we seal the borders. You don’t have amnesty and sanctuary cities. You do have a pathway that gets you back home.
But that pathway to get back here legally doesn’t take years. It would take days, maybe weeks, and then people could come back in the workforce.
Let me tell you why that’s important. Two reasons. Number one, the American people say, “Do something. Do it now. We don’t want to have this country ignoring the illegal problem.” I get it.
Secondly, I want people who are in this country to hold their heads up high. You know, right now there are a lot of people who really are here because they’re trying to feed their families. I don’t begrudge them that.
I say every day I thank God I’m in a country people are trying to break into, not break out of. But let’s give them a means by which they can get here through the door legally, and when they’re here they don’t have to hide, they don’t have to keep their heads down and hope nobody catches them, they have their heads held high.
Everyone living within the borders of the United States ought to do so with dignity and with a sense of pride, not a sense of fear.
Good points debbie0040.
It is significant to me that Mitt Romney opposed driver licenses for illegal aliens and vetoed legislation giving in-state tuition to illegal aliens.
Mike Huckabee supported driver licenses for illegal aliens. He also supported the award of college scholarships and in-state tuition to illegal aliens.
It is also disturbing that Mike Huckabee gave 1,033 commutations and pardons. I believe that Mitt Romney gave none. I appreciate the respect that Gov. Romney gave to the decisions of jurors, victims and prosecutors in refusing to give commutations or pardons.
Willie Horton ended the campaign of a liberal candidate, and the liberal candidate had not even made personally the decision about whether Horton should have been let out. How handpicking violent criminals for pardon, including some who repeated the offense, doesn't make Huckabee's campaign a non-starter defies all logic. And yet his evangelical supporters insist that they are voting for the only true conservative in the race. The only explanation is that they don't read, think for themselves or have any criteria for selection other than that "he's one of us."
The next president will face an economy and wage a war and more than one-fifth of people polled want a man who has never held a business job and thinks Afghanistan is on Pakistan's eastern border? Wake up people!
Depending on which version of Huckabee you are listening to. He has distanced himself from those provisions in that plan he stole.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman
Huckabee keeps repeating the comment about people living in fear. He thinks illegal immigrants shouldn't have to live in fear.
If you're not doing something illegal, you won't have to live in fear.
"You know Governor, I can't sleep nights, fearful that I'll lose my job to an illegal alien who will work under the table. I'm also fearful for my family, that their social security numbers will be stolen by an illegal."
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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
Read the entire article at: http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin411.htm
By Pastor Chuck Baldwin
Randy Minton, chairman of the Arkansas chapter of Phyllis Schlafly's national Eagle Forum, said, "We called him a pro-life, pro-gun liberal, when I was in the state legislature and he was governor." Phyllis Schlafly herself was even more direct.
President and Founder of Eagle Forum, Phyllis Schlafly, said this about Governor Huckabee: "He destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles." She went on to say, "Yet some of the same evangelicals who sold us on George W. Bush as a 'compassionate conservative' are now trying to sell us on Mike Huckabee."
According to an opinion piece written by John Fund in the Wall Street Journal, "Paul Pressler, a former Texas judge who led the conservative Southern Baptist revolt, told me, 'I know of no conservative he [Huckabee] appointed while he headed the Arkansas Baptist Convention.'"
Fund went on to say that "Mr. Huckabee's reluctance to surround himself with conservatives was evident as governor, when he kept many agency heads appointed by Bill Clinton."
Mike Huckabee is also terrible on immigration. According to Jim Boulet, Jr., executive director of English First, "Rudy Giuliani spent years defending the right of New York City to remain a sanctuary for illegal aliens. Yet Giuliani was a veritable Lou Dobbs Jr. on illegal immigration in comparison to Mike Huckabee."
Regarding Huckabee's stance on immigration, Mr. Minton said, "Until of late, he has been an open-borders guy on immigration--amnesty, the whole works. As governor, he wanted to give free college scholarships to all illegals." Huckabee regards it as his Christian duty to help subvert and liberalize U.S. immigration laws. Together, they embrace the notion that fidelity to the Gospel requires privileging the interests of non-citizens over those of fellow citizens."
Ann Coulter agrees: "On illegal immigration, Huckabee makes George Bush sound like Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO). Huckabee has compared illegal aliens to slaves brought here in chains from Africa, saying, 'I think, frankly, the Lord is giving us a second chance to do better than we did before.'
"Toward that end, when an Arkansas legislator introduced a bill that would prevent illegal aliens from voting and receiving state benefits, Huckabee denounced the bill, saying it would rile up 'those who are racist and bigots.'
"He also made the insane point that companies such as Toyota would not invest in Arkansas if the state didn't allow non-citizens to vote, because it would 'send the message that, essentially, "If you don't look like us, talk like us and speak like us, we don't want you."'
"Like all the (other) Democratic candidates for President,
he supports a federal law to ban smoking--unless you're an illegal alien smoking at a Toyota plant."
An Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration report showed a "net tax increase of $505 million, a figure adjusted for inflation and economic growth" on Huckabee's watch.
That Huckabee is a liberal "tax and spender" is also affirmed by Tom Roeser. According to Roeser, "[Huckabee] hiked state spending 65.3%, from 1996 to 2004. He supported five tax increases, leading the 'Club for Growth' to call him a liberal in disguise . . ."
Roeser also points out that "The Cato Institute,
a libertarian think tank with heavy ties to the national GOP, gives him an F grade for spending and taxes in 2006 and an overall grade of D in his governorship. During his tenure, the number of state employees increased over 20% and Arkansas' general obligation debt rose by almost $1 billion."
In spite of Huckabee's proven big-government, big-spending, and pro-amnesty record, however, some Christian conservatives are falling for his conservative rhetoric. It seems that all a Republican candidate has to do is start talking "pro-life" and "pro-marriage" and he or she will gain the support of certain Christian conservatives.
Christians need to beware of Mike Huckabee. He is not a conservative. Even worse, he is not a constitutionalist.
Let me ask the reader something.
How could a principled pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-Constitution conservative be willing to run on a ticket with a liberal presidential candidate such as Rudy Giuliani or Mitt Romney? That's right, he couldn't.
I say again, beware of Mike Huckabee!
The Huckster is a fraud.
ABH2008
Good to see the Huck-haters indulging their own self-righteousness...
Here is a link to it.
http://www.redstate.com/stories/elections/2008/most_of_the_these_people_...
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right...
---Thomas Paine---
Thank you for your well thought out comments.
The USA needs to know this and hopefully the words will be passed along by us all!
Thank you for sharing your time and your great writing skills.
God Bless
Please, please, no more Huckabee and no more Anteater apologists.
Recommended and I hope I can find this again later.
I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful 100 percent.
http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=3e2c09d6-2...
An Aug. 25 Arkansas Times article concerning possible conflicts of interest by college and university trustees failed to mention that earlier this year the legislature approved a bill to regulate business dealings between trustees and their institutions, and Gov. Mike Huckabee vetoed it.
The bill (HB 2501), introduced by Rep. Jodie Mahony, would have prohibited contracts between members of state boards and commissions and the agencies they serve unless the contract was approved by the state Ethics Commission. The bill also would have applied to state employees. A similar law already applies to board members and employees of the public schools.
http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=35db4438-8...
Lack of leadership
There’s an old saying that a politician must sometimes rise above his principles. Governor Huckabee has soared well above his in regard to the casino gambling bill approved by the legislature.
The governor was praised for his flexibility by Sen. Robert Johnson, the sponsor of SB 999. If one didn’t know that Senator Johnson is a dangerously serious fellow, one might have thought he was joking when he said of Huckabee “I, for one, am very much appreciative of what he did … to allow this to become law in the face of his own personal convictions.” Personal convictions, sometimes known as “family values,” are OK to have as long as they don’t get in the way of big money.
Huckabee, a Baptist preacher by training, is declining to veto a casino gambling bill for Hot Springs. There was a time, years ago, when nothing united fractious Baptists — and other church groups, for that matter — like their opposition to gambling at Hot Springs. They defeated the gamblers in statewide referenda. They forced the legislature to recall from the governor’s office a bill that the lawmakers had already passed to legalize casinos.
as a candidate... Of course, just as many do not like McCain as a candidate... Is this a tie?
Formally known as Deagle... "Golf is a way of life..."
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777