| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Huckabee

Page history last edited by Mike 14 years, 4 months ago

America should not elect Mike Huckabee.

Reasons to agree

  1. Huckabee will harm the republican party.
    1. Huckabee with divide the conservative coalition.
  2. Huckabee has not accomplished anything noteworthy.
  3. Huckabee does not bring to bear any set of skills that would be helpful as president.
  4. The Obama and Clinton campaigns are about promoting minorities. Something good for our country. Huckabee's campaign has been about keeping down minorities.
  5. Huckabee will harm America’s image.
  6. Huckabee raised taxes.
  7. Huckabee will embarrass evangelicals.
  8. Huckabee Lies
    1. Huckabee lies about Wayne DuMond
    2. Despite His Claims, Gov. Huckabee Supported Special Tuition Breaks For Illegals
    3. Huckabee Lies about being outspent by Romney
    4. Huckabee lied about John Bolton agreeing to work with him on foreign policy.
    5. Huckabee lied about speeking with former national security adviser Richard Allen.
    6. Huckabee lied about most of the signers of the declaration of independence being ministers.
    7. Huckabee lied about the need for his tax increase.
    8. Huckabee lied about his fuel tax.
    9. Huckabee lied about not knowing he was getting Tabacco money.
    10. Huckabee lied about taking gifts while governor.
  9. Huckabee increased spending.
  10. Huckabee mixes religion and politics too much
  11. Huckabee offends those that have been successful.

 

 

 

 

America should not elect Huckabee.

 

Mike Huckabee; King of Gimmick

 

 

 

Betsy Hagan, the "Arkansas director of the conservative Eagle Forum and a key backer of his early runs for office, was once "his No. 1 fan." She was bitterly disappointed with his record. "He was pro-life and pro-gun, but otherwise a liberal," she says. "Just like Bill Clinton he will charm you, but don't be surprised if he takes a completely different turn in office"

 

America's President Deserves Thanks And Respect

 

Table of Contents

Mike Huckabee Videos

CNN Fact Check: Romney v Huck

 

Romney Cites Club for Growth

 

MSNBC: Immigration Fact Check

 

MSNBC Video shows that Mitt Romney passes the fact check on his tough stance on Immigration as Governor. Mike Huckabee FAILS fact check.

 

 

GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: "I'm Mitt Romney and I approved this message."

ANNOUNCER: "Two former governors, two good family men. "Both pro-life, both support a Constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage. "The difference? "Mitt Romney stood up, and vetoed in-state tuition for illegal aliens, opposed driver's licenses for illegals. "Mike Huckabee? Supported in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrants. "Huckabee even supported taxpayer-funded scholarships for illegal aliens. "On Immigration, the choice matters." To watch "Choice: The Record," please see: http://tv.mittRomney.com/?showid=718462 AD FACTS: Script For "Choice: The Record" (TV:30): GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY: "I'm Mitt Romney and I approved this message." ANNOUNCER: "Two former governors, two good family men. Both pro-life, both support a Constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage."

  • Governor Romney Has Been Recognized For His Pro-Life Leadership In Massachusetts. "Mitt Romney was a great Governor, who served with honor and distinction. But most importantly, he was a pro-life Governor. He vetoed a number of pro-abortion pieces of legislation and made many pro-life appointments. He was always there for us. He's a busy man these days and we are extra fortunate that he and his wife Ann could be with us. Governor, you have been an inspirational leader in many ways. And if I may say so, Mitt, you're looking very presidential. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming our friend, Governor Mitt Romney, to the podium as our 2007 Mullins Award Winner for Outstanding Political Leadership." (Kevin Jourdain, Remarks, Agawam, MA, 5/10/2007)
  • Governor Romney Supports A Constitutional Amendment Defending Traditional Marriage. "While Romney is willing to generally leave it to states to decide how to set up health care coverage plans, he said it shouldn't be left to states to decide same-sex marriage issues. 'It's a status that lasts a lifetime. And so, if somebody is married in one state and they move to another state, that status travels with them. And so, if you have gay marriage in one state, whether you want it or not, you have gay marriage in all states,' Romney told reporters after speaking at a Greenville, S.C., restaurant." (Amy Lorentzen, "Iowa Gay Marriage Ruling Stirs 2008 Race," The Associated Press, 9/1/07)

ANNOUNCER: "The difference? Mitt Romney stood up, and vetoed in-state tuition for illegal aliens, opposed driver's licenses for illegals."*** Governor Romney Vetoed In-State Tuition For Illegal Immigrants. "Mr. Romney also cut several outside sections, including a plan that would allow illegal aliens to pay in-state tuition rates at state colleges and universities; he said the plan would encourage illegal Immigration." (Shaun Sutner, "Romney Approves $22.5B Budget," Telegram & Gazette, 6/26/04)

  • Governor Romney Opposed Efforts To Give Driver's Licenses To Illegal Immigrants. "'Those who are here illegally should not receive tacit support from our government that gives an indication of legitimacy,' the governor said, echoing arguments that opponents have voiced in the Commonwealth and in other states considering similar license measures. 'If they are here illegally, they should not get driver's licenses,' he said." (Scott S. Greenberger, "Romney Stand Dims Chances Of License For Undocumented," The Boston Globe, 10/28/03)

ANNOUNCER: "Mike Huckabee? Supported in-state tuition benefits for illegal immigrants. Huckabee even supported taxpayer-funded scholarships for illegal aliens. On Immigration, the choice matters."

  • Huckabee Fought To Pass A Bill Which Granted In-State Tuition Breaks For Illegals. "Other than the highway plan, the only bill in the governor's 21-bill legislative package that failed to win legislative approval was a proposal to make the children of illegal immigrants eligible for state-funded scholarships and in-state tuition to Arkansas colleges. After passing the House relatively early in the session, the bill faltered in the Senate where it was amended to remove the scholarship provision but fell just short of passage Tuesday and Wednesday. Huckabee said his office worked throughout the day Wednesday for the two Senate votes needed to pass the bill." (Melissa Nelson, "Governor Touts Successful End To Legislative Session," The Associated Press, 4/13/2005)
  • "'I Don't Understand The Opposition To It, I Just Honestly Don't,' Huckabee Said." (Melissa Nelson, "Governor Touts Successful End To Legislative Session," The Associated Press, 4/13/2005)
  • Huckabee Proposed Extending Taxpayer-Funded College Scholarships To Illegal Aliens. "Gov. Mike Huckabee is proposing extending eligibility for state-funded college scholarships to illegal aliens who graduate from Arkansas high schools * an idea that several legislators predicted will go nowhere" (Laura Kellams, "Huckabee Plan Would Aid Illegal Aliens," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 1/12/2005)
  • Huckabee Said It Was "Terribly Unjust" That Illegal Aliens Couldn't Have Taxpayer-Funded College Scholarships. "Huckabee said it's 'terribly unjust' for a child who arrived in Arkansas at a young age and graduated from high school to be denied state-funded college scholarships because of a 'a status that he had no control over.'" (Laura Kellams, "Huckabee Plan Would Aid Illegal Aliens," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 1/12/2005)

 

Romney Vs. Huckabee

 

 

Press Releases about Mike Huckabee

 

Issues

Foreign Policy

Mike Huckabee and the NIE Report

[Huckabee not aware of NIE report on Iran

Kuhn: I don’t know to what extent you have been briefed or been able to take a look at the NIE report that came out yesterday ...

 

Huckabee: I’m sorry?

Kuhn: The NIE report, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Have you been briefed or been able to take a look at it —

Huckabee: No.

Kuhn: Have you heard of the finding?

Huckabee: No.

Kuhn then summarized the NIE finding that Iran had stopped work on a clandestine nuclear program four years ago and asked if it “adjusts your view on Iran in any sense."

Kuhn: What is your concern on Iran as of now?

Huckabee: I’ve a serious concern if they were to be able to weaponize nuclear material, and I think we all should, mainly because the statements of Ahmadinejad are certainly not conducive to a peaceful purpose for his having it and the fear that he would in fact weaponize it and use it. (He pauses and thinks) I don’t know where the intelligence is coming from that says they have suspended the program or how credible that is versus the view that they actually are expanding it. … And I’ve heard, the last two weeks, supposed reports that they are accelerating it and it could be having a reactor in a much shorter period of time than originally been thought.

Kuhn: Does the United States face a higher burden of proof on Iran in light of Iraq, in the international community?

Huckabee: Probably so. First time I’ve been asked a question like that. But I think probably so because there is going to be a real anxiety for us to take any type of action without there being some very credible and almost irrefutable intelligence to validate our decision.

Kuhn: And then on the flip side of that. a conservative concern might be, does the United States, might they hedge, might they be timid from taking necessary aggressive action due to the failures of intelligence on Iraq, and our failures in Iraq itself?

Huckabee: I think that’s a possibility as well. And that would be unfortunate if we actually knew we needed to take action but were fearful of doing so because of getting burned in the Iraq situation. That would be a serious challenge for us.

 

Taxes

 

ARKANSAS LEADER:"WHO'S THE BIGGEST tax RAISER?"

By Ernie Dumas, Editorial writer for the Leader

December 1, 2007

"Mike Huckabee raised more taxes in 10 years in office than Bill Clinton did in his 12 years."

 

...

"Huckabee tax increases

  • Imposed an income tax surcharge of 3 percent on tax liabilities of individuals and domestic and foreign corporations (Act 38, 1st special session of 2003). (It was temporary until revenues improved. The legislature repealed it in 2005.)
  • Increased the sales tax by 1/8 of one percent by initiated act (but it was a personal campaign by Huckabee, who campaigned across the state for it and took a celebrated bass boat trip for 4 days down the Arkansas River holding press conferences in each river city to urge passage of the act)
  • Increased the sales tax by one-half of 1 percent (Act 1492 of 1999)
  • Increased the sales tax by 7/8ths of 1 percent and expand the sales tax to many services previously exempt from the tax (Act 107, 2nd special session of 2003)
  • Collected a 2 percent tax on chewing tobacco, cigars, package tobacco, cigarette papers and snuff (Act 434 of 1997)
  • Levied an additional excise tax of 7 percent on tobacco (Act 38 of 1st special session of 2003)
  • Increased the tax on cigarette and tobacco permits (Act 1337 of 1997)
  • Increased the tax on cigarette and tobacco – cigarettes by $1.25 per thousand cigarettes and 2 percent of the manufacturers? selling price on tobacco products (Act 434 of 1997)
  • Increased the tax on cigarettes by 25 cents a pack (Act 38, 1st special session of 2003)
  • Levied a 3 percent excise tax on all retail sales of beer (Act 1841 of 2001 and extended by Act 272 of 2003 and Act 2188 of 2005)
  • Revived the 4 percent mixed drink tax of 1989 and added a 4 percent tax on private clubs (Act 1274 of 2005)
  • Increased the tax on gasoline by 3 cents a gallon (Act 1028 of 1999)
  • Increased the tax on diesel by 4 cents a gallon (Act 1028 of 1999) Note: Contrary to what Huckabee has said repeatedly in debates, speeches and TV shows, the 1999 gasoline and diesel taxes were not submitted to the voters and approved by 80 per cent of them. ?
  • Increased the driver’s license by $6 a person, from $14 to $20 (Act 1500 of 2001)

...

"But if you look at the major taxes, I see the aggregate Huckabee taxes as greater, especially if you deduct the 4 cent gasoline and diesel taxes that Clinton vetoed in 1985 and that the legislature enacted over his veto.

"Anyway, the sales tax is the big revenue producer. Both raised it by 1.5 cents on the dollar and both expanded it to cover a myriad of services. Clinton raised motor fuel taxes a little more, Huckabee cigarette taxes a lot more.

"A further note: Huckabee claims credit for a major tax cut in 1997, saying it was the first tax cut in Arkansas history (there had been many prior to that) and that he forced the Democratic legislature to curtail its impulse to always raise taxes.

"The facts: The omnibus income tax cut bill of 1997 was proposed by Gov. Jim Guy Tucker in the spring of 1996."

...

"The 94 tax cuts that he said he fathered are similarly misleading. The vast majority of those were the usual exemptions and modifications of various taxes and fees that the legislature enacts every time it meets."

...

"If you counted all the tax benefits extended to corporations under the incentives enacted by the legislature under Clinton – and they were part of his programs, especially in 1983, 1985 and 1989 – the tax cuts would dwarf those under Huckabee."

 

To read the full editorial, please click [http://72.32.175.87:8080/opencms/opencms/News/Press-Releases/www.arkansasleader.com/2007/11/editorialswhos-biggest-tax-raiser.html|here].


Mike Huckabee: tax Raiser

The Wall Street Journal's Brendan Miniter: "Huckabee's tax Challenge":

"Huckabee's tax Challenge"

By Brendan Miniter

The Wall Street Journal's Opinion Journal's "Political Diary"

December 3, 2007

"Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is good at one-liners."

...

"Asked by a reporter what he thought about former Sen. Fred Thompson's attack ad that shows an old news clip of Mr. Huckabee as governor before he lost 100 pounds listing one tax after another he would support raising, the governor got off one of his better lines: He said that he must have been under the influence of sugar at the time.

 

"It's a good line, but not good enough."

...

"He likes to point out that as governor he cut taxes some 90 times. What he doesn't say, however, is that he also raised more than 20 different taxes for a net tax hike during his tenure of about $500 million. He also left it to his successor – Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe – to cut the state's hated sales tax, which Mr. Beebe did shortly after taking office.

 

"When we pressed Mr. Huckabee on his tax record a few months ago, he said he 'won't apologize' for raising taxes because he needed the money to repair his state's decrepit highways. Fresh asphalt always seems to appeal to Republican elected officials – especially those who love earmarking federal highway funds. But it's not something that will win over fiscal conservatives."...

 


 

Fair Tax?

 

Monday, Dec 03, 2007

... QUESTION GOVERNOR HUCKABEE'S RECORD

Immigration

Laura Ingraham On Governor Huckabee's Explanations For Giving Illegal Immigrants Tuition Breaks:

 

"The Laura Ingraham Show"

December 3, 2007

 

...

 

Ingraham: "I know Mike Huckabee is a nice man. And I know he has a wonderful style. And he's good on a lot of issues. He's great on the life issue. Great on marriage. Great on all these things. But on this Immigration issue, which is so important to so many of us, I am tired of this double speak. The taxpayers are footing the bill for this. This is the money of the taxpayers of Arkansas. And if you offer these benefits to illegal aliens, more illegal aliens will come into your state. That is just a fact.

 

"And people across this country have made their views known about this. So people can debate whether Giuliani is Catholic enough or Mitt Romney is Christian enough or John McCain is calm enough to be the president. But I think on this issue, we have to ask, 'Who is going to enforce this border?' 'Who is going to put teeth into these laws?' 'Who is going to represent the will of the people on an important issue culturally, for our health care, for our prisons, for our economic structure, for everything that we care about this issue is involved?' And on this issue, I think Huckabee has been a big loser. Okay? That is my view on this."...

 

To listen to Laura Ingraham, please click here.

 

Laura Ingraham: Huckabee Is A "Big Loser" On Immigration

Huckabee Supports In-State Tuition Breaks For Illegals

Huckabee Waffles On Federal Student Aid For Illegals

Huckabee Opposes Proof Of Citizenship For Voting

Top

Ethics

Gifts

Campaign cash

The ethics commission fined Huckabee $1,000 for failing to report that he paid himself $14,000 from his 1992 U.S. Senate campaign and $43,000 from his 1994 lieutenant governor's campaign.

The latter payment — for the use of his eight-seat, twin-engine plane — was reported in a cryptic way that didn’t identify Huckabee and his wife as the owners of the plane.

Huckabee sued the commission, alleging its investigation into the campaign payments violated state rules and his due process rights.

And he asked the judge to impose a statute of limitations on ethics complaints.

The commission, whose director accused Huckabee of trying “to shut the commission down,” sued Huckabee for trying to quash its subpoenas, though both sides dropped their suits after reaching an out-of-court settlement.

 

Governor’s mansion

In 1998, a former governor’s mansion employee and others sued Huckabee over his assertion that $70,000 worth of furniture donated to the governor's mansion was his to keep, as well as his family’s use of a $60,000-a-year fund.

The fund had been used to pay for pizza, a doghouse, a magazine subscription and pantyhose for Huckabee’s wife, Janet, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

The suit was settled with Huckabee admitting no wrongdoing but acknowledging a "dispute regarding reimbursements” and making clear the furniture was for the mansion.

'Wedding' registry

As the Huckabees prepared to leave the governor’s mansion last year for a private home in the Little Rock suburbs, Janet Huckabee’s friends set up registries on two stores' websites listing $7,000 worth of housewarming gifts, ranging from napkins to a $300 KitchenAid mixer.

Arkansas newspapers quoted state lawmakers criticizing the registries, which were listed as “wedding” registries, even though the Huckabees have been married since 1974.

Huckabee explained the only option other than weddings was baby showers.

And the couple lashed out at Arkansas media for their coverage of the registries, which Janet Huckabee told the Democrat-Gazette did “permanent damage.”

Mike Huckabee gives jobs to those who give him money

THE POLITICO ON GOV. HUCKABEE'S GIFT-GIVERS

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7401.html

"Huck's Gift-Givers Ended Up In State Posts"

Politico

By Kenneth P. Vogel

December 14, 2007

"Mike Huckabee accepted more than 90 gifts from 21 Arkansans he appointed to state posts during his decade as governor, a Politico analysis of state public records found.

"Since setting his sights on the White House, those supporters, their families and their companies have kept on giving. They contributed nearly $161,000 to a pre-presidential campaign account and Huckabee's official campaign committee since late last year, according to state and federal campaign finance records."

"In one year, the value of the gifts given to Huckabee amounted to more than $112,000 – nearly double his $67,000 state salary. And he wrangled with the state ethics Commission over gift rules, with the commission twice finding he’d broken them (one violation was later overturned).

"Huckabee twice sued the commission, once seeking a statute of limitations on ethics complaints and in another suit he sought to narrow the scope of prohibited gifts. Ironically, he was represented before the ethics commission by Crass and one other lawyer who donated their services – as gifts.

"Huckabee later named one of the attorneys, Tom Mars, to head the Arkansas State Police."

"Huckabee is an avid hunter and fisherman, and his appointees to the state’s influential Game and Fish Commission provide a window into the layered relationship he had with supporters. At least four Huckabee appointees to the seven-member commission had given the governor gifts and are now counted among his presidential donors.

"Ronald Pierce is one of Huckabee’s longtime fishing buddies and the owner of a bass boat manufacturer. From 1997 to 2000, Pierce loaned Huckabee a pair of boats that today would retail for about $40,000 each. He also gave Huckabee and his wife, Janet, jackets and rain suits.

"Huckabee named one of the loaner boats 'State Business' because, he once joshed, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, it allowed his secretary to tell callers 'He’s out on State Business' when he was on fishing trips.

"After Huckabee’s gifts drew some bad press, Huckabee became concerned that 'it would kind of look bad' if Pierce loaned him a new boat, Pierce told Politico. So Pierce’s company pulled its loaners and sold the governor a new boat – albeit at a reduced price usually reserved for professional fishermen whose patronage is good marketing. 'The governor driving your boat on the lake is going to help you,' Pierce explained.

"Huckabee last year tapped Pierce for a seat on the Game and Fish Commission and this year Pierce and his wife gave $4,600 to Huckabee’s presidential campaign."

"In all, Huckabee accepted more than $54,000 in clothes for himself and his family during his decade as governor. And the lion’s share – $25,000 – came from Jennings Osborne, a colorful Businessman who was by far the most generous gift giver to the Huckabees.

"Osborne, whose website describes him as 'Little Rock's own version of Elvis' gave Huckabee, his family and staff more than $60,000 worth of gifts, including $11,000 in flowers, nearly $12,000 worth of pastries and more than $25,000 in clothes.

"Huckabee appointed Osborne to a seat on the commission that oversees the stadium where the University of Arkansas football team plays some home games, and Osborne and his wife contributed $4,100 to Huckabee’s presidential campaign."

"Huckabee also gave appointments to givers of less extravagant gifts who have yet to appear in his campaign donation reports.

"He accepted a barbecue grill from a resort owned by the family of a man he appointed to the state’s State Parks, Recreation and Travel Commission.

"He accepted as gifts seemingly common services, including car repairs. He reported receiving free eye care and 'eye wear' from an optometrist and an ophthalmologist – both of whom he tapped for spots on the boards overseeing their respective professions.

"In 1996, when the governor’s mansion was being refurbished, Huckabee received free 'general contracting and interior design services' from designer Georg Anderson and furnishings from cotton magnate Charles Adams. The next year, Huckabee named Anderson, as well as Adams’ wife, Myrna Vine Adams, to the Arkansas Governor's Mansion Commission.

"When Adam's furniture gift, worth more than $70,000, was first revealed, Huckabee claimed it was his family’s to keep. He backed down after a lawsuit was filed over the furniture and his family’s use of a $60,000-a-year fund, which the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported had been used to pay for pizza, a doghouse, a magazine subscription and pantyhose for Janet Huckabee.

"The suit was settled with the furniture still in the mansion and Huckabee, while admitting no wrongdoing, acknowledging a dispute 'regarding reimbursements.'"

To read the full article, please see: http://dyn.politico.com

Top

 

San Diego Union-Tribune: "Meet The Huckster":

San Diego Union-Tribune

December 3, 2007

 

...

 

"Unfortunately for Huckabee, the positive first impression he often makes fades when you learn more about him. He may have been a solid steward in his 14 years as lieutenant governor and governor in Arkansas. But he also showed an enthusiasm for parlaying his public office into a cushy lifestyle that makes Fabian Nuñez, California's similarly inclined Assembly speaker, look like a Boy Scout.

 

"Over the years, Huckabee has:

 

  • "Used campaign funds to pay himself $14,000 for being his own media consultant.

 

  • "Used campaign funds to pay himself $43,000 for use of his private plane while attempting to hide what the payment was actually in return for.
  • "Used an account set up to cover operational costs of the governor's mansion to pay such obviously personal expenses as fast-food and dry-cleaning bills.
  • "Set up a nonprofit organization that paid him $23,500 without disclosing the source of the money.
  • "Attempted to take $70,000 of furniture with him when moving out of the governor's mansion.
  • "Took more than 130 gifts worth more than $300,000 – while suing to overturn a law that made him disclose the gifts.

*"We could go on in this vein, but space is limited. The bottom line: Mike Huckabee has an awful lot of explaining to do."...

 

To read the full editorial, please click here.

 


 

Romney is the only one who can beat Hillary. And the polls are starting to show it. He has been the most scrutinized candidate and his stock just keeps going up. Two Newsweek cover stories that were thinly veiled hit pieces — who else has been vetted that way? The thing is, Iowa Republicans don’t always put “electability” at the top of their checklist. It's on there, but not at the top. I think Rudy is a disaster for the party, he might personally fare well enough, but his positions will turn off so much of the base; even if it’s only 5-10-percent that stays home he kills GOP down-ballot races. Huckabee will get shredded by the Clintons — they know his Arkansas record better than anyone, and next to him, the Bill/Hill days suddenly look respectable — I mean they weren’t asking friends to furnish their house when they left office.


Articles About Mike Huckabee

None of The Below; By George F. Will

Sunday, December 2, 2007; B07

 

On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee's candidacy rests on serial non sequiturs: I am a Christian, therefore I am a conservative, therefore whatever I have done or propose to do with "compassionate," meaning enlarged, government is conservatism. And by the way, anything I denote as a "moral" issue is beyond debate other than by the uncaring forces of greed. His is a moralist's version of the intellectual vanity once ascribed to Oxford's Benjamin Jowett:

 

My name is Jowett

Of Balliol College;

If I don't know it,

It is not knowledge.

 

Many Iowans think it would be wise to nominate a candidate who, when the Republicans were asked during a debate to raise their hands if they do not believe in evolution, raised his. But, then, Huckabee believes America can be energy-independent in 10 years, so he has peculiar views about more than paleontology.

 

Huckabee combines pure moralism with incoherent populism: He wants Washington to impose a nationwide ban on smoking in public, show more solicitude for Americans of modest means and impose more protectionism, thereby raising the cost of living for Americans of modest means.

 

Although Huckabee is considered affable, two subliminal but clear enough premises of his Iowa attack on Mitt Romney are unpleasant: The almost 6 million American Mormons who consider themselves Christians are mistaken about that. And -* 55 million non-Christian Americans should take note -* America must have a Christian president.

 

Another pious populist who was annoyed by Darwin -* William Jennings Bryan -* argued that William Howard Taft, his opponent in the 1908 presidential election, was unfit to be president because he was a Unitarian, a persuasion sometimes defined as the belief that there is at most one God. The electorate chose to run the risk of entrusting the presidency to someone skeptical about the doctrine of the Trinity.

 

If Huckabee succeeds in derailing Romney's campaign by raising a religious test for presidential eligibility, that will be clarifying: In one particular, America was more enlightened a century ago.

 


 

“National media folk rave about what a nice guy Huckabee is,” said Quin Hillyer, a former editorial writer at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper. “If only they did a little home-work they would discover a guy with a thin skin, a nasty vindictive streak and a history of imbroglios about questionable ethics.”

 

During his 14-year career as governor he became embroiled in 14 official investigations and was fined five times for breaches of state rules. Most of the complaints against him concerned alleged infringements of rules on political campaign spending, notably when he failed to report that he had paid himself $14,000 to be his own media consultant in a 1992 campaign and did not disclose that he and his wife were the owners of a two-engine plane hired by his campaign for $43,000 in 1994. He was fined $1,000 by the state ethics commission.

 

In an online article entitled “The dark side of Mike Huckabee”, one of his former adversaries alleged that Huckabee “raked in tens of thousands of dollars in gifts, including gifts from people he later appointed to prestigious state commissions”.

 

His career has also been colored by 14 ethics complaints and a volley of questions about his integrity, ranging from his management of campaign cash to his use of a nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to his destruction of state computer files on his way out of the governor’s office.

 

They did, however, yield five admonitions and $1,000 in fines from Arkansas' Ethics Commission and, perhaps more significantly, a pattern that strategists for two competing GOP campaigns privately predict could become fodder for attacks playing on the culture-of-corruption theme Democrats used to pound Republicans in the 2006 midterm elections.

 

Huckabee didn’t get many ethics questions — or many tough questions about anything — as he languished at the bottom of the polls and the fundraising race through the summer.

 

After Huckabee fielded ethics questions last weekend on “Fox News Sunday,” campaign aides for former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who’s competing with Huckabee for socially conservative voters, put out a statement accusing Huckabee of “repeatedly dodging questions about his ethical problems.”

 

 

Action America

 

The commission found Huckabee unintentionally failed to disclose $23,500 he received from a nonprofit organization set up to handle his speaking engagements and supplement his income before he became governor.

 

The nonprofit, Action America, paid Huckabee a total of $41,500 in 1994 and 1995 but missed IRS filing deadlines for those years.

 

Huckabee has repeatedly declined to disclose the handful of benefactors who financed the group.

 

After Huckabee’s “Fox News Sunday” appearance, Thompson’s campaign accused the former governor of using Action America to “funnel his speaking fees through the organization and avoid disclosure requirements.”

 

Gifts

 

According to Huckabee’s disclosure reports, he accepted more than 300 gifts worth at least $130,000, ranging from $3,700 cowboy boots to a $600 chainsaw and $250 worth of dental care.

 

Plenty of politicians accept gifts of all sorts, but Huckabee had problems with Arkansas gift rules that bar public officials from accepting rewards for official action and require them to report the value and source of gifts.

 

He alleged in a second lawsuit against the commission that the rules were unconstitutionally vague.

 

Meanwhile, commissioners were investigating a $500 canoe that Coca-Cola gave him and ultimately fined him $250 for accepting it because they said it rewarded him for doing his job.

 

A judge later overturned the canoe decision but upheld an admonition for Huckabee’s failure to report receiving a $200 stadium blanket the same year.

 

Computer drives

 

Before leaving office Jan. 9, Huckabee spent $13,000 in state funds to destroy the hard drives of nearly 100 computers in the governor’s office.

 

He pointed out that he had backed up the data and argued that the hard drive destruction was standard practice to prevent the dissemination of sensitive information related to employees or constituents.

 

Critics suggested he was hiding something. But the ethics commission dismissed complaints alleging violations of record management rules.

 

That might not be the end of the story, though.

 

A lawyer is suing Huckabee, alleging that he misspent state money on the destruction.

 

 

 

Friday, Nov 30, 2007

 

... DISCUSS GOV. HUCKABEE'S

 

TAX-AND-SPEND RECORD

 

FACT: Arkansas Conservatives Have Widely Criticized Gov. Huckabee:

 

Betsy Hagan, Arkansas Director Of The Eagle Forum: "He Was Pro-Life And Pro-Gun, But Otherwise A Liberal" "Nor am I alone. Betsy Hagan, Arkansas director of the conservative Eagle Forum and a key backer of his early runs for office, was once 'his No. 1 fan.' She was bitterly disappointed with his record. 'He was pro-life and pro-gun, but otherwise a liberal,' she says. 'Just like Bill Clinton he will charm you, but don't be surprised if he takes a completely different turn in office.'" (John Fund, "Another Man From Hope," The Wall Street Journal, 10/26/2007)

 

Former Republican State Rep. Randy Minton Said That Gov. Huckabee's Record Will Turn Away Economic Conservatives. "Also that year, the state grappled with an economic downturn and a resulting budget shortfall. 'Republicans that believe in limited government and lower taxes and fees, they'll look at his record, and they won't be satisfied with it,' said former Republican state Rep. Randy Minton of Ward." (Daniel Nasaw, "Home Turf Not Rock Solid For Huckabee," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/4/07)

 

  • Huckabee Has Been Called "A Treacherous Liberal On Taxes, Social Welfare Spending And Illegal Immigration." "Mr. Minton voices the concerns of many conservatives that while Mr. Huckabee governed as a social conservative in opposing abortion and same-sex 'marriage,' he was a treacherous liberal on taxes, social welfare spending and illegal Immigration." (Ralph Z. Hallow, "Huckabee Stirs Up Third Party Fear," The Washington Times, 10/29/07)

 

Phyllis Schlafly Said That Huckabee "Destroyed The Conservative Movement In Arkansas." "Mrs. Schlafly, one of the most respected leaders in the social-conservative movement, has accused Mr. Huckabee of 'destroying' the conservative movement in Arkansas and leaving the GOP 'in shambles.' She says many of the evangelical Christians who 'sold' social conservative voters on President Bush in 2000 are now 'trying to sell us on Mike Huckabee.'" (Ralph Z. Hallow, "Huckabee Stirs Up Third Party Fear," The Washington Times, 10/29/07)

 

FACT: Newspapers In Arkansas Have Lambasted Gov. Huckabee And His Liberal Fiscal Record:

 

In An Editorial, The Arkansas Leader Called Huckabee "One Of The Most Liberal Governor's In Arkansas History." "His record has been both Huckabee’s strength and his Achilles? heel, as we have had occasion to observe. He is one of the most liberal governors in Arkansas history, having accounted for more tax increases than any other and having enlarged state government more than any other. He has exorbitantly inflated his record as a tax-cutter on the stump and now that will catch up with him. But we continue to believe that if he will shoot straight with the Republican constituencies, his record and his moderate views on such things as Immigration and government health assistance could make him the party?s best opponent to Sen. Hillary Clinton, the expected Democratic nominee. That is not the conventional wisdom, but it will be his best pitch." (Editorial, "Huck Keeps Moving Up," The Arkansas Leader, 10/31/2007)

 

Huckabee's tax Increases Were Mockingly Called The "Tax Me More Fund." "What a banana-splitting riot Gov. Mike Huckabee has conjured with his 'Tax Me More Fund' campaign. Those of us who don't feel we are being adequately peeled by government now are free to send our tax-deductible contributions to the state." (Mike Masterson, Op-Ed, "Bananas And Taxes," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 12/6/01)

 

  • "I don't know about you, but I could hardly wait to get my additional tax dollar in the mail this week. It's becoming increasingly obvious to me, in light of Huckabee's enlightened leadership, that we should acknowledge how we are not being taxed enough in Arkansas today. Why, just this week I found myself complaining to an underpaid Quickie Mart attendant that I didn't feel the 33 cents or so a gallon I am paying for highway construction and maintenance is nearly enough. It certainly wasn't enough to keep us from enjoying the two worst interstates in America, so I left an extra quarter on the counter." (Mike Masterson, Op-Ed, "Bananas And Taxes," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 12/6/01)

 

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: Huckabee Is "Economically Illiterate" And Needs A "Refresher Course In Basic Economics." "The time to investigate the wisdom of this tax was before the Guv signed it into law. A refresher course in basic economics might have helped, too. Only the economically illiterate believe that businesses can be taxed without their passing the costs on to those who buy their goods and services--in this case, nursing home patients. To pretend otherwise is to ignore not just economics but human nature." (Editorial, "In Shock," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 6/20/01)

 

Huckabee Was Widely Criticized For His Record Budgets. "Beware of rosy budgets submitted by governors addicted to easy money. We're not just talking tacos and pantyhose anymore. We're talking about the biggest state budget ever proposed. We're talking billions, three of them and change. And that's just general revenue; it doesn't count those other hundreds of millions Gov. Mike Huckabee apparently wants to raise by going in debt for highways based on federal money to come." (John Brummett, Op-Ed, "Huckabee's Easy-Money Budget," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 11/17/98)

 

  • "For perspective: Huckabee's budget is more like one submitted by Bill Clinton than Jim Guy Tucker. Clinton sometimes overbudgeted, which meant that when tax collections lagged he was required by the Revenue Stabilization Act to order across-the-board reductions in spending levels to keep the budget balanced. Tucker, who governed during periods of growth, was notorious for stingy budgeting that produced end-of-year windfalls. " (John Brummett, Op-Ed, "Huckabee's Easy-Money Budget," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 11/17/98)

 

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Said Huckabee's Grocery tax Allowed The State "To Grind The Faces Of The Poor." "Yes, There have been failures, too. Mike Huckabee has shown a growing weakness for the easy, politically savvy solution rather than real reform. Instead of eliminating the tax on groceries, he fiddled and compromised and finally caved in to the Legislature. And so the state continues to grind the faces of the poor, and the working poor, and just those on a tight budget, every time they buy their bread and milk." (Editorial, "For Mike Huckabee," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/29/98)


Huckabee and Giuliani Support Tuition Breaks For Illegal Immigrants

 

Thursday, Nov 29, 2007

 

"Most annoying to some conservatives are Mr. Huckabee's positions on Immigration. For many Republicans, Immigration is the deal-breaker in judging which candidate is worthy of support. '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,' said Jim Boulet Jr., executive director of English First, a Springfield, Va., lobbying group." (Ralph Z. Hallow, "Huckabee Stirs Up Third Party Fear," Washington Times, 10/29/2007)

 

In The CNN/YouTube Debate, Mayor Giuliani Claimed His Sanctuary Policies Were Limited To Essential Services:

 

Mayor Giuliani Said That New York City Only Allowed Illegal Immigrants To Go To School, Report Crimes, And Receive Emergency Medical Care. MAYOR GIULIANI: "New York City was not a sanctuary city. New York City did three exceptions. The three exceptions were to allow children to go to school, to allow those illegal immigrants who were the victims of crime to report the person who assaulted them, beat them up, mugged them. And third, to allow emergency care in the hospitals, which we were required to do by federal law." (CNN/YouTube, Republican Presidential Candidate Debate, St. Petersburg, FL, 11/28/2007)

 

FACT: The Sanctuary Policies Mayor Giuliani Supported Led To Tuition Breaks For Illegal Aliens:

 

ABC News: "New York Became A Sanctuary City ... Through An Executive Order Signed By Mayor Ed Koch In 1989." "New York became a sanctuary city, where illegal immigrants enjoy some measure of protection, through an executive order signed by Mayor Ed Koch in 1989, five years before Giuliani became mayor in January 1994. But if Giuliani inherited the policy, he reissued it and seemed to embrace it." (Jake Tapper and Ron Claiborne, "Romney: Giuliani's NYC 'Sanctuary' For Illegal Immigrants," ABC News, 8/8/2007)

 

In Response To Executive Order 124, CUNY Gave In-State Tuition To Illegal Immigrants. "Responding to the 1989 Order, CUNY changed its tuition policy, applying the above provision by making undocumented or out-of-status alien students eligible for the resident rate of tuition.8 This policy allowed undocumented students to pay the resident tuition rate, if they had resided in New York State for twelve months or had attended a New York City high school for the previous two semesters.9." ("Report Of The Human Services Division," The Council Of The City Of New York, http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/, 5/31/02)

 

  • "The Policy Was Maintained From 1989 Until 1996 Without Any Comment Or Controversy." ("Report Of The Human Services Division," The Council Of The City Of New York, http://webdocs.nyccouncil.info/, 5/31/02)

 

After Signing Executive Order 124, Koch Praised CUNY's Policy To Give In-State Tuition To Illegal Immigrants. '"The City of New York has declared that all undocumented immigrants are eligible for city services without qualification,' the Mayor said in a letter to the chancellor last week, referring to a policy initiated in 1985. The letter praised the new tuition policy." (Marvine Howe, "CUNY To Enroll Some Illegal Aliens As Residents," The New York Times, 8/9/89)

 

  • "The University Said The Approach Reflected The City's Historic Support For Immigrants And Conformed To Policy Laid Out By Mayor Edward I. Koch In 1989." (Karen W. Arenson, "Illegal Immigrants At CUNY," The New York Times, 10/31/01)

 

Giuliani Reaffirmed CUNY's Policy Of Giving In-State Tuition To Illegal Immigrants When He Renewed New York's Sanctuary Policy. "CUNY's policy of charging illegal immigrants the lower rate reflected the city's historic embrace of immigrants and conformed to a policy laid out by Mayor Edward I. Koch in 1989 and reaffirmed by Mayors David N. Dinkins and Rudolph W. Giuliani. In reviewing the policy, Mr. Schaffer came across a brief section of a 1996 Immigration law that said illegal immigrants should not be eligible for educational benefits not available to American citizens from other states, CUNY officials said. When the law was passed, CUNY lawyers reviewed it and decided that the university should not make changes until regulations were issued to carry out the law. Mr. Schaffer said he concluded, however, that at this point the university had no choice but to change its tuition policy." (Karen W. Arenson, "CUNY Raises Tuition Rates For Foreigners Here Illegally," The New York Times, 11/3/01)

 

As Mayor, Giuliani Actually Invited More Illegal Immigrants To Come To New York. "[Mr. Giuliani said,] 'If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you're one of the people who we want in this city. You're somebody that we want to protect, and we want you to get out from under what is often a life of being like a fugitive, which is really unfair.'" (Deborah Sontag, "New York Officials Welcome Immigrants, Legal Or Illegal," The New York Times, 6/10/94)

 

The New York Times Headline, 1994: "New York Officials Welcome Immigrants, Legal Or Illegal"

 

In The CNN/YouTube Debate, Gov. Huckabee Claimed He Didn't Support Tuition Breaks For Illegal Aliens:

 

Gov. Huckabee Said He Did Not Support Giving Illegals Tuition Breaks. GOV. HUCKABEE: "Ashley, first of all let me just express that you're a little misinformed. We never passed a bill that gave special privileges to the children of illegals to go to college." (CNN/YouTube, Republican Presidential Candidate Debate, St. Petersburg, FL, 11/28/2007)

 

Gov. Huckabee Went On To Claim That What He Actually Supported Was Achievement-Based Scholarships, Not Tuition Breaks. GOV. HUCKABEE: "Let me tell you what I did do. I supported the bill that would have allowed those children who had been in our schools their entire school life, the opportunity to have the same scholarship that their peers had, who had also gone to high school with them and sat in the same classrooms. They couldn't just move in in their senior year and go to college. It wasn't about out-of-state tuition, it was an academic meritorious scholarship, called the academic challenge scholarship." (CNN/YouTube, Republican Presidential Candidate Debate, St. Petersburg, FL, 11/28/2007)

 

FACT: The Bill Huckabee Actually Pushed To Pass Granted ONLY In-State Tuition Breaks For Illegals:

 

The Scholarship Portion Of The Bill Huckabee Supported Was Stripped From The Bill. "The bill began as one touted by Gov. Mike Huckabee to allow undocumented Arkansans to qualify for state-sponsored academic scholarships the same way as legal residents. The governor, who drew criticism from some quarters for backing the proposal, said children who have been good students deserve the same opportunities, regardless of their parents' standing. Hard-liners, led by state Sen. Jim Holt, R-Springdale, said 'illegal aliens,' as they prefer, have no rights because they're lawbreakers. It may not be fair to single Holt out because he had plenty of company. When House Bill 1525 stalled in a Senate committee, the scholarship portion of the bill was stripped out, sending the measure to the Senate floor, where it failed twice, the final time by only two votes." (Dennis Byrd, "Federal Judge: Illegal Immigrants Qualify For Tuition Breaks," Arkansas News, 7/10/2005; http://www.arkansasnews.com/)

 

And The Bill That Was Actually Voted On Only Included In-State Tuition Breaks For Illegals:

 

  • H.B. 1525, "Access To Postsecondary Education Act Of 2005":

www.arkleg.state.ar.us/ftproot/bills/2005/public/HB1525.pdf

 

Governor Huckabee Fought To Pass The Stripped Bill Which Granted ONLY In-State Tuition Breaks For Illegals. "Other than the highway plan, the only bill in the governor's 21-bill legislative package that failed to win legislative approval was a proposal to make the children of illegal immigrants eligible for state-funded scholarships and in-state tuition to Arkansas colleges. After passing the House relatively early in the session, the bill faltered in the Senate where it was amended to remove the scholarship provision but fell just short of passage Tuesday and Wednesday. Huckabee said his office worked throughout the day Wednesday for the two Senate votes needed to pass the bill. 'I don't understand the opposition to it, I just honestly don't,' Huckabee said." (Melissa Nelson, "Governor Touts Successful End To Legislative Session," The Associated Press, 4/13/2005)

 

The Washington Post Recently Noted That Huckabee Has Been Misleading On The Issue. "On Fox News Wednesday, he was asked about a bill he supported as governor that would have granted tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants. He suggested that he had only wanted to give such children access to scholarships. 'What I supported was the idea that if a student had been in our Arkansas high schools and had done academically well to be able to compete for an academic challenged scholarship which was meritorious then that student should be able to have the same opportunity as anyone else,' Huckabee said. In fact, the initial bill he supported did have a scholarship provision. But that provision was later stripped out, and was not included in the legislation that Huckabee continued to push. The bill read: 'Any tuition rate that is granted to residents of Arkansas shall be granted on the same terms to all persons, regardless of Immigration status, who have attended a secondary educational institution in Arkansas for at least three (3) years and who have either graduated from an Arkansas high school or received a general education diploma in the state.'" (Michael D. Shear, "Rising in Iowa Polls, Huckabee Now In Crosshairs," The Washington Post, http://blog.washingtonpost.com/, Posted 11/15/2007)

 

Also see information about Rudy Giuliani here.

 


Donald Lambro in the Washington Times concludes:

 

Mr. Huckabee says he would like to eliminate the Internal Revenue Service and replace the income Tax with the so-called Fair Tax, which would impose a national sales Tax on virtually everything we buy. But such a Tax would be a disaster for this country, especially for low* and middle-income Americans who spend a disproportionate portion of their earnings — in many cases all of it — on the necessities of life.

 

It would wreak untold havoc on the business community, driving down retail sales and creating an underground economy that would undermine America's productive marketplace — especially small businesses that produce most of the jobs in our country.

 

The Club for Growth was formed with one purpose: to promote economic growth by lowering the Tax rates, simplifying the Tax code and providing Tax incentives to expand business formation, savings, investment and economic opportunity. It has praised the Tax-cut proposals of Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and other contenders for the Republican nomination.

 

But last week Mr. Huckabee labeled the respected Tax-cutting group "The Club for Greed," a charge that sounded more like the invective spewed from Al Gore, Howard Dean or socialist Bernie Sanders.

 

The Arkansas Republican is fond of bashing corporate CEOs and their salaries, thinks a higher minimum wage won't hurt entry-level job creation, and apparently doesn't mind slapping higher sales taxes on the most vulnerable people in our economy.

 

The next president will face huge fiscal issues in 2009, such as rising entitlements that threaten to engulf the federal budget and what to do about President Bush's Tax cuts that are due to expire in 2010 — a demise that would raise taxes by trillions of dollars.

 

That's when we will need strong, principled leadership to keep a likely Democratic Congress from sending income taxes through the roof. It's something Iowa voters need to think deeply about in the days to come.

 

In-State Tuition For Illegals

 

Huckabee on Taxes

 

Huckabee Hiked taxes To Keep Government Running

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX7kPQNO0RM

 

STEPHANOPOULOS: "Let me move to your record on taxes in Arkansas which is also coming under a lot of scrutiny and great criticism from this group called the Club For Growth, which is now starting to run ads in Iowa about your record. Here's part of it."

 

HUCKABEE: "There's a lot of support for a tax at the wholesale level for tobacco, and that's fine with me. I will very happily sign that. Others have suggested a surcharge on the income tax. That's acceptable. I'm fine with that."

 

STEPHANOPOULOS: "And the tax burden in Arkansas did go up during your tenure from about $1,900 per person to $2,900 per person over 10 years and also an overall increase of about $500 million. So how do you plead to the charge of raising taxes?"

 

HUCKABEE: "Well, first of all I plead to the charge of cutting taxes 94 times. I also recognize that the income tax was the same when I left office as it was when I started. The overall tax burden according to the U.S. Department of commerce, state and local taxes in my state in the nearly 11 years I was governor went up by 1.1%. Now, the critics are going to point to that particular clip, George, and always first of all say I'm more embarrassed by how I looked at that particular point than by what I said because that was a put or shut up moment as I spoke to the legislature. If you play that whole speech what you would see is that the context was we were days away from a budget shutdown that would have closed the government in Arkansas. We had had an impasse on the budget. I was taking various positions of here's how we can fix this budget crisis and every time I said this might work, there would be a press conference by some the democrat legislators who were saying if that's what the governor wants we're against it. So what I did was go to the legislature and I said ok, you don't like any of my plans, fine, let's come up with yours and I started listing what some of theirs were. And the context of that speech was you want a surcharge, you want a sales tax, okay, but we've got to have a budget, people. We've got to come up with a way to keep state government working. We've got people in nursing homes. We have schools to run. We have roads to take care of. And we can't afford a complete meltdown of the government."

 

STEPHANOPOULOS: "But if that’s the right…"

 

HUCKABEE: "So if you don't like my ideas let's get yours out there."

 

STEPHANOPOULOS: "If that's the right thing to do as governor when you're facing a crisis, why wouldn't it be the right thing to do as president? Now in this presidential campaign you have signed a pledge saying you wouldn't raise taxes under any circumstances."

 

HUCKABEE: "Because I don't think the federal government needs more money. If you look at the spending issues that we have, it's pretty evident to me that we need some policy changes more than we need some tax changes at the federal level. So it's a different thing when you're running a state government and you have to balance your budget, you have to make sure that you're living within the means and the second thing is, you're constantly barraged by federal programs pushed down your throat. That's why nearly every one of the governors, 43 governors, I believe, maybe 48 face serious budget shortfalls in '01/'02 because of the combination of the recession, federal mandates that were unfunded, as well as the impact and effects of 2000, of 9/11." (ABC's "This Week," 12/2/07)

 

 

National Review's Lowry Smacks Huck

 

From Rich Lowry's New York Post column

 

 

Mike Huckabee isn't running a substance-free campaign based on biography and applause lines. No, the former Arkansas governor has the distinction of advocating the most radical * and politically unsalable and substantively daft * proposal of any major presidential candidate.

It's the so-called FairTax: It would eliminate the income and payroll taxes and replace them with a (supposedly) 23 percent national sales tax. Huckabee says, "When the FairTax becomes law, it will be like waving a magic wand releasing us from pain and unfairness." Waving a magic wand is about right * since the FairTax is a bedtime story for IRS-hating conservatives.

Huckabee adopted the plan when he was unknown and languishing far back in the polls. It probably seemed a cheap way to inoculate him from his history as Arkansas governor: his tax hikes outweighed his tax cuts by half a billion dollars.

 

 

Powerline's Paul Mirengoff: Huckabee "[http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2007/12/019190.php|even less qualified to be president than I suspected]."

 

http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/

 

Huckabee: Force Behind My Rise in Polls Is 'Not Human'

 

First Mrs. Huckabee:

 

Janet Huckabee also admitted she is "very disappointed" in the National Right to Life's decision to endorse Thompson over her husband. "Mike has been a true Right to Life person,” she said. “He's marched in the Right to Life parades for 13 years. He's just been a big supporter pro-life legislation, and it was disappointing to him."

 

"God's a big God," Huckabee continued. "If he wants us to continue to go and to fight the giants, we'll do that. You remember Jesus feeding the 5,000 with two fishes and five loaves. So, we're multiplying our money. Every dollar spends like a thousand and every prayer we get is like a million bucks."

 

Comparing effective use of campaign funds to a miracle? Cringe. Well, it's just the candidate's wife, it's not like Huckabee would say something like...

 

STUDENT: Recent polls show you surging... What do you attribute this surge to?

 

HUCKABEE: There's only one explanation for it, and it's not a human one. It's the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of five thousand people. (Applause) That's the only way that our campaign can be doing what it's doing. And I'm not being facetious nor am I trying to be trite. There literally are thousands of people across this country who are praying that a little will become much, and it has. And it defies all explanation, it has confounded the pundits. And I'm enjoying every minute of them trying to figure it out, and until they look at it, from a, just experience beyond human, they'll never figure it out. And it's probably just as well. That's honestly why it's happening.

 

Wow. Huckabee's been endorsed by both Chuck Norris AND Jesus Christ.

 

Dang. Here I was looking at poll numbers, advertising, and endorsements, when I should have been detailing and quantifying the "not human" factor in the race.

 

http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/01/a_report_on_mike_Huckabees_fis.php

 

Mike Huckabee's Record on Economic Issues

Club for Growth Releases First Presidential White Paper

Is Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee a Pro-Growth, Economic Conservative?

 

WASHINGTON * The strength of our economy and the opportunities available to Americans could depend significantly on whether or not our next President supports limited-government, pro-growth, free-enterprise policies. Many candidates will say they do support these policies. For some, their records in office suggest otherwise.

"Governor Huckabee says he is a fiscal conservative," Club for Growth President Pat Toomey said, "but his ten-year economic-policy record as the governor of Arkansas is mixed, at best. His history includes numerous tax hikes, ballooning government Spending, and increased regulation. To be sure, Governor Huckabee's record displays an occasional deference to a pro-growth philosophy, but that is only a small slice of a much bigger picture. The Club for Growth feels citizens deserve a full picture of where Governor Huckabee stands on the critical economic issues of the day."

 

For the full report on Huckabee, click here for the printable PDF file, or click below for the blog version.

taxes

The Club for Growth is committed to lower taxes across the board. Lower taxes on work, savings, and investments lead to greater levels of these activities, thus encouraging greater economic growth.

  • Immediately upon taking office, Governor Huckabee signed a sales tax hike in 1996 to fund the Games and Fishing Commission and the Department of Parks and Tourism (Cato Policy Analysis No. 315, 09/03/98).
  • He supported an internet sales tax in 2001 (Americans for tax Reform 01/07/2007).
  • He publicly opposed the repeal of a sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002 (Arkansas News Bureau 08/30/02).
  • He signed bills raising taxes on gasoline (1999), cigarettes (2003) (Americans for tax Reform 01/07/2007), and a $5.25 per day bed-tax on private nursing home patients in 2001 (Arkansas New Bureau 03/01/01).
  • He proposed another sales take hike in 2002 to fund education improvements (Arkansas News Bureau 12/2005/02).
  • He opposed a congressional measure to ban internet taxes in 2003 (Arkansas News Bureau 11/21/03).
  • In 2004, he allowed a 17% sales tax increase to become law (The Gurdon Times 03/02/04).

 

By the end of his ten-year tenure, Governor Huckabee was responsible for a 37% higher sales tax in Arkansas, 16% higher motor fuel taxes, and 103% higher cigarette taxes according to Americans for tax Reform (01/07/2007), garnering a lifetime grade of D from the free-market Cato Institute. He joined Democrats in criticizing the Republican Party for tilting its tax policies "toward the people at the top end of the economic scale" (Washington Examiner 09/13/2006), even though objective evidence demonstrates that the Bush tax cuts have actually shifted the tax burden to higher income taxpayers.

Finally, Governor Huckabee opposed further tax cuts at a 2005 gathering of Iowa conservatives (AP 09/17/2005). On January 28, 2007, Governor Huckabee refused to pledge not to raise taxes if elected President, first on Meet the Press and then at the National Review Conservative Summit. The evidence suggests that his commitment to protecting taxpayers evidenced may be a thing of the past.

Spending

 

The Club for Growth is committed to reducing government Spending. Less Spending enhances economic growth by enabling lower taxes and diminishing the economically inefficient political allocation of resources.

Under Governor Huckabee's watch, state Spending increased a whopping 65.3% from 1996 to 2004, three times the rate of inflation (Americans for tax Reform 01/07/2007). The number of state government workers rose 20% during his tenure (Arkansas Leader 04/15/2006), and the state's general obligation debt shot up by almost $1 billion, according to Americans for tax Reform. The massive increase in government Spending is due in part to the number of new programs and expansion of already existing programs initiated by Governor Huckabee, including ARKids First, a multimillion-dollar government program to provide health coverage for thousands of Arkansas' children (Arkansas News Bureau 04/13/2006).

These large increases in government borrowing and Spending significantly impede economic growth.

Free Trade

 

Free trade is a vital precondition necessary for maximizing economic growth. In recent decades, America's commitment to expanding trade has resulted in lower costs for consumers, job growth for exporters, and higher levels of productivity and innovation.

Entitlement Reform

 

America's major middle-class entitlement programs are already insolvent. The Club for Growth supports entitlement reforms that enable personal ownership of retirement and healthcare programs, benefit from market returns, and diminish dependency on government.

Regulation

Excessive government regulation stymies individual and business innovation necessary for strong economic expansion. The Club for Growth supports less government regulation as a critical step toward increasing freedom and growth in the marketplace.

  • Huckabee raised the minimum wage in April 2006 from $5.15 to $6.25 an hour and encouraged Congress to take the same initiative on a national level (US Newswire 08/03/2006), a proposal that President Bush and most congressional GOP members oppose.
  • Sought to take revenue from his tax hike proposal to be used on economic development projects in 2002 (AP, 11/22/02).
  • Threatened to investigate price-gouging after 9/11 if gasoline prices went up too high (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 09/12/01).
  • Ordered regulatory agencies in Arkansas to investigate price-gouging in the nursing home industry (AP, 06/15/01).
  • Signed a bill into law that would prevent companies from raising their prices a mere 10% ahead of a natural disaster. Services like roof repair and tree removal were targeted (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 03/07/97).

School Choice

The Club for Growth supports broad school choice, including charter schools and voucher programs that create a competitive education market including public, private, religious, and non-religious schools. More competition in education can only lead to higher quality and lower costs.

Governor Huckabee is on record opposing the most important element of genuine school choice-voucher programs that allow poor students in failing public schools to attend private schools and inject much needed competition into a decrepit public education system-because of a concern about government control of parochial schools (Arkansas Times 09/22/2005). He also called No Child Left Behind "the greatest education reform effort by the federal government in my lifetime," (Washington Times 03/01/2005) a program that stripped schools of local control and increased federal Spending on education by 48% over three years (Heritage.org 11/09/2006).

Political Free Speech

 

Maximizing prosperity requires sound government policies. When the government strays from these policies, citizens must be free to exercise their constitutional rights to petition and criticize those policies and the politicians responsible for them.

Governor Huckabee is on record criticizing the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform, though the majority of his criticism has focused on discriminatory measures that allows senators to transfer money from Senate committees to presidential runs, but deny governors the same freedom to move state funds into federal accounts. While he called for less restrictions and more disclosure regarding campaign contributions (The Hill 11/29/2006) and okayed unlimited soft money provided full disclosure (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 03/10/00), Governor Huckabee is also on record favoring limiting individual, PAC, corporate, and political party contributions to state candidates (votesmart.org 2002).

Summation

The overwhelming evidence of his record and rhetoric over the past ten years leaves the Club for Growth and economic conservatives around the country to wonder if a President Huckabee would espouse the relatively pro-growth policies of Governor Huckabee circa 1997 or the anti-growth policies of Governor Huckabee circa 2004. While the Governor has made a concerted effort to defend his record, calling oneself an economic conservative does not make one so. His recent refusals to rule out raising taxes if elected President-the cornerstone of a pro-growth platform-perhaps indicate which path he would choose.

 

Huckabee = Pat Robertson, 1988 by St. Louis Conservative

....evangelist former preacher overperforms in the Iowa straw, and beat out the eventual nominee (H W Bush) in the Iowa caucus. He wows the rural Iowa voters with his piety and religious passion, whipping up social conservative support by the bushel....only to crash and burn in New Hampshire and afterward.

 

Does anyone else see this parallel?

 

“.....women and minorities hardest hit”

 

Reply To This — User Info — #20

 

Re: Huckabee = Pat Robertson, 1988 by Spiral

That's an astute comparison. But there are two big differences between the 1988 situation and the 2008 race.

 

In 1988, the GOP had two mainstream, top tier, candidates: Vice President George H W Bush and Bob Dole. In this race, you really don't have anyone who can legitimately say, "It's my turn." Now, I actually like the idea of evaluating GOP candidates for president based on something other than seniority. But that there is no obvious frontrunner in this race makes Huckabee's candidacy more plausible.

 

Huckabee has been elected to statewide office more than once. Pat Robertson, to my knowledge, never ran for any political office until he ran for president in 1988.

 

That's why we can't be sure that Huckabee will flame out the way Robertson did (and Pat Buchanan did in 1996). It's still an open question.

 

Reply To This — User Info — #21

Huckabee & Robertson by RainbowRepublican

From what I understand, Pat Robertson's Iowa campaign was less "elect me because I'm a big time Christian" than Huckabee's campaign has been. If that's true, it should cause us all to pause and contemplate how crazy that is.

 

 

THE WASHINGTON TIMES TAKES A LOOK AT GOVERNOR HUCKABEE'S RECORD

"Mike Huckabee"

The Washington Times

Editorial

December 11, 2007

 

...

 

"Now that Mr. Huckabee has reached first place in Iowa polls, those days are over. His 10 ½ years as Arkansas governor and his conservative credentials are now relentlessly scrutinized, and Mr. Huckabee is under fire for substantial increases in taxes and spending by the Club for Growth and the CATO Institute. Numbers USA, a research and advocacy organization which opposes illegal Immigration and monitors politicians' records on the issue, is sharply critical of his record as governor."

 

...

 

"But the overall thrust of his record appears to be big-government liberalism. As governor, this included such things as: signing a sales-tax increase; supporting an Internet sales tax; opposing repeal of a sales tax on groceries and medicine; signing bills raising taxes on gasoline and cigarettes; and opposing a congressional ban on Internet taxes.

 

"On Mr. Huckabee's watch, state spending increased by 65.3 percent, three times the rate of inflation, and the number of state government workers increased 20 percent during his tenure.

 

"As for his positions on economic issues, Mr. Huckabee is a mixed bag."

 

...

 

"Mr. Huckabee has come under withering fire from critics of illegal Immigration. Asked last month about complaints that he is 'soft' on illegals, the former Arkansas governor said he opposed sanctuary cities and opposes amnesty, although he contradicted himself somewhat by adding that he believes illegal aliens can be put on a path to citizenship.

 

"Asked on ABC Television's 'This Week' about his Arkansas record on the issue, Mr. Huckabee replied: 'You don't punish a child because a parent committed a crime, or committed a sin, you just don't do it.' He didn't rule out extending this principle to the federal level, but suggested that he might view state and federal benefits differently."

 

...

 

"With no experience conducting or voting on foreign policy issues, Mr. Huckabee's comments and writings are closely scrutinized. Within the past week, he has decried waterboarding of captured terrorists, called for shutting down the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and suggested that America could bolster its standing in the world by treating other nations with more 'respect.' You can bet that if Mr. Huckabee continues his surge in the polls, his opponents will go to great lengths to try to force him to give more structured, coherent explanations of his world view."

 

To read the full editorial, please click here.

 

 

It's worse than just Wayne Dumond

Pardons

Huckabee and criminals: It's worse than just Wayne DuMond

 

[http://images.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/12/14/Huckabee/story.jpg] Convicted rapist Wayne DuMond, right, is released from prison on parole in Tucker, Ark., Oct. 22, 1999.

 

Huckabee and criminals: It's worse than just Wayne DuMond

The former governor's feckless, faith-based clemency policies in Arkansas continued for years after the convicted rapist was released.

By Joe Conason

 

Dec. 14, 2007 | Responding to accusations that he caused a rapist and killer named Wayne DuMond to be set loose from the Arkansas prison system -* leading ultimately to the murder of at least one and probably two women in Missouri -* Mike Huckabee has long denied any personal responsibility for that profoundly stupid decision. In the past he has tried to blame DuMond's parole on both Bill Clinton and Jim Guy Tucker, who preceded him as governor. More recently, he has denounced the charge that he pressured the Arkansas parole board into freeing DuMond, who has since died, as "nonsense."

 

And now Huckabee, who plainly hoped to please the prisoner's deranged right-wing advocates back when he promised to commute DuMond's sentence, says that he laments the politicization of a tragedy.

 

"There are families who are truly, understandably and reasonably, grief-stricken," he told CNN, referring to the relatives of DuMond's victims, including the mother of a Missouri woman he raped and murdered who has vowed to campaign against Huckabee. "And for people to now politicize these deaths and to try to make a political case out of it rather than to simply understand that a system failed and that we ought to extend our grief and heartfelt sorrow to these families, I just regret politics is reduced to that."

 

According to good old Huck, the fault still lies elsewhere, presumably with that nebulous "system." How could anyone believe that he would let a vicious killer and rapist walk free? It is all too believable, if only because Huckabee continued to exercise his powers of clemency and commutation just as foolishly and frivolously for years after he should have learned better from the DuMond mistake. He bestowed those favors on prisoners he happened to meet, on prisoners with personal connections to him or his family, and especially on prisoners recommended to him by pastors whom he happened to know from his own previous career as a Baptist minister and denominational leader. As with DuMond, whose case was pleaded by a preacher named Jay Cole, prisoners guilty of heinous crimes could be washed clean in Huckabee's estimation if a pastor of his acquaintance importuned him. Among the thugs to whom he granted clemency was a robber who had beaten a man to death with a lead pipe.

 

For several years after 1996, when he first considered parole for DuMond (he was released in 1999), the Arkansas governor freed as many as 1,000 prisoners. Some were undoubtedly deserving of release (?), but others were dangerous and violent felons like DuMond who should have been kept behind bars. Huckabee's questionable methods and motivations never changed until prosecutors, the media, his fellow Republicans and virtually the entire state of Arkansas rose up in protest against his idiocy.

 

The case that sparked the citizen revolt against Huckabee came to public attention in 2004, when he announced his intention to release a murderer and rapist named Glen Green. What seems to have impressed him was the endorsement of Green provided by one Rev. Johnny Jackson, a Baptist minister in the town of Jacksonville and friend of the governor's. Observers doubted that Huckabee had bothered to glance at the case file before he decided to release Green, because he could not have helped being chilled by the harrowing confession it contained.

 

In 1974, Green was serving as a sergeant at Little Rock Air Force Base, located in a suburban county outside the state capital. On a certain evening, he seized Helen Lynnette Spencer, 18, and brought her to a quiet spot on the base where he assaulted and tried to rape her. She briefly escaped from Green, who then caught her and beat her brutally with nunchaku sticks. He stuffed her into the trunk of his car and drove her off the base to another county, where he pulled her into the front seat and violated her. Since she wasn't dead, he ran over her several times with his car, and finally dumped her corpse in a bayou. When Spencer's body was found, her hand was reaching up from the swampy waters.

 

This was the series of events that Green and his gullible minister -* who reportedly described the perp as "a humble Christian man" -* later insisted had been "accidental," an explanation that Huckabee inexplicably accepted. The prosecutors who put Green away for life in 1974 believed that he was capable of killing again, and they were stunned when the governor ignored their advice, along with the unanimous opinion of the Arkansas parole authorities. Only the anguished protests of the victim's family, amplified by the local media, eventually forced Huckabee to rescind the commutation of Green's sentence, which he had already announced(!)

 

The pattern could not have been clearer, as described by Arkansas columnist Garrick Feldman, who crusaded against Huckabee's feckless, faith-based clemency and pardon policies. Killers and rapists need not express remorse, as the Green case showed. They need only profess their salvation, "especially if a minister from Huckabee's circle vouches for their jailhouse conversion."

 

Whatever Huckabee now says about the DuMond case, he continued to misuse his authority for several years after the fatal consequences of that fiasco became all too obvious. Behind his pattern of error and misconduct is a troubling arrogance that is not unfamiliar in a certain kind of evangelical politician. He would not be the first elected official who did something stupid and destructive because he had convinced himself that he was fulfilling the will of God. The question is why the rest of us should want to risk our safety and security by entertaining such delusions again.

 

 

-* By Joe Conason

 

 

 

Miscellaneous Mike Huckabee Info:

Graciously Submissive

 

 

Mike Huckabee Facts

Links to information on Mike Huckabee

 

Mike Huckabee does not want to talk about the issues.

 

 

Mike Huckabee Links

Abortion

Believes Abortion Decisions Should Be Left to the States:

 

Advocated Quarantine for AIDS Patients:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3972788

 

 

Mike Huckabee's Country Clubs

(Mike says those who do not support him are “country club republicans” but he is a country club republican):

 

Soft on Crime:

 

Denials, Can't Admit Mistakes:

 

  1. [http://illinoisans-4-mitt-Romney.blogspot.com/search/label/Mike%20Huckabee|Mike Huckabee on Illinoisans 4 Mitt Romney]
  2. Mike Huckabee on CoMITTed to Romney]

 

 

Lies About Theology Degree:

 

 

Foreign Affairs Article (Embarassing):

 

Misleading Huckabee Statements on Various Topics:

 

Pardons for Political Donations:

 

 

 

Cuba Flip Flop:

 

Summarized Scandals & Criticisms:

 

 

 

Clueless on the NIE report:

LINK?

 

Never heard that the INS ceased to exist in 2003:

 

 

Fair tax Plan:

 

Huckabee a tax Hiker:

 

God on Huckabee's Side:

 

Mr. Huckabee was the only GOP candidate to refuse to endorse President Bush's veto of the Democrats' bill to vastly expand the Schip health-care program.

 

Also, only he and John McCain have endorsed the discredited cap-and-trade system to limit global-warming emissions that has proved a fiasco in Europe.

 

Mike Huckabee disses Americans, Mexicans, promotes illegal immigration:

Christians Need To Beware Of Mike Huckabee:

While Gov. of Arkansas, Huckabee was AGAINST proving citizenship in order to register to vote. He called those who were in favor of this "racists"...

Huckabee fought hard to kill an Arkansas bill which would have cut off social services for illegal aliens. Huckabee called the bill, "anti-Christian" and "un-American"...

Huckabee supported in-state tuition for illegal aliens...

 

Immigration

While Gov. of Arkansas, Huckabee was AGAINST proving citizenship in order to register to vote. He called those who were in favor of this "racists"...

Huckabee fought hard to kill an Arkansas bill which would have cut off social services for illegal aliens. Huckabee called the bill, "anti-Christian" and "un-American"...

Huckabee supported in-state tuition for illegal aliens...

Huckabee's opposition to the illegal aliens bill:

Huckabee's opposition to the illegal aliens bill:

Taxes

 

Religion

 

Fiscal conservative

http://www.taxhikemike.org/

 

Miscellaneous

 

Top

 

Those Who Know him Best

 

Huckabee's Laundry List of Liberalism

National Review's Kathryn Lopez recently interviewed Pat Toomey, president of the Club for Growth. Here's one excerpt:

Kathryn Jean Lopez: Is Mike Huckabee really as bad as you say he is?

Pat Toomey: He's every bit as bad, and you don't have to just take our word for it. Jonah Goldberg, you and your fellow editors at National Review , Bob Novak, and John Fund — to name just a few conservative writers — agree that Mike Huckabee is no conservative. You can read the Club's white paper on our website, but here is a quick summary of Huckabee's worst hits. According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the average Arkansas tax burden increased 47% over Huckabee's tenure. Huckabee supported (in chronological order) a sales tax hike; gas and diesel fuel tax hikes; another sales tax hike; a cigarette tax hike; a nursing home bed tax; another sales tax hike; an income surcharge tax; a tobacco tax hike; taxes on Internet access; and higher beer taxes. Huckabee also oversaw a 50-percent increase in spending; happily signed a minimum wage increase and encouraged national Republicans to do the same; favors a national smoking ban, farm subsidies, and a federally mandated arts and music curriculum; opposes private school choice; and employs class-warfare and protectionist language on the campaign trail. Huckabee calls himself an economic conservative in the mold of Ronald Reagan, but the above list doesn't sound like either.

 

Quotes from Conservative leaders on Mike Huckabee

 

Underlining added to highlight conservative concerns with Huckabee....

 

Rush Limbaugh (12/21/07) (http://iowansforromney.blogspot.com/2007/12/rush-limbaughs-undorsement-of-mike.html)

 

“More I see what Huckster's -* Huckabee's (laughs) record was in Arkansas, there's a lot of liberalism in there. There certainly isn't a lot of Reaganism in there, and I think that the Huckabee campaign is trying to dumb down conservatism to comport with his record.”

 

“It's the elites who want open borders, not middle America. It's the elites who want higher taxes -* and this is Huckabee's campaign. It's elites who want to talk to the Iranian regime, not middle America. It's the elites soft on crime, want to release criminals from prison, not middle America.”

 

“I mean, individuals who have fought immigration for years are not happy with his open borders positions as governor. They're just not. Anti-tax groups are unhappy with his tax increases when he was governor. Conservatives who helped defeat the Soviet Union under Ronaldus Magnus are troubled by his statements about our war effort and his desire to negotiate with Iran, for instance -* and it raised eyebrows among longtime school-choice advocates when the New Hampshire NEA endorsed Huckabee. They endorsed Hillary on the Democrat side; Huckabee on the right.”

 

“I'm getting the sense that Mike Huckabee doesn't want to debate the issues, and he's relying on other things as a firewall to keep the issues from coming up.”

 

National Review (12/10/07) (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjM3Zjg5NWYxOGRkNzdmOWY3ZTU4ODQ2OGEyMzRkZmU=)

 

“In sum, conservatives should have worries about the depth and soundness of Mike Huckabee’s foreign-policy views. And staying at a Holiday Inn Express is not going to be enough to allay them.” (In response to Mike Huckabee's statement, “And the ultimate thing is, I may not be the expert that some people are on foreign policy, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.”)

 

Condoleezza Rice (12/21/07) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJDjm1Ch9EY)

 

“The idea that somehow this is a go it alone policy is just simply ludicrous. And one would only have to be not observing the facts, let me say that, to say that this is now a go it alone foreign policy.” (In response to Mike Huckabee's criticism that President Bush's foreign policy was an “arrogant bunker mentality.”)

 

Michelle Malkin (12/12/07) (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/MichelleMalkin/2007/12/12/meet_the_gops_border_control_cross-dressers)

 

“Every Democrat running for president thinks anti-illegal immigration activists are all racists and xenophobes. Do we really need a Republican nominee for president who thinks the same way? Breakout GOP candidate Mike Huckabee, the soft-on-border control former governor of Arkansas, scored a jaw-dropping endorsement Tuesday from Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project. Despite a long gubernatorial record opposing employer sanctions and pushing tax-subsidized illegal alien education benefits, Huckabee won Gilchrist's support by unveiling a last-minute, tough-sounding homeland security plan. Trouble is, Huckabee has downright and longstanding contempt for his new bedfellows of convenience.”

 

Ann Coulter (12/20/07) (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/AnnCoulter/2007/12/20/there%E2%80%99s_a_huckabee_born_every_minute)

 

“As far as I can tell, it's mostly secular liberals swooning over Huckabee. Liberals adore Huckabee because he fits their image of what an evangelical should be: stupid and easily led.”

 

“Asked on CNN's "Larry King Live" Monday night about his beliefs on evolution, Huckabee rushed to assure King that he has no interest in altering textbooks that foist this fraud on innocent schoolchildren. I don't understand that. Does Huckabee believe Darwinism is a hoax or not? If he knows it's a fraud, then why does he want it taught to schoolchildren?”

 

Phyllis Schlafly (10/26/07) (http://opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110010782)

 

“He Huckabee destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles. 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.”

 

Robert Novak (11/26/07) (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/25/AR2007112501547_pf.html)

 

“Huckabee is campaigning as a conservative, but serious Republicans know that he is a high-tax, protectionist advocate of big government and a strong hand in the Oval Office directing the lives of Americans. Until now, they did not bother to expose the former governor of Arkansas as a false conservative because he seemed an underfunded, unknown nuisance candidate. Now that he has pulled even with Mitt Romney for the Iowa caucuses and might make more progress, the beleaguered Republican Party has a frightening problem.”

 

Peggy Noonan (12/21/07) (http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110011019)

 

“I didn't see the famous floating cross. What I saw when I watched Mike Huckabee's Christmas commercial was a nice man in a sweater sitting next to a brightly lit tree. He had easy warmth and big brown puppy-dog eyes, and he talked about taking a break from politics to remember the peace and joy of the season. Sounds good to me. Only on second look did I see the white lines of the warmly lit bookcase, which formed a glowing cross.... I wound up thinking this: That guy is using the cross so I'll like him. That doesn't tell me what he thinks of Jesus, but it does tell me what he thinks of me. He thinks I'm dim. He thinks I will associate my savior with his candidacy. Bleh.”

 

Charles Krauthammer (12/07/07) (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2007/12/07/making_an_issue_out_of_a_religion?page=full&comments=true)

 

“But part of his rise in Iowa is attributable to something rather less appealing: playing the religion card. The other major candidates -* John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson -* either never figured out how to use it or had the decency to refuse to deploy it. Huckabee has exploited Romney's Mormonism with an egregious subtlety. Huckabee is running a very effective ad in Iowa about religion. “Faith doesn't just influence me,” he says on camera, “it really defines me.” The ad then hails him as a “Christian leader.” Forget the implications of the idea that being a “Christian leader” is some special qualification for the presidency of a country whose Constitution (Article VI) explicitly rejects any religious test for office. ”

 

Laura Ingraham (12/03/07) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnS_SmJ9z1E)

 

“I'm very disturbed what I just heard. That is ridiculous. OK, the question is, are you creating a magnetic pull in your state for illegal aliens—yes or no? The answer: Yes.” (On Mike Huckabee defending his support for scholarships for illegal aliens)

 

Fred Barnes (11/23/07) (http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/CampaignStandard/2007/11/barnes_huckabees_new_ad.asp)

 

“The new 30-second ad that Mike Huckabee has put on the air in Iowa represents a quite remarkable step in presidential politics. Maybe my memory betrays me, but I don't recall a major presidential candidate who made such an unabashed, unambiguous appeal for support on the basis of religious faith.”

 

Michael Barone (12/24/07) (http://jewishworldreview.com/michael/barone122407.php3)

 

“Mike Huckabee, leading in every December Iowa poll and No. 1 nationally in the Rasmussen poll, denounces "the Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality" in the current Foreign Affairs and says that after Iran was included in the axis of evil in 2002, "everything went downhill fast." But the mullahs have been launching attacks on America since 1979. He sounds like almost as much of a populist as Edwards. Huckabee's engaging personality and his status as a "Christian leader" (a caption in one of his ads) have propelled him ahead in Iowa. But Republicans should understand that his nomination would move the party left on foreign and economic issues. He's more like William Jennings Bryan than like Ronald Reagan.”

 

Mark Steyn (12/17/07) (http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/776/)

 

“Mike Huckabee's declaration in his Iowa advertising that he is a “Christian leader” seems a barely coded dig at Mitt Romney's Mormonism, and Mitt's big speech Thursday was his own attempt to put the Mormon question to bed.”

 

“As far as Christian conservatives are concerned, Gov. Huckabee is obviously a sincere Christian. But he doesn't seem to be any kind of a conservative – not if you look at his record on domestic policy.”

 

George Will (12/20/07) (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2007/12/20/retro_campaigning)

 

“On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee's role in the '70s Show involves blending Jimmy Carter's ostentatious piety with Nixon's knack for oblique nastiness.”

 

“Huckabee's campaign actually is what Rudy Giuliani's candidacy is misdescribed as being -* a comprehensive apostasy against core Republican beliefs. Giuliani departs from recent Republican stances regarding two issues -* abortion and the recognition by the law of same-sex couples. Huckabee's radical candidacy broadly repudiates core Republican policies such as free trade, low taxes, the essential legitimacy of America's corporate entities and the market system allocating wealth and opportunity.”

 

“He represents wholesale repudiation of what came after the 1970s – Reaganism.”

 

Glenn Beck (12/12/07) (http://www.glennbeck.com/news/12122007.shtml)

 

“This is some of the most unAmerican stuff I have seen. Good God almighty, have we really come to this? With all of the things that we are debating now, you're telling me that a man's Christian faith, whether Mullah Huckabee says that he is Christian enough to run this country, this is really a standard? This is really, this has something to do with our future, if he's Christian enough?”

 

Matt Drudge (12/11/07) (http://www.drudgereport.com/flashhu.htm)

 

“Democrat party officials are avoiding any and all criticism of Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, insiders reveal. The Democratic National Committee has told staffers to hold all fire, until he secures the party's nomination. The directive has come down from the highest levels within the party, according to a top source. Within the DNC, Huckabee is known as the “glass jaw -* and they're just waiting to break it.” In the last three weeks since Huckabee's surge kicked in, the DNC hasn't released a single press release criticizing his rising candidacy.”

 

David Limbaugh (12/18/07) (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59258)

 

“Until now, Huckabee has been fairly Teflon, avoiding real damage with conservatives for some of the unappealing aspects of his record and policy agenda. But the Foreign Affairs article, “America's Priorities in the War on Terror,” could be his “Howard Dean scream” moment – assuming Republicans are listening with a modicum of objectivity. For taken at face value, a number of his statements in the piece surely will, to paraphrase Huckabee, “alienate very important segments of the Republican Party.” Why? Because they wrongly trash President Bush in the words of ill-meaning Democrats who have slandered Bush's foreign policy from the beginning for their own partisan ends.”

 

“Republicans might overlook some of Huckabee's other anomalous policy positions, but his betrayal of President Bush, wrapped in a virtual endorsement of Jimmy Carter diplomacy, will require some real explaining.”

 

Kimberley Strassel (12/21/07) (http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/kstrasselpw/?id=110011021)

 

“Mr. Huckabee is starting to get a look-see by the press, though whether the nation will have time to absorb the findings before the primaries is just as unknown. The small amount that has been unearthed so far ought to have primary voters nervous. It isn't just that Mr. Huckabee is far from a traditional conservative; he's a potential ethical time bomb.”

 

“On policy, Mr. Huckabee's tenure in Arkansas has shown him to be ambivalent about tax increases, variously supporting sales tax hikes, cigarette and gasoline taxes and Internet taxes. Spending increased 65% from 1996 to 2004, three times the rate of inflation.”

 

“He's so lackluster on education reform that he recently received an endorsement from the New Hampshire affiliate of the National Education Association--the first ever of a GOP candidate. The union cited Mr. Huckabee's opposition to school vouchers. Mr. Huckabee is a fan of greater subsidies for farmers and “clean energy.” He's proven himself a political neophyte on foreign policy, joining Democrats to skewer President Bush and glorify the “diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy” line.”

 

“In Arkansas, Mr. Huckabee was investigated by the state ethics committee at least 14 times. Most of the complaints centered on what appears to be a serial disregard for government rules about gifts and outside financial compensation. He reported $112,000 worth of gifts in one year alone, nearly double his $67,000 salary.”

 

Donald Lambro (12/03/07) (http://washingtontimes.com/article/20071203/COMMENTARY05/112030008)

 

“Mr. Huckabee has campaigned as a tax cutter, and indeed he did slash some state taxes during his two terms as governor, but he raised far more than he cut. The Cato Institute, which monitors the fiscal records of the nation's governors, gave him a poor-to-failing grade on spending and taxes.”

 

“The Club for Growth has also examined his tax-and-spend record and found it wanting. Its verdict: Mr. Huckabee could not be trusted to hold the line on taxes, let alone push it back.”

 

John Fund (10/26/07) (http://opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110010782)

 

“Mr. Huckabee ... is running hard right on social issues but liberal-populist on some economic issues.”

 

He is not the “consistent conservative” he now claims to be.”

 

“The business community in Arkansas is split. Some praise Mr. Huckabee's efforts to raise taxes to repair roads and work with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. Free-market advocates are skeptical. “He has zero intellectual underpinnings in the conservative movement,” says Blant Hurt, a former part owner of, and columnist for, Arkansas Business magazine. “He's hostile to free trade, hiked sales and grocery taxes, backed sales taxes on Internet purchases, and presided over state spending going up more than twice the inflation rate.””

 

Jim Geraghty (12/13/07) (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ODM5MjFmYTY3ZTdhYmY1NGRkNzRmYmU0N2I3YzQ3MjA=)

 

“Huckabee already had questions about whether he really could appeal to economic conservatives or foreign policy conservatives. It seems, judging by his supporters and his rhetoric, that the one message that has worked like gangbusters for Huckabee since he entered the race, has been his message to evangelical conservatives, “I’m one of you.” Judging by the polls, that community has responded enthusiastically: “Yes, you’re one of us.” That’s a nice bond. But it’s not enough. And for those of us outside that bond, what’s the pitch to get us to mark Huckabee’s name on the box? Good jokes? The irony of seeing Hillary defeated by a guy from Hope, Arkansas? A campaign theme of “I’m one of you” only works for folks who see themselves as “you”, not as “the other guys.” At the end of the day, becoming the president of Evangelical America will do Huckabee no more good than being the “president of black America” did Jesse Jackson.”

 

Howie Carr (12/16/2007) (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1940167/posts)

 

“Gov. Mike Huckabee has the soul of a Massachusetts state rep. Not to mention the ethics. What other conclusion can you draw after studying the squalid career of the current front-runner for the GOP nomination for president?”

 

“He commuted the prison sentence of the stepson of one of his staffers. He commuted the murder sentences of any number of depraved killers, including at least one who had been turned down for release a total of three times by Gov. Bill Clinton, who himself should have gone to prison, and Clinton successor Jim Guy Tucker, who did (go to prison, that is).”

 

Kathryn Jean Lopez (12/21/07) (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjkyNDM1OTBjMzE2MWQxOTU5NzUzOWQzZDE5ZjkwMGI=)

 

“Since Mike Huckabee has found himself at the front of the Republican field, it’s been more The Mike Show than not. In a treadmill interview with the New York Times earlier this week, he claimed “I’m being questioned about the details of my faith like no one else.” Mitt Romney and Barack Obama might legitimately argue that point, Gov. He’s cast aspersions on another candidate’s religion. He’s highlighted hostilities among evangelicals and others in the Republican party. If he keeps this up, he’s going to do some unholy damage.”

 

Rich Lowry (12/13/07) (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/RichLowry/2007/12/13/huckacide)

 

“The ghost of Howard Dean haunts the pundit class. As soon as a candidate of either party spikes up in the polls, he is compared with Dean, who had a spectacular boomlet in the second half of 2003 only to deflate as soon as people began to vote in early 2004.”

 

“After many false prophecies, Dean circa 2008 has finally arrived. He is former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Not because he will inevitably blow himself up in Iowa. But because, like Dean, his nomination would represent an act of suicide by his party.”

 

“Like Dean, Huckabee is an under-vetted former governor who is manifestly unprepared to be president of the United States. Like Dean, he is rising toward the top of polls in a crowded field based on his appeal to a particular niche of his party. As with Dean, his vulnerabilities in a general election are so screamingly obvious that it's hard to believe that primary voters, once they focus seriously on their choice, will nominate him.”

 

Dean Barnett (12/20/07) (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/500pavrk.asp)

 

“In an effort to answer these questions once and for all, Huckabee took to the pages of Foreign Affairs to dramatically lay out his foreign policy vision. As its name suggests, Foreign Affairs tends to be a dry read. The notoriously serious Counsel on Foreign Relations publishes the magazine, so Huckabee's trademark wit would be of no service. Apparently sensing the sobriety of the occasion, Huckabee chose to write the essay under the handle “Michael D. Huckabee” rather than the more familiar and colloquial “Mike.”

 

“The essay was a disaster for both Michael D. Huckabee and Mike Huckabee. Their bid to persuade America's most serious foreign policy analysts that Huckabee understands global affairs was equal parts embarrassing and unintentionally comic.”

 

Mark Hemmingway (12/21/07) (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTJmYzI3ZDY1ZDg2ZWU3YTgyMTRkODNmNTU4YTkyOGY=)

 

“Your recent article in Foreign Affairs was widely panned, and justifiably so. It is also no surprise. The chapter in your book on restoring “America’s Prestige” may be well-intentioned, but, as you might put it, “Where’s the beef?” The chapter is ten pages long — the word “Iraq” appears on only three of those pages. Meanwhile, you talk about hunting rifles and dish out useless pearls of would-be wisdom such as “A true leader shares his power rather than shows his power.” Get serious, Mike.”

 

Walter Williams (12/05/07) (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59034)

 

“Listening to people like Lou Dobbs, John Edwards and Mike Huckabee lamenting the plight of America's middle class and poor, you'd have to conclude that things are going to hell in a hand basket. According to them, there's wage stagnation, while the rich are getting richer and the poor becoming poorer.”

 

Austin Hill (12/23/07) (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/AustinHill/2007/12/23/mike_huckabee__vote_for_me,_im_an_evangelical?page=full&comments=true)

 

“But given the surge of the “Huckabee for President” campaign, it would seem that many Republicans have abandoned Reagan’s vision in favor of something more reminiscent of President Carter.”

 

“As a former Governor, Huckabee has a less-than-conservative track record on a wide range of crucial policy issues, from taxation to immigration to judicial appointments. But Huckabee speaks fluently about Jesus Christ, and theology, and for some people this is apparently all that matters.”

 

Deroy Murdock (12/14/07) (http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23966)

 

“The Republican presidential race has devolved into holy war. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney recently told voters he believes “Jesus Christ is the son of God and the savior of mankind.” Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee subsequently asked a writer, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?””

 

“How this will cut taxes or kill terrorists remains elusive. These theological niceties also distract from the urgent task of examining Huckabee’s Earthly record. His background and positions should scare the hell out of GOP primary voters.”

 

“The Arkansas Ethics Commission sanctioned Huckabee in five of its 14 probes. It found that Huckabee failed to report paying himself $14,000 from his 1992 U.S. Senate campaign, $43,000 from his 1994 lieutenant governor’s bid, and $23,500 from Action America, his non-profit.”

 

“According to The Politico, a $200 stadium blanket, $250 in dental care, a $600 chainsaw, and a $3,700 pair of cowboy boots were among 300 gratuities Huckabee accepted totaling $130,000. Like the Clintons loading their moving van with White House antiques, Huckabee tried to claim for himself some $70,000 in furniture donated to the governor’s mansion.”

 

David Frum (12/15/07) (http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/story.html?id=169952)

 

“The currently front-running candidate in Iowa, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, has built his campaign on a plan to abolish the Internal Revenue Service and replace the federal income tax with a national sales tax.”

 

“Economists and tax experts virtually unanimously agree that the plan is beyond unworkable -* that it is downright absurd. (It does not help that it was originally drafted by the Church of Scientology.)”

 

“Huckabee and Paul have not the faintest idea of what they are talking about. The problem is not that their answers are wrong -* that can happen to anyone. The problem is that they don't understand the questions, and are too lazy or too arrogant to learn. But say that aloud and their partisans will shout back: Elitism!”

 

Jonathan Adler (12/21/07) (http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGI3ZjFjYjYzZmIwNmM1ZmNmNzI5NmM1ZGI1MzA3NzI=)

 

“It seems to me there are some strange bedfellows among Huckabee's supporters.For instance, he's reportedly received significant support from the home-schooling community. Given his evangelical roots, this is understandable. Yet Huck was also endorsed by the New Hampshire NEA affiliate (which also endorsed Hillary on the Dem side), largely because the teachers' unions see Huck as the least supportive of vouchers and other school choice initiatives. Last I checked, teachers' unions were also the biggest opponents of home-schooling, advocating various regulatory measures that make home-schooling more difficult. If both groups are enthusiastic about Huck, my question is which group understands who they're really backing, and which is being taken for a ride?”

 

John Hinderaker (12/07/07) (http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2007/12/019216.php)

 

“On fundamental issues like taxes and immigration his record is not at all conservative, and, not only does he have zero experience in foreign policy, his comments on security issues have been less than reassuring. As Republican voters learn more about Huckabee, most of them will like him less, not more.”

 

Bruce Bartlett (08/26/07) (http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110010523)

 

“Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's unexpectedly strong second-place showing in the recent Iowa Republican straw poll is widely attributed to his support for the FairTax.”

 

“In short, the FairTax is too good to be true, and voters should not take seriously any candidate who supports it.”

 

(Note: Mr. Bartlett was deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy from 1988 to 1993.)

 

Victor Davis Hanson (12/20/07) (http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson122007.html)

 

“But his essay in Foreign Affairs is flawed, poorly written, terribly argued, and self-contradictory — and since we don't know much about his ideas on foreign policy, it was a bad start.”

 

Jonathan Tobin (12/21/07) (http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1207/tobin122107.php3)

 

“Romney responded earlier this month with a speech defending not only his own religion, but also asserting his own belief that religious faith had a place on the public square.”

 

“It's unclear whether it did him much good. It certainly did not deter Huckabee from continuing to harp on his Christianity. His latest gambit is a disarming television ad that seeks disingenuously to tone down the debate for the holiday season while still talking about the primacy of “the birth of Christ” while a cross-like image hovers over him in the background.”

 

 

It remains to be seen if this revival tent act can win Huckabee Iowa or any other state. He may turn out to be a 2008 version of Howard Dean, whose Democratic star peaked in late 2003 and then plummeted to earth with a scream in the Hawkeye state. Should the Republicans actually nominate Huckabee, there's little doubt that almost any Democrat would dispatch this evolution-doubting foreign policy ignoramus in a landslide.”

 

Hugh Hewitt (12/13/07) (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/HughHewitt/2007/12/13/mike_huckabees_low_blow?page=full&comments=true)

 

“Huckabee's obvious attempt to salt the mine and get the reporter to carry anti-Mormon (-sic) rhetoric into the paper without Huckabee's fingerprints on it backfired, and the transparent attempt to use the MSM to further the anti-Mormon message was repulsive.”

 

Frank Gaffney (12/19/07) (http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/talkradio/transcripts/Transcript.aspx?ContentGuid=1310b294-0bd9-444e-ac0d-32a8d264ebd5)

 

Regarding Huckabee's foreign policy views toward Iran, I think that's cockamamie, and in fact, I had an hour and a half, I think, conversation with with Governor Huckabee a couple of months ago over breakfast, and this was one of the main points on which I tried to educate him.... Just talking with them, you know, can't we all get along, Rodney King style, is not a prescription for a serious foreign policy, I'm afraid.”

 

Lorie Byrd (12/21/07) (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/LorieByrd/2007/12/21/the_good,_the_bad,_and_the_huckabee)

 

“Whether it be his stand on personal freedoms (“nanny state” issues) or immigration, or his statements and actions as governor on taxes and commutations, there are quite a few arguments that could be made that he is not a true conservative. The assertion in his recent essay that “American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out” and that “the Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad” gave me one more reason to believe he should not be the nominee.”

 

Peter Wehner (12/17/07) (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjgzMzYzY2Y1ZjAxNTg5YzAzNzY2MjMwOWYxNWM0ZTc=)

 

“Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has written an article for Foreign Affairs magazine, the first two paragraphs of which are stunningly silly, misguided, and unfortunately for Huckabee, deeply revealing.”

 

Douglas MacKinnon (12/10/07) (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DouglasMacKinnon/2007/12/10/huckabee_--_the_ultimate_liberal_plant)

 

“Chris Matthews, of MSNBC, recently asked, “Why is the liberal media giving Huckabee a free ride?” Could the answer be as obvious as the liberal media thinks that they have war-gamed this election better than conservatives? Did they look at the Republican field and try to ascertain who would be the weakest “non-fringe” candidate?”

 

“The liberals are desperate to take the White House back and desperate to start their global “The United States is evil” appeasement campaign. Many of these same liberals think Huckabee would make an outstanding Republican nominee. Why?”

 

Paul Mirengoff (12/04/07) (http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2007/12/019190.php)

 

“My main objection to Huckabee -* the reason why he's my fifth choice out of five -* is that I lack confidence in his ability to fight terrorism. It's not just that he lacks experience in this realm, though that's certainly the case. The real problem is that he's too moralistic (which is not the same thing as moral). My first clue came when he said during an early debate that we need to remain in Iraq because "we broke it." Not because we need to defeat al Qaeda; not because we need to limit Iranian influence or avoid a devastating defeat at the hands of terrorists; but because we injured this formerly peaceful state. Huckabee's exaltation of moralism (in this case dubious) over policy calculation was difficult to miss.”

 

Jerome Corsi (12/19/07) (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=59252)

 

“In the Nov. 28 YouTube debate on CNN, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee misrepresented the historical record when asked if he had supported as Arkansas governor a program for granting in-state college tuition scholarships for illegal aliens.”

 

National Review Editors (11/19/07, before the Romney endorsement) (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NmI2ZWZmYTEyMTZhMGI3NTM2ZDRhZTNiMzk2YzU5ZDQ=)

 

“Unfortunately, what Huckabee offers by way of solutions is a mixture of populism and big-government liberalism; the common theme of his policies is that they are half-baked. If an ill-considered slogan can be used to justify a policy, he is for it. He is a protectionist, because we need to have “fair trade.” He wants to put illegal immigrants on a path to citizenship, because we need them “to do jobs that are going unfilled because nobody here wants to do them.” Energy subsidies and farm subsidies must be increased, because they’re a matter of “national security.””

 

 

Mike Huckabee was regarded by fellow Republican governors as a compulsive tax increaser and spender. He increased the Arkansas tax burden by 47 percent, boosting the levies on gasoline and cigarettes. The Arkansas Leader.com editorialized that Mike Huckabee raised more taxes in 10 years in office than Bill Clinton did in his 12 years.

 

The National Education Association endorses any candidate who raises taxes and opposes school choice – thus they endorse Mike Huckabee.

 

Huckabee “broadly repudiates core Republican policies such as free trade, low taxes, the essential legitimacy of America’s corporate entities and the market system allocating wealth and opportunity,” according to George Will.

 

The Arkansas Ethics Commission held proceedings 20 times on the former governor. During his tenure, Huckabee accepted 314 gifts valued overall at more than $150,000, according to documents filed with the Arkansas secretary of state's office. (He accepted 187 gifts in his first three years as governor but was not required to report their value.)

 

 

Two months after taking office, Huckabee stunned the state by saying he questioned rapist Wayne DuMond's guilt and that it was his intention to free the rapist, DuMond murdered a women in Illinois after Huckabee set him free

 

Huckabee battled conservatives within his own party who were pushing for stricter state-level immigration measures, such as:.

  • proof of legal status when applying for state services that aren’t federally mandated
  • proof of citizenship when registering to vote
  • Huckabee failed in his effort to make children of illegal immigrants eligible for state-funded scholarships and in-state tuition to Arkansas colleges.

 

He joined the Democratic chorus in indicting President Bush for his "arrogant bunker mentality." Is he in the right party?

 

Huck’s use of the “Christian Leader” title and the Cross in his ads and his attempt to denigrate Mitt Romney’s religion is a thinly-veiled attempt to impose a religious test in violation of Article Six of the Constitution

 

The Huckster was the keynote speaker at an anti-Mormon conference in Salt Lake City. And he knows nothing about Mormons? And the "Christian Leader" doesn't want to release his sermons?

 

He led the Arkansas Baptists liberal congregations in a dispute with the conservative Southern Baptist Conference.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ry0xrOsqSQ

Mike fails on so many levels as a true conservative.

 

The moniker "Huckster" is well-earned.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"HE'S JUST OUT OF TUNE WITH ALL MEASURES OF FREE MARKET, SUPPLY SIDE ECONOMICS"

 

Huckabee Raised taxes & Attacked The Free Market

 

"I don't think he understands the free market business system. He's not good on taxing, he's not good on spending, he's not good on free trade. In other words, all the prosperity factors seem to be Mr. Huckabee's weakness. I don't think he understands it. He's just out of tune with all measures of free market, supply side economics." – CNBC's Larry Kudlow (Hugh Hewitt Radio Show, 12/21/07; www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvfhmE6PKxI)

 

Gov. Huckabee Uses Democrat Class Warfare Language, Claiming To Defend "The Poorest People":

Gov. Huckabee Accused Oil Companies Of "Stealing From Absolutely The Poorest People." "Gov. Mike Huckabee on Thursday night lambasted the profit levels of oil companies, saying they 'are stealing from absolutely the poorest people.' He also suggested the Legislature enact a uniform pay scale for school superintendents in the state." (Michael R. Wickline, "Huckabee Lashes Out At Oil Firms Over Profits," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/28/05)

 

Gov. Huckabee Said He Is "Not In Favor Of The Wall Street Crowd." "Huckabee said he is different from his rivals because he comes from humble beginnings. 'Nobody owns me and I'm not in the favor of the Wall Street crowd, and that ought to be in your best interest,' he said." (Rossi Lisa, "Huckabee Says Campaign Is Building Momentum," The Des Moines Register, 8/9/07)

 

Gov. Huckabee Takes Cues From Democrat John Edwards, Waging "Class Warfare." "Does Huckabee really believe that Reaganomics represents a philosophy of greed? … This is the rhetoric that is being religiously flogged on an hourly basis by Democrat John Edwards over on the class warfare side of the divide." (Jeffrey Lord, "Huckabee Attacking Reaganomics," American Spectator, 12/28/07)

 

Yet As Governor, Huckabee Raised taxes On Working Families – Including Hiking The Sales tax And The Income Tax:

 

Huckabee Raised taxes $883.1 Million, Cut $378 Million In Taxes, For A Net tax Increase Of $505.1 Million. "But a review of tax legislation passed while he was governor shows a net tax increase of $505 million, a figure adjusted for inflation and economic growth, according to the state Department of Finance and Administration. … The 90 cuts reduced tax collections by $378 million, according to the Department of Finance and Administration. Meanwhile, the department counts 21 tax increases that raised collections by $883.1 million." (Daniel Nasaw, "Gaps Led To Taxing In Huckabee Years," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/9/07)

 

The Average Arkansan Saw Their taxes Increase Almost $1,000 Under Gov. Huckabee. "The average Arkansan's tax burden grew from $1,969 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1997, to $2,902 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2005, including local taxes." (Daniel Nasaw, "Gaps Led To Taxing In Huckabee Years," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/9/07)

 

Gov. Huckabee Actually Stood Before the Legislature And Begged Them To Raise The Income Tax, Sales Tax, And Tobacco Tax. GOV. HUCKABEE: "There is a lot of support for a tax at the wholesale level for tobacco. That's fine with me. I will very happily sign that… Some have suggested the retail level of tobacco. If that ends up being your preference, I will accept that. Others have suggested a surcharge on the income tax. That's acceptable. I'm fine with that. … Others have suggested perhaps a sales tax. That's fine. Yet others have suggested a hybrid that would collect some money from any one or combination of those various ideas… If that's the plan that the House and Senate agree upon, then you will have nothing but my profound thanks." (Mark Silva, "Conservatives Target A Once Tax-Happy Huckabee," Chicago Tribune's The Swamp Blog, 11/12/07; www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaJW7nXw30A)

 

Following His Pleas, The Legislature Passed An Income-Tax Surcharge Which Gov. Huckabee Signed. "Three days after the start of the May special session, the Legislature passed a bill that raised taxes on tobacco products and established on a 3 percent income-tax surcharge. Huckabee signed the bill into law hours later. It raised $97 million its first year in effect." (Daniel Nasaw, "Gaps Led To Taxing In Huckabee Years," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/9/07)

 

"During His 10 Years As Arkansas Governor, Huckabee Supported Numerous tax Increases." (Andrew DeMillo, "Despite No-Tax Pledge, Huckabee Pressed By Fiscal Conservatives," The Associated Press, 3/14/07)

"Huckabee Increased taxes On Sales, Gasoline, Cigarettes And Nursing Homes." "The Club for Growth, which advocates limited government and lower taxes, has repeatedly criticized Huckabee since his formation in January of a presidential exploratory committee. It notes that as governor, Huckabee increased taxes on sales, gasoline, cigarettes and nursing homes." (Andrew DeMillo, "Despite No-Tax Pledge, Huckabee Pressed By Fiscal Conservatives," The Associated Press, 3/14/07)

 

http://patriotradio.org/index.php

 

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.