My take on Huckaweasel

I still don't know what all the Huckabee fuss is about.

Either his polling is

a) overstated by a press eager for something to cover, a horse race, and NOT eager for conservatives to have an easy time of it, or

b) driven by blind following of an Evangelical Christian Baptist preacher no matter what he says or believes, just because Christians want to vote for a Christian.

The first one is a given, and I expect it, much as I detest it.

The second one is a problem for me. I would be really disturbed to learn that Christians were organized and pulling for this guy simply because he's a preacher. C. S. Lewis always said that being a Christian is not automatically a qualification for any sort of leadership and that it does not in itself convey any special qualities or skills or experiences to do any particular job.

Huckabee, folks, is a weasel. He's crafty, sneaky, and not very nice. And he is no conservative, not on anything besides abortion anyway, and that issue has always been a Christian issue rather than a conservative one.

Huckabee said "I don't know much about Mormonism... "then lightly tossed in "don't Mormons believe Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

It isn't the contemptible sneakiness of this over-the-shoulder shot that bothers me most; it's the lie he told right before it.

He DOES know much about Mormonism, given he was a keynote speaker at an SBC meeting in Salt Lake City nine years ago. The meeting specifically addressed Mormonism, provoking them by having the meeting in THEIR town, distributing materials that were negative about them, sending MISSIONARIES for heaven's sake, to convert the Mormon savages into decent Christian people.

Huckabee was the man chosen to make the meeting's OPENING SPEECH. When he says he doesn't know much about Mormonism, HE"S LYING.

He also has no concept of the difference between taxpayer funds and charitable donations. He seems to think that whenever it's time to be compassionate, the way to do it is to take great gulps of money from the public treasury and pass it around.

Conservatism says government shouldn't be in that business, or at least should do it as little as possible. We want lower taxes so that our charitable efforts, already the best in the world by a long shot, can be even better; but we DO NOT want taxpayer money being used for things the taxpayers themselves might object to, loudly. If there is a genuine cause for compassion, then encourage the people to raise charitable funds to address it, and do it outside government, among other reasons so that it can be more efficient, less wasteful of money.

Speaking of money, he's got a fondness for it. He's STILL taking cash for speeches, folks, even as he runs for President. This is the first time in our history that such a thing has been done. Huckabee makes many times his salary as governor of Arkansas by questionable means that might well be interpreted as influence peddling. He rivals the Clintons in terms of the large scale acceptance of expensive gifts while still in office.

He takes speech money from at least one medical group that researches with human embryos, for example. This from a man who says he opposes embryonic stem cell research because it kills babies. Because it's like abortion, which he says he's against. But he is $50,000 richer, as far as we KNOW, by doing speaking engagements for which they were the underwriters. It could be more.

He's also a genuine kindergartener at foreign policy. Iran's mullahs have announced they hope he wins. That's all I need to know.

And just today, I read the 'icing on the cake', the 'coup de gras' story that settled my view of him as a weasel. He went hunting, you see, for pheasants. When a group of reporters flushed a couple of birds, Huckabee's group (presumably including him) blasted away at the birds, directly over the heads of the startled reporters. A Dick Cheney moment it was not; in Cheney's case, the OTHER guy was the one who violated hunting protocol by moving into the wrong place, to where Cheney couldn't see him until it was too late.

But Huckabee's group gleefully fired away even though the reporters were plainly right in front of them. Those guys were upset about it, but nobody was hit.

I do not like Mike Huckabee, and the press's insistence that he's 'likeable' rubs me wrong. It's something else that's happening here, and I suspect it's a Christian grass roots organizational thing designed to teach the other candidates not to take them too lightly.

But I will NEVER like Mike Huckabee.

I like Romney. People who say he's too polished and slick also complain that Bush is too rough around the edges and not polished ENOUGH. They call Romney a flipper on lots of issues, a latecomer to the conservative ranks, but isn't he moving the RIGHT WAY? Isn't he maturing and becoming a better person? Why should we complain about changes when he's changing in the RIGHT DIRECTION?

I like Rudy. He's solid on most of my issues, and on abortion, he's already repeatedly said he'd nominate strict constitutionalist judges, which is another way of saying he'd set things up so that Roe could be overturned later. He's got lots of friends and supporters who would not countenance a flip from him on this issue, but he's already spoken to conservatives about it through his remarks on nominating those judges. I only hope those people aren't too dimwitted to get it. Anyway, the president has no power to veto Roe Vs. Wade. It is established law, and he is not a legislator. All he can do is appoint the right judges, and he repeatedly promises he will do so.

I do NOT like McCain. He displayed bilious contempt for ordinary people during that whole immigration thing, along with a complete inability to even understand our complaints. And his 'campaign finance reform' made the beast that is George Soros a factor to be reckoned with, in my opinion a giant step backward in American campaigns. His reform bill also removed the right of free speech from citizens who wish to speak on our airwaves about our elections within a month or two of them. Grotesque, anti-American, damaging to the nation. McCain isn't just a maverick, he's unstable and crazy.

I like Fred, and hope he plays a part in this, but I don't think he'll win. His issue stands are just not well enough known. No fire catching on there.

Duncan Hunter has not caught even the slightest spark of fire, but his is the most Reagan-like approach of any Republican candidates. Too bad he's a bit flat and uninteresting on TV.

The Huckaweasel seems to be more and more transparent over the passage of time, and lets hope by the caucuses he's at least moderately well known to be a weasel. I suspect he will be.