Misgiving #5 - I Heart Huckabee? Uh.... no.

I began this year looking at the lot of Republican hopefuls with some disappointment... surely after 6-7 years of a slowly denigrated conservative party there would be a leader or two that would rise out of the ashes of Medicare prescription coverage, nationalized education, and a record number of earmarks. But those of us that are the unwavering conservatives, we were faced with an opportunistic Mitt Romney or a rock-solid, but pro-choice Giuliani.

Ah, so suddenly all of you have gotten so excited about one man, Mr. Mike Huckabee. Alas, some of you have been campaigning for him for nearly two years, long before he even declared his intent. I'm so glad that some of us have had the vision to look ahead and begin, literally, a grass roots movement to raise a leader you can believe in to national status... with almost no special interest money or compromise.

But I have had a hesitation in my gut since day one. Not just cuz the guy is from Arkansas... I mean, only two of the last three governors have been corrupt; it doesn't mean Huckabee had to be. In fact, he was a crusader! He came in to clean things up, right? He's pro-life, pro-family, a Baptist minister in his own right. It's almost too perfect!

Exactly.

I've learned to trust my gut, and so I decided to start digging for the truth long before conservative talk show hosts did. Those who know me and my past political adventures know I’m not one to shy away from voting my conscience. I don’t consider it a “wasted vote” to vote with your heart – with PRINCIPLE. It’s weakness at the ballot box that gives us weakness in leadership. So I really wanted to see if this Huckabee guy was all he was cracked up to be. I wanted someone to BELIEVE IN AGAIN! I began my journey about 8 months ago, just as the Republican list of nominees seemed set in stone. But conservative columnists like Ilana Mercer and Vox Day began chiding conservatives for the next several months because of their blind embrace of the pro-life minister. I wanted to know why.

Meanwhile, the mass-media has begun to notice Huckabee, and as our mutual distrust for the Arkansan Politico has matured, they have finally put into writing what I have been slowly discovering the last 4-5 months... Mike Huckabee is not a conservative. He is no more a conservative than Zell Miller. Yes, that's right. Of course, he supports gun rights. He's from the Ozarks man. Of course, he's pro-life – he IS a man of faith, and I DO respect that. But any man that raises taxes 47% during his governorship, pushes for government subsidies of tuition for illegal aliens and health benefits, criticizes the President for his veto of the Democratic increases in CHIP, grants pardons to criminals as often as he winks at the camera (more than 700, you know including 12 murderers), calls fellow conservative critics names, slanders his Republican brothers with flat-out lies (Club for Growth accusation on hidden donations), suffers 15 reprimands from the state ethics board, then SUES that ethics board (and loses), views global warming as a serious issue and that we have a "biblical duty" to address it… is NOT a conservative. He is a social conservative, to be sure... but he is NOT a fiscal conservative at all, and Lord knows, the Republican Party is not the same today because it lost sight of the other half of the two-edged sword, small-government vs. strong morals.

One of the most disturbing revelations I found about Huckabee was his reaction to the Club for Growth, a conservative, anti-tax, small government group because of their opposition of him. Rather than playing the gentleman and ignoring the critics, he slandered them as hiding their sources of money and called them "Club for Greed". Ironically, Huckabee founded a non-profit while governor and strangely, the non-profit's only expenditure was paying Mr. Huck himself for various speeches. Of course, these donors are not public either, and being a non-profit, allows the "conservative savior" to make thousands of dollars outside the realm of his public office.

My problem isn't so much his attempt to reach "across the aisle" to get things done, or even some of his positions... I can be pragmatic too. My problem is the fact that he represents NOTHING of my fiscally conservative values and has toed the line of ethics so long that no one in his past political circles respects him anymore. Even fellow Republicans.

To all conservatives out there, please heed these warnings... Mike Huckabee is NOT the best choice. Every frustration we've tried to ignore with our current President is magnified in this man. If you thought the last several Congressional sessions were a waste of time, Huckabee gives no reason to hope otherwise. Together, the Americans for Tax Reform, The Club for Growth and the revered Cato Institute have given us stern warnings about him and his economic philosophy. Huckabee supporters are out there in the audience of this post, and please, don’t take offense to this. But be honest with yourself. Don’t tell me he cut taxes… his tax increases outweighed his tax cuts by $500 million!! Who CARES about the tax cuts when you cancel every one with a hike somewhere else, and THEN som.

As governor, Mike Huckabee:
Signed a sales tax hike in 1996 to fund the Games and Fishing Commission
and the Department of Parks and Tourism.
He supported an internet sales tax in 2001.
He publicly opposed the repeal of a sales tax on groceries and medicine in 2002.
He signed bills raising taxes on gasoline (1999), cigarettes (2003), and a $5.25 per day bed-tax
on private nursing home patients in 2001.
He proposed another sales take hike in 2002 to fund education improvements.
He opposed a Congressional measure to ban internet taxes in 2003.
In 2004, he allowed a 17% sales tax increase to become law
Increased state spending over 60% from 1996 to 2004
Opposed school choice or open voucher programs

So let me ask you, is there any reason you want to support a man like Huckabee, other than he's funny, affable, smart, "experienced" and pro-life?! Is being Pro-life the only thing you care about? Then heck, let’s get Georgia’s Zell Miller to run for President! He’ll bankrupt us with nationalized health care and kill our nation with open borders, but he’s pro-life!! Come on, let’s be serious

If Huckabee gets your Republican primary vote, he really has pulled off one of the most impressive grass-roots uprisings I've seen in a long time. But I guess that's not too surprising for those who knew him back in Arkansas… they know their ole’ guv’ner well… there they affectionately call him, "the Huckster"... apropos.



Below are some of the many links I've gathered of articles exposing The "Huckster" for what he really is... another sleezy, fun-loving Arkansan. Don't hate me yet... just read these first. ESPECIALLY the Robert Novak piece in the Washington Post:

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12205
http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12394
http://www.arkansasleader.com/frontstories/st_08_11_04/huckabee8.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/25/AR2007112501547_pf.html
http://www.clubforgrowth.org/2007/11/updated_huckabee_white_paper.php
http://www.clubforgrowth.org/media/uploads/071113-white-paper-huckabee-update.pdf