Huckabee's Religiosity Led to Constipation

An article in the LATimes this a.m. unfolds a curious tale about when Mike Huckabee was governor of Arkansas. He refused to sign a much-needed disaster insurance reform bill because the legislation used the term "acts of God" to refer to natural disasters.

What was it Jesus said to the Pharisees, about straining at a gnat while managing to swallow camels (Matt. 23)?

The Races of '08

Filing to run for office in North Carolina in 2008 will open February 11th. The Watauga County ballot will include three County Commission races: the seats held by Commission Chair Jim Deal and commissioners Winston Kinsey and Mary Moretz will be contested, as will three seats on the county Board of Education. State Senator Steve Goss and state House member Cullie Tarleton will both be defending their seats, as will Madam Virginia Foxx, NC-5 representative in the U.S. Congress.

The ballot will also be crowded with state-wide races: Liddy Dole will be defending her U.S. Senate seat against the winner of the May 6th Democratic primary. There'll be a regular brawl for the governor's mansion, pitting whoever wins the two parties' primaries (which are already bare-knuckled fist-fights). The Lieutenant Governor's race will also be a battleground, and there are already five candidates total from both parties vying to replace Richard Moore as State Treasurer. (The N&O has a useful summary this a.m. of some of these key contests.)

One of the most important races on the '08 ballot, and one that will be overlooked or taken for granted by many voters, is the N.C. Supreme Court seat of Associate Justice Robert Edmunds, a Republican, who must run for reelection. Democrat Suzanne Reynolds, a law professor at Wake Forest University, has already announced her intention to run against Edmunds. The balance on the state's Supremes tips Republican at the moment, with 4 Rs to 3 Ds. As if we didn't already know what's at stake in this race, a Republican Appeals Court judge spoke publicly about it last October (summarized by the N&O):

"Judge Doug McCullough encouraged Republicans in Haywood County to re-elect Edmunds. He suggested that Edmunds would uphold GOP interests if the court considers a lawsuit over redistricting plans drawn up by the legislature. Edmunds has emphasized his impartiality and distanced himself from McCullough's comments."

Yeah, we know something about the "impartiality" of Supreme Court justices, especially the five who appointed George W. Bush president in 2005!

Fox News Barring Ron Paul from New Hampshire Debate

Everybody knows Fox News has been pushing for Giuliani. So why wouldn't Fox bar the candidate who has repeatedly made Giuliani look foolish from its January 6th New Hampshire debate? It's just perfectly logical ... as well as Fox-y.

Dipping Another Toe Into Iowa

Checking in on some of the action -- or speculation -- out there in Eye-O-Way:

The Iowa Independent is saying that Ron Paul could well finish third in the caucuses, which, if that happens, could be the biggest story coming out of the January 3rd events. That would be called "getting some traction." The same site gives a slight edge to Obama to take the Democratic nod: "The Illinois senator consistently seems to draw larger crowds than his opponents in the same places, which speaks both to the strength of his campaign's organization and the enthusiasm his candidacy seems to generate. And his wave of small-town newspaper endorsements should enhance his second-choice support in rural parts of the state where he has been perceived as weak."

Via 24-Hour Dorman comes news that Hillary Clinton has apparently stopped taking questions from the audiences at Iowa campaign stops. Hmmm.

John Deeth reports that Obama and Huckabee are ahead, respectively, with Iowa newspaper endorsements ... for whatever that's worth.

Dave Price takes the (unenthusiastic) pulse of a Hillary Clinton crowd waiting (as usual) for the candidate to show up (she takes after Bill in that respect). Clinton staffer keeps pleading with people for "some noise," but doesn't get it. Must be rough working for a sinking candidate.

Charlotte Eby interprets latest Iowa state polls as "Obama Dropping" while both Edwards and Clinton are gaining. But given what happened to Howard Dean in 2004, despite the polls, we're beginning to think that polls are pretty useless in Iowa.

RadioIowa reports that Hillary Clinton's campaign has purchased two minutes of airtime during the six o'clock local TV newscasts in all eight Iowa media markets to make her "closing argument" on the night of January 2nd. (Closing argument ... as in, "Save my campaign for president, please!"?) Same source also reports that Sen. Fred Thompson, last heard from while refusing to come off his campaign bus in Waverly, predicts he will come in first or maybe, in a pinch, second in the Iowa caucuses. Which just naturally raises the question: "What's Fred Thompson smoking?"

Huckabee's Religion Problem ... And His Mean Streak

This is just too interesting ... and germane, especially as to the Huckabee character issue raised down-column.

Stop Your Claws (But Not Your Claus)

Merry Christmas!

Get with some family. Hug a friend. Think less-than-gloomy, if not outright jolly thoughts. Turn off Fox, CNN, MS-NBC, and throw away your Maalox. Sing a carol, preferably one with dancing and prancing, or whatever rings those chimes of yours. Eat and rejoice (but not too much of either one).

Me? I've got new books to read (including Robert Morgan's new biography of Daniel Boone; Richard Preston's "The Wild Trees"; David Sedaris' "Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim"). And seed catalogs to argue about (the days are ALREADY getting longer, and will we plant corn or winter squash next summer?).

Ain't going near a computer again until next Friday!

The Huckabee You Don't Know

The New York Times this a.m. published the most in-depth, comprehensive account we've seen anywhere of Mike Huckabee's formative years as Arkansas governor. There's much here to digest, and the article helps us sort out why sometimes we're strangely attracted. (I said strangely.)

1. He's a preacher, goddamnit. Which means he feels compassion for the least among us. That's good. But he's also shockingly gullible about people's motives when they proclaim they've found Christ, which is what got him into consistent trouble as governor in granting clemency to violent criminals: they said they'd found God; the governor believed them and shed his mercy upon them; and then they promptly went out and raped and killed again. There's something touching about Huckabee's belief in people's sincerity. Also something dumb.

Another major by-product of his vocation as preacher is his expectation of "tribute," gifts and cash from admirers. Apparently, there's a thick binder of ethics complaints against Huckabee during his dozen years as Arkansas governor for receiving all sorts of baksheesh, from gift certificates at Hardee's to new clothing to a $500 canoe. The point is: As a career pastor, he expected such gifts and in fact depended on them for his livelihood and his family's comfort (and to be fair, the salary for Arkansas governors is barely above poverty wages).

Point is: can a man of honor be influenced by such generosity? You bet. My own childhood pastor, who hated TV and preached that you were going to hell if you watched it, laid off that topic noticeably after my family gave him a half-beef for Christmas.

2. He's a class warrior. Good. He was poor (a Republican "of humble background"), and unlike Virginia Foxx, he's never gotten rich, so he's avoided her learned attitude that the poor have only themselves to blame. Apparently, when he and his family moved into the governor's mansion in Little Rock in 1996, he was considered something of a hillbilly: "Mr. Huckabee's touchiness over perceived slights was to become a byword in succeeding years." Huckabee wrote in his memoir, "Dozens of hate-filled letters proclaimed that we lacked the 'class' to live in such a fine and stately home." Such class sensitivity explains Huckabee's willingness to do battle with Wall Street and his simultaneous willingness to take gifts. He's owed.

His family reminds us of Bill Clinton's family ... working class, plain, ordinary, warts and all. Much fun has been made of the photograph reproduced above, the Huckabees wishing a merry Christmas several years ago ... a decided contrast to the svelte Romneys with their million-dollar wardrobes and grooming.

3. He's intolerant of people who disagree with him, and he freezes them out. Uh-oh. Not Christ-like. But pretty much like all the rest of us, who ain't so Christ-like either. But intolerant ... plus those doctrinal views ... is a brew we dread sipping.

4. He's got a liberal streak which has led him to work with Democrats. He proposed raising state taxes several times to supply roads and various strands to the Arkansas safety net. In 1997 he pushed through the Arkansas legislature, with overwhelming support from the Democrats, a major expansion of health insurance for children of the working poor whose families did not qualify for Medicaid. Then what happened? "He sought the electoral defeat of Republicans who opposed him, according to some in the party" (see # 3 above).

5. He moved to close small rural school districts in Arkansas as a cost-cutting reform of state education. He had very good reasons for doing so, but it's the last thing we'd ever praise a politician for doing. Local schools are the heart and soul of rural communities. Don't be driving stakes through the heart of rural America! Just don't.

By Her Endorsement We Will Know Her

Virginia Foxx's heavily publicized endorsement of Mitt Romney for the presidency opens up new vistas for analysis. Why didn't she go with Mike Huckabee? Especially since recent polling suggests that most of The Madam's Republican constituents support Huckabee by a wide margin, and Romney is hardly registering at all in N.C. polls. Plus isn't Huckabee the new avatar of conservatism? Why wouldn't his social conservatism make The Madam's heart sing like a caged bird, especially since she also claims to be a fellow Baptist?

Might it have something to do with buttering one's own toast? Support of Mitt Romney is showing obeisance to Wall Street, and The Madam has been nowhere more astute than in anticipating the deepest interests of the very rich.

Huckabee doesn't heart Wall Street. On the Today show this past Wednesday, Huckabee allowed as how "the Wall Street-to-Washington axis, this corridor of power, is absolutely, frantically against me." He may be a born-again Christian conservative, but he also fervently believes in an economic populism that sees a role for big government -- yes, BIG government -- in reaching out to the needy among us. That makes Huckabee a pretty good Baptist but also a Republican apostate to the likes of Virginia Foxx.

And it exposes the problem for Foxx in putting herself so nakedly out there for the Wall Street candidacy of Mitt Romney. Her Republican Party is pulling apart a little at the seams. She personally stands with the rich wing of her party, which, while making itself quite comfortable, is making life for most of her constituents increasingly difficult to manage. A big-government populist like Mike Huckabee, with his simultaneous anti-evolution, anti-abortion, anti-gay social views, becomes all the more attractive in the NC-5 and incidentally reveals The Madam's own vulnerability. She can talk about having been poor-as-lice once herself, but everything else about her -- most particularly her voting record -- screams a total lack of fellow-feeling for anyone struggling. An economic populist -- say, a Democratic one -- could take The Madam's congressional seat away from her ... in the exact same election that might give Mike Huckabee a wide margin for the presidency.

Conservative writers Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam have a new book coming out about "the failures of the conservative revolution," by which they mean the global-trade-and-Wall-Street neo-conservative "revolution" with which The Madam signed up and for whom she carries water. Foxx's hostility toward Social Security and the rest of the safety net that poor rural people (especially) have come to rely on could yet bite her in the butt (and as early as November 2008).

E.J. Dionne: "The white evangelical electorate is tired of taking orders from politicians who care more about protecting the wealthy than ending abortion, more about deregulation than family values."

Foxx Endorses Romney

Yeah, that'll help him!