Our Platform for Outlining Colorado’s Future

Article published Jan 24, 2008 Huckabee alienates GOP in Arkansas January 24, 2008 By Stephen Dinan - LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Jake Files was a newly elected representative when all two dozen Arkansas House Republicans met for their first caucus in 1999. They had doubled their numbers in elections two months earlier, and were ready to join Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee in pushing for conservative government. That was when Brenda Turner, the governor's chief of staff, entered. "Just walked in, shut the door and said, 'There's two kinds of people in the world: those who are for Mike Huckabee and those who are against Mike Huckabee. I'll do everything I can to help the first group. I'll do everything I can to hurt the second,' " said Mr. Files, who left the legislature after two terms. And that's the way it was. "Not only would he not help you, he would go out of his way to do things in opposition to you," Mr. Files said. For the...

It hasn't been apparent to me why Mike Huckabee favored the release from prison of Wayne Dumond, a patently dangerous rapist who, once released, committed murder. By contrast, it's easy to see why Mike Huckabee wanted to help Eugene Fields after he was convicted in 2003 for driving while intoxicated for the fourth time in less than five years. Fields, after all, was a wealthy developer and major donor to the Arkansas Republican Party. Moreover, according to the New York Times, Fields had Richard Bearden, a former executive director of the state's Republican Party with close ties to the Huckabee administration, backing his bid for clemency. Huckabee obliged in early 2004, when he announced his intention to grant clemency to Fields. The announcement meant that the public had the right to comment. Naturally, MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) urged Huckabee not to give Fields, a serial offender, yet another chance. Teresa Belew, MADD's local executive director, made he...

It might be useful to list out those important conservative stalwarts that have spoken out against Huckabee lately (those that haven't endorsed another candidate at least): Please Rush Limbaugh : Bob Novak : Condileeza Rice Peggy Noonan Charles Kruthammer Michelle Malkin Fred Barnes George Will -- ( these comments too on a TV news show) Laura Ingraham : David Limbaugh Kim Strassell : Pat Buchanan Mitt Romney :) Sean Hannity (kind of) Michael Reagan Glenn Beck   ( semi "reconciliation" ---- but then he's still not too impressed ) Matt Drudge:  . . . it's obvious that he has a bone to pick with Huckabee.  Jim Geraghty Tony Blankley Ann Coulter: Rich Lowry : Dean Barnett : Mark Hemningway Austin Hill Tom Bevan Kathryn Jean Lopez Frank Gaffney Peter Wehner Hugh Hewitt The Editors of National Review   (Oh yeah, this one too )

Saturday, December 22, 2007 Larry Kudlow On Mike Huckabee Posted by: Hugh Hewitt  at 9:52 AM I closed my interview with CNBC's Larry Kudlow yesterday ( transcript here ) with a question about Mike Huckabee's economic populism.  Larry's response: [W]hen I had Governor Huckabee on, what was it, last week or the week before, I had a bout with him. I went at it. He wants to, if need be, have government regulate salaries. I think he's crazy. 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. You know, it isn't his religion, and I admire his religion. I personally am a man of faith. I regard myself as an Evangelical, the fact is. But it's not his religion,...

Chenal Valley Country Club Little Rock Club Pleasant Valley Country Club Country Club of Little Rock Maumelle Bass Club Old Fishing Club.

ASSOCIATED PRESS http://www.star-telegram.com/464/story/373403.html WASHINGTON -- In a brief foray into politics, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday denounced comments by a leading Republican presidential candidate that the Bush administration's foreign policy is arrogant and unilateral.   "The idea that somehow this is a go-it-alone policy is just simply ludicrous," she said at a State Department news conference. "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."   Her remarks came in response to a question about criticism from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has surged in the polls to become a front-runner in the upcoming Iowa caucuses for the GOP presidential nomination. Huckabee recently said the administration's foreign policy was characterized by a "bunker mentality."   Rice did not mention Huckabee by name in her response and at...

American Pastoral Mike Huckabee preaches to the choir, but not everyone's singing along. Friday, December 21, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST 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. Someone had bothered to remove the books from that bookcase, or bothered not to put them in. Maybe they would have dulled the lines. Is there a word for "This is nice" and "This is creepy"? For that is what I felt. This is so sweet-appalling. I love the cross. The sight of it, the fact of it, saves me, literally and figuratively. But there is a kind of democratic politesse in America, ...

Thursday, December 20, 2007 I'd really like to know which "prominent DC-based Huckabee ally" told Mark Ambinder that...  "Rush [Limbaugh] doesn't think for himself. That's not necessarily a slap because he's not paid to be a thinker—he's an entertainer. I can't remember the last time that he has veered from the talking points from the DC/Manhattan chattering class. If they were praising Huckabee, he would be too... Also, I have to think that he's dying to have Hillary in the White House. Bill Clinton made Rush a megastar. Having another Clinton back in power would make him the Leading Voice of the Opposition once again." Really? Rush Limbaugh is part of the DC/Manhattan chattering class? Hey, if Rush Limbaugh isn't "red state enough" to question Huckabee's conservative street cred, who is? 12/20 02:49 PM

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GeorgeWill/2007/12/20/retro_campaigning Retro Campaigning By George Will Thursday, December 20, 2007 ... 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. "Despicable" and "appalling" evidence of a "gutter campaign" -- that is how The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence, Mass., characterized this from Sunday's New York Times Magazine profile of Huckabee: "'Don't Mormons,' he asked in an innocent voice, 'believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?'" Imagine someone asking "in an innocent voice" this: "Don't Jews use the blood of gentile children to make matzoth for Passover?" Such a smarmy injection of the "blood libel," an ancient canard of anti-Semitism, into civic discourse would indelibly brand the in...

http://www.mikehuckabee.com/   From a friend: "...While a lot of people talk about the "Christian Leader" ad he ran . . . not many are using this "Faith, Family, Freedom" line to support the "Theocratic" theme to his whole campaign."

I don't know much about Mike Huckabee, but found his aw-shucks Foreign Affairs essay strange to say the least (e.g., cf. "The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad." ) But what he offers inter alia is the rehashed plan of invading the nuclear, nominal ally Pakistan ("I prefer to cut to the chase by going after al Qaeda's safe havens in Pakistan." ) while reaching out to Iran, the de facto non-nuclear enemy, by offering normal diplomatic relations—of course, only after strengthening sanctions and declaring the Revolutionary Guards terrorists. He laments losing the good will once shown by Iran in its 2001 shared goal of defeating the Taliban-almost like lamenting the needless estrangement of the Soviet Union in 1946 after we once had been so close in working to defeat Hitler. Nowhere is there any suggestion that a new President Huckabee might find the world not all that bad—at least without the ...

The international man of mystery that will make America glamorous again!   This is how you make america "cool" again. This is the image we want to project to the world. Mitt Romney speaks French, has a Harvard Law Degree, and business degree... graduating at the top of his classes. Romney would be JFK without Marilyn Monroe. Romney has done business in many places overseas, ran the Olympics. When people come to his house, his kids will be able to speak to them in Spanish, and he will be able to speak to them in French. David Huckabee will be able to tell them about when he was a boy scout and killed that dog and tried sneaking the gun on the plane! Oh, good times. David Huckabee Leaves the Jail David Huckabee Mugshot

Back Down in Little Rock Eugene Fields and an old familiar feeling. By David J. Sanders I t's just like old times. National reporters are again scouring Arkansas. Except this time it is Republican Mike Huckabee's record, not Democrat Bill Clinton's, that is the subject of interest. Over the course of more than a decade as governor, Huckabee granted over 1,000 commutations and pardons, and they're currently being examined closely by journalists. The latest to draw national attention is a commutation of Eugene Fields , who had multiple drunk-driving convictions. The question is if there was there a connection between his wife Glenda Fields's five-figure political donations and Huckabee's action. On April 14, 2004, then-Gov. Huckabee commuted the sentence of Mr. Fields — then a four-time driving-while-intoxicated offender — granting him early release from prison. Fields, a resident of the western Arkansas town of Van Buren, was a habitual offender. He had alrea...

http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=12430     Tin Mike By Philip Klein Published 12/12/2007 12:09:42 AM As he surges in polls, Mike Huckabee has come under increased scrutiny for granting an excessive number of clemencies during his time as governor of Arkansas. While it is tempting to glaze over the details of what seem like old controversies, his past actions need to be considered within the context of Huckabee's desire to be the nation's commander in chief during a time of war. Quite simply, his disturbing penchant for giving second chances to violent criminals raises serious questions about whether he has the steely resolve required to stand up to rogue regimes and carry on the fight against Islamic terrorists. Much of the discussion about Huckabee's record on clemency has centered around the release of convicted rapist Wayne Dumond, who went on to murder a woman in Missouri after being let out of prison under Huckabee's watch. While there is pl...

Huckabee's Record    [ Andrew Stuttaford ] There's still no sign that Mike Huckabee is going to release the text of the sermons he gave as a pastor — curious behavior, to say the least, from a candidate who has chosen to make his religious beliefs a central part of his campaign.   Other aspects of the governor's record, are however, more easy to ferret out. Here's Cato's Michael Tanner on some of them:   On its annual governor's report card, Cato gave Huckabee an "F" for fiscal policy during his final term, and an overall two-term grade of "D." Only four governors had worse scores, and 15 Democratic governors got higher grades, including well-known liberals like Ted Kulongoski of Oregon, Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania. But Huckabee doesn't just embrace big government in the form of big taxes. He truly appears to believe that if something is a good idea it should be a federal government program. For example...

DESCRIBE HUCKABEE'S RECORD ON EDUCATION   RHETORIC:   Huckabee Claimed To Have The Most Impressive Education Record. HUCKABEE: "I had also the most, I think, impressive education record." (Iowa Public Television/The Des Moines Register, Republican Presidential Candidate Debate, Des Moines, IA, 12/12/07)   REALITY:   According To The National Assessment Of Educational Progress, Arkansas Ranked Below Average In All Four Major Criteria In 2007 – Mathematics And Reading In Both Grade 4 And In Grade 8. (U.S. Department Of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, http://nationsreportcard.gov , Accessed 11/23/07)   In 2007, Massachusetts Ranked 1st With An Average Score Of 252 By Fourth Graders On The National Assessment of Educational Progress Mathematics Exam. ( U.S. Department Of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, http://nationsreportcard.gov , Accessed 11/23/07)   ·      ...

By ANDREW DeMILLO, Associated Press Writer The U.S. shouldn't try to kill Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Mike Huckabee declared when he first ran for office. No women in combat anywhere. No gays in the military. No contributions in politics to candidates more than a year before an election. His statements are among 229 answers Huckabee offered as a 36-year-old Texarkana pastor during his first run for political office in 1992. In that unsuccessful race against Sen. Dale Bumpers, Huckabee offered himself as a social conservative and listed "moral decay" as one of the top problems facing the country. Now that he's a front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, he's being asked anew about some of the views and comments he expressed in the survey by The Associated Press. Over the weekend, he said he wouldn't retract answers in which he advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased funding for finding a cure and said homosex...

By LIBBY QUAID WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, asks in an upcoming article, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?" The article, to be published in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, says Huckabee asked the question after saying he believes Mormonism is a religion but doesn't know much about it. His rival Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is a member of the Mormon church, which is known officially as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The authoritative Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published in 1992, does not refer to Jesus and Satan as brothers. It speaks of Jesus as the son of God and of Satan as a fallen angel, which is a Biblical account. A spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Huckabee's question is usually raised by those who wish to smear the Mormon faith rather than clarify doctrine. "We believe...