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http://caucuscooler.blogspot.com/2007/12/cooler-exclusive-governor-graft.html   COOLER EXCLUSIVE- "Governor Graft" The Cooler has obtained documents that show Mike Huckabee received $378,000 in consulting fees during 2006, while he was still governor of Arkansas.   Most noteworthy, $17,500 came from Novo Nordisk, one of the world's largest embryonic stem cell researchers. It seems that when money is at stake Huckabee may be able to look past his supposedly fervent opposition to this procedure He also received speaking fees and honoraria from churches while Governor. It is certainly calls into question whether or not it is appropriate for a Governor to be taking a consulting fee from interest groups, as Huckabee did, when issues surrounding that interest group could come across his desk. The consulting money was funneled through an organization called 12 stops, a group created in 2004 to handle Gov. Huckabee's book deals. With all the attention Senator ...

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...

Frank Gaffney has been cited by Mike Huckabee as one of the two guys he gets foreign policy advice from, the other being The New York Times' Thomas Friedman.  Here's my exchange with Gaffney on yesterday's show ( transcript here ): HH: Since you're one of the unofficial advisors to Mike Huckabee, I want to play for you a little Huckabee quote from, concerning Iran. Cut number five. He made this in a speech earlier this year.  MH: We haven't had diplomatic relationships with Iran in almost thirty years, most of my entire adult life. And a lot of good it's done. Putting this in human terms, all of us know that when we stop talking to a parent or a sibling, or even a friend, it's impossible to resolve the difference to move that relationship forward. Well, the same is true for countries.    HH: What do you think, Frank Gaffney?  FG: Well, for the purposes of setting the record straight, Hugh, I want you and your audience to recall that the othe...

"ARKANSAS' PRIMARY DRUG OF CONCERN" As Meth Became A Crisis In Arkansas, Gov. Huckabee Reduced Sentences For Makers Of The Drug   "It's not our goal to just lock people up. ... It is our goal to unlock their hearts, minds and souls so while they're here they can learn the skills that most of us take for granted." – Gov. Mike Huckabee (Traci Shurley, "Work Starts On Site For Parole Violators," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette , 8/9/03) AP: "Huckabee Criticized For Meth Bill": The Associated Press: "Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee can find plenty of parallels between his native Arkansas and Iowa when it comes to methamphetamine: Both are small states battling increased use of the drug through stricter laws. But Republican presidential rivals Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson are tagging Huckabee as soft on crime because of a 2005 Arkansas law he signed as governor that gave some meth offenders more credit for g...

Oh! What do we need in a president? With so many options some think the task tough To figure out which in the crowd measure up It's not mine to say which of those we see here Will stand straight and tall or fall on their ear But one thing I think is quite obviously clear The leader we want works in honorable ways who clearly can see by the night or by day And chart a fixed course and never will stray From doing each tiniest thing they did say His or her character never will be Put up for bids on the highest paid fee But will endeavor with all honesty To act in all ways to keep our land free Who do I think it should be? I admit it is easy to think I'd be stuck With the slinging of mud and the rottenest muck To know which to keep and which we could chuck But I think with much prayer and a little good luck The people will know the saint from the schmuck And at least they will say " let's chuck Huck!"

'Vanity Fair' Makes New Giuliani Ad Seem Even Nuttier It's not all Spitzer for Vanity Fair : The current issue also contains a towering Rudy profile, "A Tale of Two Giulianis," by Michael Shnayerson (whose sister Maggie is now the longest-serving editor at Gawker). In a lower-key fashion than last week's dueling Newsweek and Village Voice features on Rudy's supposed terror ties, Vanity Fair delivers a series of excellent mini-scoops on the man's business practices. Case after well-researched case shows Giuliani peddling bits of his 9/11 reputation to just about any taker, from foreign governments to "typical denizens of the penny-stock world — dreamers and the occasional scam artist." Shnayerson follows Giuliani's paid-up crusade for the makers of OxyContin, first as a lobbyist, then a lawyer; his shilling for Nextel; e...

I had so many comments on my Fair Tax post that I wanted to respond to some of the points made: First, several people made the point that Europe has a Value Added Tax (VAT) that is more than the 10% figure that I quoted. All of the research that I read made a distinction between the VAT and a national retail sales tax like the Fair Tax. This distinction is based on the mechanics of the tax. The value added tax looks at what a firm adds to the value of a product where a national sales tax is an excise tax levied at the point of sale. The end result looks similar because the VAT is passed on to the consumer. However, the VAT requires firms to report the value added at each stage of production. A national retail sales tax does not require any such reporting other than that the national rate has been applied. The figure I used looked just at those countries using a national retail sales tax and did not include those countries using a VAT. Second, several readers expressed frustration a...

I agree with Rod Dreher, to a point     But Rod needs to understand a lot of us were freaking out...   I thought we were doing "Rudycide", after all our complaining about BIll Clinton's ethics...   Rudy would have made Clinton look like Romney, in comparison.   The part that I agree with Rod Dreher about is how surprising it was (I know I'm going to sound like Mike Huckabee) that the New York/ Washington DC republicans embraced Rudy!   I think I agree with Rod Dreher...   But two wrongs don't make a right... Just because the economic conservatives didn't freak out, when some threw the social conservatives under the buss, doesn't mean we should throw the economic conservatives under the buss now...

Townhall By Governor Mitt Romney December 19, 2007 "As Americans prepare for the holidays with their families and loved ones, we have many challenges to face but also many reasons to be thankful. We are thankful we live in a nation that is still a land of freedom, hope and opportunity. And we can be thankful that President Bush has kept us safe. Too often our politicians in Washington and on the campaign trail seem to have forgotten this simple fact. "It was disheartening when Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) questioned the sworn testimony of General David Petraeus, the troop commander of our forces in Iraq, when he reported on the success of the surge. A disbelieving Senator Clinton said reports of progress require 'the willing suspension of disbelief.' We now know beyond any reasonable doubt that Senator Clinton was wrong and General Petraeus was right, and yet to this day she has refused to apologize for her unwarranted attack on the integrity of one of our finest ...

  MSNBC's "Morning Joe" December 19, 2007 To watch, please see: www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0PRgnAF4Y Former White House Adviser Pete Wehner Discusses Huckabee's Attacks On Bush Foreign Policy: MSNBC's JOE SCARBOROUGH: "Welcome back. We got Jim Cramer to stay because he's mad. He's mad for life brother and he's number one with a bullet.   Let's bring in right now Pete Wehner. He's former deputy assistant to the President, senior fellow right now at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Pete, thanks so much for being with us." PETE WEHNER: "Nice to be with you. Thanks for inviting me, Joe." SCARBOROUGH : "You have written and we're a little shocked and stunned and deeply saddened because the guy that loves Jesus, generally loves Jesus, Mike Huckabee was on our show earlier. We're friends with Mike. He likes Hendrix. I mean, he's got all the bases covered. But you have gone after him in a Nat...

ELECTION 2008 Minuteman reconsiders Huckabee endorsement Gilchrist discovers candidate favors giving status to illegals within days Posted: December 18, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Jerome R. Corsi © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in the moments following the Values Voter Debate Sept. 17, 2007, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (WND photo) Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist says he will have to reconsider his endorsement of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee after learning the Republican presidential candidate favors allowing illegal aliens to wait only days to receive documents allowing re-entry into the U.S. In a Dec. 9 Fox News interview , just two days before Gilchrist's endorsement, Huckabee was questioned by host Chris Wallace about an apparent contradiction between statements last year that he preferred a pathway to citizenship and his current plan. On his campaign website , Huckabee outlines a proposal that wo...

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."

  From CBS News' Correspondent Bill Whitaker, who's covering the Romney campaign: LONDONDERRY, N.H. -- Before former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney arrived at his first campaign stop at Insight Technology, a maker of high-tech military laser and imaging systems, a young woman went around the room, hurriedly handing out leaflets to the 150 or so employees gathered to hear Romney speak.   The leaflet entitled, "Questions for Presidential Candidates," had a half dozen questions, most of them critical of the Iraq war and U.S. nuclear policies. A few minutes later another woman, who identified herself as an Insight employee, came around and with a stern voice, asked the assembled workers to give her the leaflets.   "These are anti-Romney," she said. "We don't allow this. Some young woman snuck in here and handed these out. She didn't belong here, we don't allow this!" Every employee I saw her approach handed the l...

I just got this on Rush: by St. Louis Conservative ...when a reporter confronted Huck about Romney demanding that he apologize for accusing Bush of having a "bunker mentality", Huck literally responded with essentially, "yes, but I am more pro-life than Romney and I'm more against gays than Romney". He literally dodged the question entirely and turned into an attack on Romney over social issues!!!!!! This guy is an absolute and total disaster. What a loser. ".....women and minorities hardest hit"

Below you'll find information and a YouTube link on Governor Huckabee's speech to the Center For Strategic And International Studies (CSIS). As you can see, he attacked the Bush Administration's "bunker mentality," called for "full diplomatic relations" with Iran, and claimed that "our focus on Iraq [is] at the expense of Pakistan." http://www.mittromney.com/News/Press-Releases/No_Laughing_Matter_12.15 www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQitn77AXvo "SOMEONE WHO HASN'T THOUGHT MUCH ABOUT FOREIGN POLICY" No Laughing Matter: A serious look at Gov. Mike Huckabee's record and policy beyond the one-liners. Gov. Mike Huckabee: "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." (WABC Radio's "Imus In The Morning," 12/4/07) National Review: "The Holiday Inn Express Candidate." "In sum, conservatives should have wor...

Mike Huckabee says the US government has an "arrogant" "bunker mentality". George Bush has surrounded himself with the best minds in the business. Dick Cheney was previously Secretary of Defense, and has more years in service of this country than Mike Huckabee has been alive. Robert M. Gates, the current secretary of defense was the Director of Central Intelligence for three years, and again make's Huckabee's Resume look pathetic. Rumsfeld was a brilliant strategist, and twice served as secretary of defence. Do we need to even mention the qualifications of General Petraeus? Each of these men lead organizations of thousands of people each working on the problems that America faces. Condoleezza Rice is also a very competent Secretary of State. These men and woman set American foreign policy, and project American power overseas. Mike Huckabee, a person who hadn't even heard of the NIE report that was on the front page of every newspaper for weeks, thinks ...

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...