"Governor Graft"

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 Obama received for running a separate PAC and potentially funnelling money from maxed out donors through that PAC, it calls into question whether Huckabee may have done the same.

You can view a full list of Huckabee "donors" here.

Developing...

Rice rejects Huckabee criticism

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 first declined to respond, saying dismissively: "Look, I don't comment on other people's comments. I don't have time, all right. I really don't have time to worry about this."

 

But she then launched into a vigorous defense of the administration's multilateral diplomatic efforts on Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran, and pointed to improving ties with traditional allies in Europe, some of which were strained by the Iraq war.

 

"We have right now probably the strongest trans-Atlantic relations ... I would say in a very long time," Rice said, noting in particular Britain, France and Germany.

 

"We're working with allies in Europe, Russia and China on Iran. The (NATO) alliance is mobilized together in Afghanistan," she said. "We had 50-plus countries at Annapolis to launch the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. We're working together with allies in Lebanon.

 

"I can go on and on and on and on," Rice concluded. "And so, I would just say to people, look at the facts.

 

Condi would make such a great president/ vise president...

 

I wish she would have ran... It is probably too late for her to be president, but she would make a great vise president... but who knows if she wants it?

Coulter on Huckabee: Stupid and easily led

American Pastoral

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, and it has served us well, in which we are happy to profess our faith but don't really hit people over the head with its symbols in an explicitly political setting, such as a campaign commercial, which is what Mr. Huckabee's ad was.

I wound up thinking this: That guy is using the cross so I'll like him. That doesn't tell me what he thinks of Jesus, but it does tell me what he thinks of me. He thinks I'm dim. He thinks I will associate my savior with his candidacy. Bleh.

The ad was shrewd. The caucus is coming, the TV is on, people are home putting up the tree, and the other candidates are all over the tube advancing themselves and attacking someone else. Mr. Huckabee thinks, I'll break through the clutter by being the guy who reminds us of the reason for the season, in a way that helps underscore that I'm the Christian candidate and those other fellas aren't. As a break from the nattering argument, as a message that highlights something bigger than politics, it was refreshing.

Was the cross an accident? Please. It was as accidental as Mr. Huckabee's witty response, when he accused those of questioning the ad of paranoia, was spontaneous. "Actually I will confess this, if you play this spot backwards it says 'Paul is dead, Paul is dead, Paul is dead,' " he said. As Bill Safire used to say of clever moves, "That's good stuff!"

Ken Mehlman, the former Republican chairman, once bragged in my presence that in every ad he did he put in something wrong--something that went too far, something debatable. TV producers, ever hungry for new controversy, would play the commercial over and over as pundits on the panel deliberated over its meaning. This got the commercial played free all over the news.

The cross is the reason you saw the commercial. The cross made it break through.

Mr. Huckabee is a telegenic presence, fluid and unself-conscious. The camera is his friend. It is not the potential exposer of his flaws but the conduit by which his warmth and intelligence can be more broadly known. This gift, and seeing the camera this way is a gift, carries greater implications in American politics than, say, in British politics. In Britain, public persona is important, as Tony Blair showed, but there you rise up in the parliamentary system. You have to learn to play well with the other children. You have to form alliances, handle a portfolio, create coalitions, lead within the party and then the country.

In American politics you don't have to go through that grueling process. You can be born on TV. Some candidates for president have a closer relationship with the makeup woman at "Hannity" and the guy who mics you up on "Meet" than they do with state party chiefs and union leaders. Experience, background and positions can be trumped by killer spots or a dominating debate performance.

This is some of Mr. Huckabee's power. There's the fact that he's new, and the fact that Americans are in a funny historic moment: The lives they lead are good, and comfortable, but they sense deep down that the infrastructure of our good fortune is in many ways frail, that Citi may fall and Korea go crazy and some nut go kaboom. In such circumstances some would think a leader radically different--an outsider, a minister, a self proclaimed non-establishment type--might be an answer.

Mr. Huckabee reminds me of two governors who became president, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Like Mr. Clinton, he is a natural, charming, bright and friendly. Yet one senses something unsavory there, something not so nice. Like Mr. Bush, his approach to politics seems, at bottom, highly emotional, marked by great spurts of feeling and mighty declarations as to what the Lord wants. The problem with this, and with Bushian compassionate conservatism, which seems to have an echo in Mr. Huckabee's Christianism, is that to the extent it is a philosophy, it is not a philosophy that allows debate. Because it comes down to "This is what God wants." This is not an opener of discussion but a squelcher of it. It doesn't expand the process, it frustrates it.

Mr. Huckabee is clever. He puts forth his policies, such as they are, based on a faith-based understanding of public policy, and if you disagree with his policies, or take a hard shot at them, or at him, he suggests the reason is that you look down on evangelicals. This creates a new fissure in a party already riven by fissures. He has been accused by some in the conservative press of tearing the party apart, but it was being torn apart before he got on the scene. His rise is not a cause of collapse but an expression of it.

He plays the victim well. Others want to "trip him up," but he'll "get my message out there." His foes are "Wall Street-Washington" insiders, elitists. On the "Today" show he said his critics are the type who never liked evangelical Christians. When one of them runs, these establishment types say " 'Oh my gosh, now they're serious, they don't want to just show up and vote, they actually would want to be part of the discussion and really talk about issues that include hunger and poverty and things.' "

This is a form of populist manipulation. Evangelical Christians have been strong in the Republican Party since the 1970s. President Bush and Karl Rove helped them become more important. The suggestion that they are a small and abused group within the GOP is strange. It is as if the Reagan Democrats, largely Catholic and suburban, who buoyed the Republican Party from the late '70s through 2004, and who were very much part of the GOP coalition, decided to announce that Catholics have been abused within the party, and it's time for Christmas commercials with floating Miraculous Medals.

Does Mr. Huckabee understand that his approach is making people uncomfortable? Does he see himself as divisive? He's a bright man, so it's hard to believe he doesn't. But it's working for him. It's getting him his 30 points in Iowa in a crowded field.

Could he win the nomination? Who knows? It's all a bubbling stew on the Republican side, and no one knows who'll float to the top. In an interview this week with David Brody of CBN, Mr. Huckabee said people everywhere were coming to him and saying, "We are claiming Isaiah 54 for you, that the weapons formed against you will not prosper."

Prayer is powerful. But Huckabee's critics say he's a manipulator with a mean streak and little knowledge of the world. And Isaiah 54 doesn't say anything about self-inflicted wounds.

Ms. Noonan is a contributing editor of The Wall Street Journal and author of "John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father" (Penguin, 2005), which you can order from the OpinionJournal bookstore. Her column appears Fridays on OpinionJournal.com.

 

Did a Huck Ally Really Slam Rush Limbaugh?

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

"blending Jimmy Carter's ostentatious piety with Nixon's knack for oblique nastiness"

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 injector as a bigot with contempt for the public's ability to decode bigotry. Huckabee's campaign actually is what Rudy Giuliani's candidacy is misdescribed as being -- a comprehensive apostasy against core Republican beliefs. Giuliani departs from recent Republican stances regarding two issues -- abortion and the recognition by the law of same-sex couples. Huckabee's radical candidacy broadly repudiates core Republican policies such as free trade, low taxes, the essential legitimacy of America's corporate entities and the market system allocating wealth and opportunity. And consider New Hampshire's chapter of the National Education Association, the teachers union that is a crucial component of the Democratic Party's base. In 2004, New Hampshire's chapter endorsed Howard Dean in the Democratic primary and no one in the Republican primary. Last week it endorsed Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary -- and Huckabee in the Republican primary. It likes, as public employees generally do, his record of tax increases, and it applauds his opposition to school choice. Huckabee's role in this year's '70s Show is not merely to attempt to revise a few Republican beliefs. He represents wholesale repudiation of what came after the 1970s -- Reaganism.

George F. Will, a 1976 Pulitzer Prize winner whose columns are syndicated in more than 400 magazines and newspapers worldwide, is the author of Men at Work: The Craft of Baseball.

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this is not a sibling that you just aren’t having a good time with

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 other guy he mentioned in this New York Times Sunday Magazine interview as advising him was Tom Friedman of the New York Times. And that sounds a lot more like Tom's advice than my advice. I think that's cockamamie, and in fact, I had an hour and a half, I think, conversation with Governor Huckabee a couple of months ago over breakfast, and this was one of the main points on which I tried to educate him, that this is not a sibling that you just aren't having a good time with. This is a country run by megalomaniacs bent on an apocalyptic outcome, who believe that bringing about a world without America is their god-given obligation. And you know, just talking with them, you know, can't we all get along, Rodney King style, is not a prescription for a serious foreign policy, I'm afraid. 

ARKANSAS' PRIMARY DRUG OF CONCERN

"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 good behavior. Instead of serving only 70 percent of their sentences, they'd only have to serve at least half if they behaved." (Andrew DeMillo, "Huckabee Criticized For Meth Bill," The Associated Press, 12/20/07)

Meth Became A Crisis In Arkansas When Huckabee Was Governor:

DEA: In The Last Ten Years, Meth Has Become Arkansas' "Primary Drug Of Concern." "Methamphetamine: In less than ten years, methamphetamine has grown from a problem limited to the Southwest and Pacific regions of the United States to Arkansas' primary drug of concern. The state is encountering locally produced methamphetamine as well as the importation of methamphetamine produced in Mexico. Not only does the state's rural landscape provide an ideal setting for illicit manufacturing, but the wide availability of precursor chemicals also contributes to the ease of manufacturing methamphetamine. Criminal groups are acquiring thousands of cases of pseudoephedrine via wholesalers and use sophisticated schemes to illegally ship, at a considerable profit, pseudoephedrine to methamphetamine producers." (DEA Website, "Arkansas 2007," http://www.usdoj.gov/, Accessed 12/2/07)

At The Same Time, Gov. Huckabee Signed Legislation Reducing Sentences For The Makers Of Meth:

Huckabee Supported A Measure To Reduce Mandatory Minimums For Methamphetamine Makers. "Methamphetamine makers could shorten their mandatory time in prison with good behavior under legislation approved Tuesday by the Arkansas House. The bill, by Sen. Jim Luker, D-Wynne, is part of a legislative package intended to help control the state's burgeoning prison population and is supported by state prison officials, the state prosecutors' association and Gov. Mike Huckabee." (Melissa Nelson, "Arkansas House Approves Bill To Reduce Mandatory Prison Time Of Meth Offenders," The Associated Press, 3/8/05)

The Bill Lowered Mandatory Minimums For Meth Manufacturers From 70 Percent Of A Sentence To Only 50 Percent Of A Sentence. "Senate Bill 387 repeals a 1997 law requiring those convicted of manufacturing methamphetamine, among other crimes, to serve at least 70 percent of their sentence. Approved by a unanimous vote in the Senate and by a 56-32 vote in the House, SB 387 allows those inmates to serve half of their sentence if they've earned 'good time' for good behavior." (Arkansas House Of Representatives, "Prison Crowding And Saving Teachers' Insurance Plans Gain House Approval," Press Release, http://www.arkansas.gov/, 3/11/05)

- In 2005, Gov. Huckabee Signed The Sentence Reductions Into Law. "Also Monday, Gov. Mike Huckabee signed into law legislation allowing imprisoned methamphetamine abusers serving time under the state's mandatory 70-percent rule to shorten their sentences with good behavior." (Melissa Nelson, "Senate OKs Higher Ed Funding Formulas," The Associated Press, 3/21/05)

Huckabee Was Recently Confronted By His Support For Weaker Sentences:

Huckabee Said He Was Against "Putting People In Unnecessarily Long Sentences When There Really Was No Call For It." STEPHANOPOULOS: "Why did you sign a bill that your local paper called a relief bill for meth manufacturers?" HUCKABEE: "Well, they called it that but it was actually making sure that we had reasonable, responsible policies and prison terms. We were hard on drug offenders and drug dealers. But here's what we also tried to do. To balance being tough on drug dealers, tough on crime, but also being a little bit kinder to the taxpayers and not putting people in unnecessarily long sentences when there really was no call for it. Our prison director, I think said it best. He said, we lock up a lot of people we're mad at not just the people we're afraid of. So, we didn't coddle criminals. But what we did do, in many cases of non-violent drug offenders was create drug courts which created a different pathway so that people who had not committed a violent crime, who were drug users, who didn't have previous offenses, went into rehab and that cost w about $4 a day versus incarceration of some $43 a day." (ABC's "This Week," 12/2/07; www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv648uLzKyo)

Huckabee Admitted He Supported Weakening Penalties For Criminals Caught Running Meth Labs. STEPHANOPOULOS: "I understand not the drug users, but these were drug dealers here." HUCKABEE: "Well, and we didn't make this -- what you have to understand is that the significant difference was some of the penalties for these people could be up to life, and they still had that potential if they continued to manufacture drugs, but it was an adjustment in what had been an overreaching law that had previously passed." (ABC's "This Week," 12/2/07; www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv648uLzKyo)

The Arkansas Democrat Gazette Attacked Lower Sentences For Meth Makers:

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: "Call It The Relief Bill For Meth Manufacturers." (Editorial, "A Perk For Drug Dealers," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 3/16/05)

The Bill Was Criticized Because It Reduced Sentencing For Meth Manufacturers Sentences, Not Meth Users. "This was a bad idea two years ago when the Department of Correction pressured the Ledge to back away from the 70 percent rule. It still is. Because the rule isn't aimed at the poor souls who wind up in jail only because they've used meth and got caught. The prisoners who would benefit by the Ledge's favor are the dealers-the source of the plague, the ones who cook up the drug and spread it around. These are the folks who prey on addicts lower down the drug chain. These are the manufacturers and merchants of so much misery in Arkansas." (Editorial, "A Perk For Drug Dealers," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 3/16/05)

Although The Bill Cited Overcrowding As Reason For Its Passage, Meth Manufacturers Represented Only A Small Percentage Of The Prison Population. "There's no big economy to be achieved by passing SB 387. That's because these dealers represent only a tiny fraction of the prison population. The big growth in the number of prisoners results from having to jail all those drug addicts who violate their paroles, or the terms of their probations, by falling back into their old habits. Now there's a problem that needs fixing. But the Ledge won't adequately fund probation and parole departments, leaving the drug-addicted poorly supervised-and prime candidates for a return to prison." (Editorial, "A Perk For Drug Dealers," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 3/16/05)

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Said That It Created A Prison "Revolving Door." "It made no sense two years ago to spin the prisons' revolving door even faster, and it makes no sense today. The Ledge needs to think about all this again, if it thought about any of this the first time, and be given a chance to change its mind." (Editorial, "A Perk For Drug Dealers," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 3/16/05)

from the Bard

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

'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; etc. More disturbingly, he then catches Rudy putting plugs for his clients into his political speeches, which are then reported as legitimate news. The choicest tidbit, however, is the one where the author quickly settles a personal score.

Giuliani also failed to disclose his consulting contract with a Florida entrepreneur named Hank Asher when in 2004 he talked about him to a magazine writer who was profiling Asher. In fact, the writer was this writer, and the magazine was Vanity Fair.

Not only is the profile more coolly damaging than VF's summertime hatchet job on Judith Nathan — its cumulative effect is devastating. Newsweek and the Voice focused on Rudy's sinister-sounding but ultimately murky connection to a world of which few voters have a clear picture (and we are all tainted: Got a Citicard? A Saudi prince is the biggest shareholder in Citigroup). Shnayerson, by contrast, methodically builds a portrait of a fundamentally flawed and avaricious character, a man happy to sell his perceived integrity not just to the highest bidder, but to every bidder. The newest Giuliani TV ad (above) promising to "stand up" to "dictators" and "tyrants" might not have the same ring coming from someone who's been paid by Qatar, China, Venezuela, and countless machers in need of a cred boost. —Michael Idov

A Tale of Two Giulianis [VF]

Related: Rudy Has Seen the Enemy and He Is … Us [NYM]

From Kyle

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 at the current tax system and argued that we are essentially paying the same rate as what the Fair Tax would impose. That may be true, but I don't understand how that merits scrapping the current system. If the Fair Tax does the exact same thing, why should switch? The tie goes toward stability, does it not? People have planned, not just in the short term, but in the long term for the tax benefits of the current system. Revolutionizing the way we tax would upset the expectations of a millions of Americans and businesses. Thus, doing something that drastic requires not just generalized frustration, but serious injustice. Generally, I think that frustration with the current tax system has made people over-eager to do something else. I don't deny that the current system has its flaws. Indeed, it should be flatter and simpler. However, taking the extreme position of overhauling what we have and disturbing the expectations of those who are paying taxes seems unwise to me.

More rebuttals to come

re: "Rod Dreher"

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...

America's President Deserves Thanks And Respect

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 soldiers. Even in my own party, Governor Mike Huckabee criticized President Bush by accusing him of 'an arrogant bunker mentality' in dealing with other nations around the world. Just like Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee has refused to apologize."

...

"In the wake of 9/11, the President took unprecedented steps to keep us safe and defend Americans at home and abroad. We revamped our homeland security apparatus, passed new laws that allowed us to listen in when al-Qaeda was calling, cleared out terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and successfully toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein.

"Far from home, our soldiers, National Guard and Reserves, have overcome early strategic mistakes to make progress in Iraq that is both undeniable and should be welcomed by all. This progress has come as America's heroes and their families have made unequalled sacrifices." 

...

"A half century ago, our mothers and fathers in the Greatest Generation came together to defeat fascism and communism, promote freedom and civil rights, and build a strong and prosperous country that is the envy of the world. They showed that there is no threat that a united America cannot defeat. By remembering their example, we can overcome the challenges that confront us."

To read the full op-ed, please see: http://www.townhall.com/

Former White House Adviser Pete Wehner

 

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 National Review article and you say that his Foreign Affairs article where he attacked President Bush for being arrogant and having a bunker mentality was misguided, and you said it was stunningly silly and deeply revealing. In what way?"

WEHNER: "Well, it was revealing because the criticisms that he made were with the kind that Jimmy Carter and Al Gore would make, not that usually conservative Republicans would make. He said that the President was at war with the world, which is not true. He spoke about the 'arrogant bunker mentality.' He said that the President really should deal with Iran like you deal with miscommunications between parents and friends. And that's actually not how you deal with Iran. It's not that he criticized the President. I've criticized our policy on Iraq. But the grounds of the criticism, I thought were wrong and, as I said, silly and I think for a Republican running in a Republican primary you don't want to sound like Jimmy Carter or Al Gore or the Daily Kos."

SCARBOROUGH: "Do you think, though, that a lot of Republicans are concerned with let's say what Paul Bremer did with the de-Baath-ification plan or what Donald Rumsfeld did by not giving the generals all the troops they wanted. I mean, Republicans, I know you've heard from other Republicans. There are similar concerns about missteps after we got into Baghdad."

WEHNER: "I acknowledge those and I accept them, actually. I've got some of the same complaints. Clearly the post-war situation wasn't handled well. We didn't have enough troops. We didn't have the right counter insurgency strategy. We have it now with David Petraeus. That wasn't the grounds of my criticism for the Foreign Affairs article. As I said, it was the nature of his criticisms as they related to this 'arrogant bunker mentality' that we really weren't, that we were having a problem in communications with dictators in the world. Well, sometimes it's actually the nature of the regimes that cause the problems. Its not that you're not being nice enough to them. He was making the argument that if you dominate the world you're going to illicit opposition. We're not dominating the world. We're actually trying to liberate some countries. And sometimes that elicits opposition."

CNBC's JIM CRAMER: "Peter, this is Jim Cramer, it seems like that Huckabee is also implying that we are a stingy nation that doesn't do a lot around the world. Isn't it true that we're the most, by far, the most generous nation in the world towards both friend and foe?"

WEHNER: "Yeah. That was another criticism that bothered me. Implicit in his argument is that it wasn't a generous nation. If we were generous we'd be well-loved. The reality is that we are generous. We give a huge amount in foreign aid. The President's global AIDS initiative which increased the amount of money to combat global AIDS by five times over the Clinton Administration is one of the great, generous, humane foreign policy achievements ever. And the reality is that we liberated more than 50 million people from two of the most despotic and cruel regimes in modern history and that was an act of generosity. It's come at a lot of cost to us in terms of human lives and in terms of money. It's cost more in lives and money than it should have. But the reality is that the impulse was generous and I think when all is said and done we'll look back on in history as having done the right thing and the generous thing."

MSNBC's MIKA BRZEZINSKI: "Peter, pertaining to the Foreign Affairs article written by Governor Huckabee and the words that he used, isn't it also true that we're dealing with an administration that led us into war on faulty intelligence and an administration that brought up the possibility of World War III which appears to be on intelligence that is still sort of hard to decipher at this point. I mean, isn't there something to be said for the 'arrogant bunker mentality' and why can't Republican candidates say that? Is there some rule against it?"

WEHNER: "No, there's no rule against it. He said it. But there's no rule against criticizing him for saying it. In terms of the faulty intelligence, I don't dispute that. Of course we went in with faulty intelligence and it was a huge, huge failure. The rest of the world had faulty intelligence. Countries that even opposed our actions in Iraq had faulty intelligence. They believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. I would say, that it would be nice if, once in a while, people pointed out that there was a burden of proof on Saddam Hussein to meet the obligations that he had agreed to. He didn't. He intentionally kept the inspectors out, and based on his history we drew conclusions. They were the wrong ones. Again, I don't dispute the idea that the Bush Administration can be criticized or even if it should be criticized. In eight years, you're going to make mistakes. This administration has made some; we've made some big ones. My objection was the nature of the criticisms. I just think Governor Huckabee who is a very smooth and talented fellow – you saw that in your interview with him. He's the best debater in the field. He's a terrific speaker. But, I think on foreign policy, his views are wrong, and he's pretty inexperienced and it's showing."

SCARBOROUGH: "Alright, Pete, thank you so much for renewing this. Pete Wehner. He's with The Ethics and Public Policy Center. You can read Pete's critique on the National Review Online and you can also see Governor Huckabee's article in Foreign Affairs."

Gilchrist discovers candidate favors giving status to illegals within days

---

---

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 would require illegal aliens to repatriate and get on the back of the line, which could mean years for re-entry into the United States.

Huckabee insisted there is no discrepancy, specifying that "the pathway to get back here legally doesn't take years. It would take days, maybe weeks, and then people could come back in the workforce."

Asked by WND to respond, Gilchrist backtracked, admitting he may have been mistaken in his initial assumptions about the repatriation provisions of Huckabee's "Secure America Plan."

"I'm going to have to follow up on this," Gilchrist said. "I had not seen before anything in Governor Huckabee's plan where repatriation and touch-back could involve only days, not years.

"I personally need to talk to Governor Huckabee about this," he added. "This issue needs to be between Governor Huckabee and me."

 

Huckabee's admission to Fox News directly contradicted a condition Gilchrist stated was a sine qua non of his endorsement.

As previously reported, Gilchrist told WND, "Nothing I can find in Huckabee's plan indicates he is going to let the illegal immigrants back into the country the next day after they go home.

"The illegal aliens, once they are back home, will have to stand in line with everybody else and apply for legal entry at the end of the line," Gilchrist insisted, representing what he thought was the Huckabee plan.

Gilchrist further stated at the time, "If, in fact, there is no standing in line and waiting for legal entry, I would have a serious reservation about endorsing Huckabee."

Despite the new information about Huckabee's plan, Gilchrist declined to withdraw immediately his endorsement.

"I need to get answers from Huckabee himself about this discrepancy," Gilchrist said. "I want a valid explanation and I want it published.

"Plus, I have some other questions too that you're not aware of that I have already queried Governor Huckabee's staff about yesterday and again this morning," he continued. "But it's going to take about 72 hours to get responses."

Gilchrist declined to specify the additional questions.

In the Fox News interview, Wallace asked Huckabee about the apparent inconsistency.

"Well, I don't think there's an inconsistency," Huckabee said. "When I said a pathway, I didn't say what the pathway was.

"I now believe that the only thing the American people are going to accept – and frankly, the only thing that really makes sense – is a pathway that sends people back to the starting point," Huckabee continued.

"But this idea of the waiting years – no, I don't agree with that," he stressed. "In fact, look, if we can get a credit card application done within hours, if we can get passports done within days, if we can transact business over the Internet any place in the world within seconds, do a background check instantaneously – it's our government that has failed and is dysfunctional."

Huckabee went on to say, "It shouldn't take years to get a work permit to come here and pick lettuce."

He further specified, "But the pathway to get back here legally doesn't take years. It would take days, maybe weeks, and then people could come back in the workforce."

That repatriation provisions in Huckabee's "Secure America Plan" apparently are supported by Point 9 of his plan, which calls for an increase in the number of visas available for highly skilled and highly educated applicants.

Theocratic?

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."

Bill Whitaker

 

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 leaflets over.

 

After Romney gave his standard speech and asked for questions, one older gentleman stood and said he had a question about the First Amendment and the right to free speech. He relayed the above story and added that the young woman had been asked rather forcefully to leave. He then asked Romney what he thought of that.

 

Romney at first seemed taken aback and looked as though he'd prefer to laugh if off. Then the candidate, who has made "Ask Mitt Anything" sessions a staple of his campaign, seemed to recognize brushing this off was not an option and he seemed to realize this could be a useable moment.

 

Saying, "I'm not afraid of any questions" and "I was on 'Meet The Press' yesterday, for Pete's sake," he asked to see the leaflet. Romney then proceeded to answer the leaflet questions about the cost of the war and bring the troops home from Iraq, his voice growing more confident as he went along. "What patriot would take the troops out regardless of the consequences," he asked in response.

 

Romney never did address the free speech issue, whether he condoned or condemned the attempt to stifle a line of questioning. Still, the workers at this military technology company seemed rather pleased with his response and gave him an energetic round of applause. The candidate seemed rather pleased with himself.

St. Louis Conservative

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"

No Laughing Matter: "Someone Who Hasn't Thought Much About Foreign Policy"

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 worries about the depth and soundness of
Mike Huckabee's foreign-policy views. And staying at a Holiday Inn
Express is not going to be enough to allay them." (Editorial, "The
Holiday Inn Express Candidate," National Review, 12/10/07)

"Huckabee did give a long speech on foreign policy at [CSIS]… It
combined a superficial rendering of conventional foreign-policy wisdom
— which of course included many unfair criticisms of President Bush —
with Huckabee's inimitable folksy delivery. … Huckabee's views are the
uneven grab bag to be expected from someone who hasn't thought much
about foreign policy." – National Review (Editorial, "The Holiday Inn
Express Candidate, National Review, 12/10/07)

To Watch Selections From Gov. Huckabee's Speech, Click Here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQitn77AXvo

Gov. Huckabee's Foreign Affairs Essay Closely Mirrors A Speech He Gave
In September 2007:

Gov. Huckabee: "This Administration's Bunker Mentality Has Been
Counterproductive, Both At Home And Abroad." GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE:
"Well, let me begin by saying that to say that American foreign policy
needs a change in tone or attitude, or an opening up and reaching out,
is [as] obvious as saying that O.J. Simpson might've had a bad month.
This Administration's bunker mentality has been counterproductive,
both at home and abroad. They've done a poor job of communicating and
consulting with other countries, just as they have, frankly, with the
American people." (Gov. Mike Huckabee, Remarks To The Center For
Strategic And International Studies, Washington, D.C., 9/28/07)
Foreign Affairs As Playground Politics. GOV. HUCKABEE: "There's a
sense in which our situation with prestige in the world is a great
deal like many of us experienced as a child growing up in a
neighborhood where there was one kid, one kid who was just exceptional
at everything he did. He made A's, and never anything else; he could
run faster; he could jump higher; he could throw the ball further; he
never struck out. You know the kid; I hope you weren't that kid."
(Gov. Mike Huckabee, Remarks To The Center For Strategic And
International Studies, Washington, D.C., 9/28/07)

Gov. Huckabee: "Full Diplomatic Relations" With Iran. GOV. HUCKABEE:
"Normally we speak to Iran only indirectly, through the Swiss embassy
in Tehran. Our recent direct negotiations about Iraq have been very
narrowly focused, not very productive because we really weren't
exploring the full range of issues. We have valuable incentives to
offer Iran in exchange for helping us to stabilize Iraq, not
supporting the Taliban, Hamas, and Hezbollah, and abandoning their
nuclear ambitions, trade and economic assistance, full diplomatic
relations, and security guarantees." (Gov. Mike Huckabee, Remarks To
The Center For Strategic And International Studies, Washington, D.C.,
9/28/07)

Gov. Huckabee: Iran Is Simply Playing "Normal Power Politics" And We
Can "Negotiate With Them." GOV. HUCKABEE: "And while there can be no
rational dealings with al Qaeda, Iran is a nation-state looking for
regional power. It plays the normal power politics that we do
understand, and can skillfully and rightfully pursue. And we have
substantial issues to negotiate with them." (Gov. Mike Huckabee,
Remarks To The Center For Strategic And International Studies,
Washington, D.C., 9/28/07)
Diplomacy With Iran Is Like A Fight With Your Sister. GOV. HUCKABEE:
"We haven't had diplomatic relationships with Iran in almost 30 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
differences to move that relationship forward. Well, the same is true
for countries." (Gov. Mike Huckabee, Remarks To The Center For
Strategic And International Studies, Washington, D.C., 9/28/07)

Gov. Huckabee: An Embassy In Baghdad Would Have Led To Better
Intelligence. GOV. HUCKABEE: "If we had had diplomatic relations with
Iraq, and an ambassador in Baghdad, we obviously would've had better
information. Before we put boots on the ground in the future, we
better have a few wingtips there first." (Gov. Mike Huckabee, Remarks
To The Center For Strategic And International Studies, Washington,
D.C., 9/28/07)

Gov. Mike Huckabee: "And When President Bush Included Iran In The Axis
Of Evil, Everything Went Downhill Pretty Fast." (Gov. Mike Huckabee,
Remarks To The Center For Strategic And International Studies,
Washington, D.C., 9/28/07)

Gov. Mike Huckabee: "I Know That We Cannot Live With Al Qaeda, But
There Is A Chance We Can Live With A Domesticated Iran." GOV.
HUCKABEE: "As the only presidential candidate with a theology degree,
along with several years of political experience, I know that theology
is black and white. Politics is not. My enemy today on one issue may
be my friend tomorrow on another. Bottom line is this: Iran is a
regional threat to the balance of power in the Middle and Near East.
Al Qaeda is an existential threat to the United States. I know that we
cannot live with al Qaeda, but there is a chance we can live with a
domesticated Iran." (Gov. Mike Huckabee, Remarks To The Center For
Strategic And International Studies, Washington, D.C., 9/28/07)

Gov. Huckabee: Bin Laden Is "Protected Indirectly By The Pakistani
Government." GOV. HUCKABEE: "Now, while our failure to engage Iran
seems to be leading to our potentially attacking them, our failure to
engage al Qaeda and Pakistan seems to be leading to their attacking us
again. When we let bin Laden escape at Tora Bora in December of 2001,
he fled Afghanistan into Pakistan, and we played Brer Fox to his Brer
Rabbit. We threw him into the perfect briar patch, protected directly
by Islamic extremists, tribal leaders who revere him, and don't
consider their land to be part of Pakistan, protected indirectly by
the Pakistani government, who believes that it is." (Gov. Mike
Huckabee, Remarks To The Center For Strategic And International
Studies, Washington, D.C., 9/28/07)

Gov. Huckabee: The War In Iraq Is A Distraction From Going After Al
Qaeda In Pakistan. GOV. HUCKABEE: "I am convinced that our focus on
Iraq at the expense of Pakistan or Iran is like dealing with the
neighbor's house, which is on fire, while ignoring the house on the
other side of the street that's filled with carbon monoxide. Iraq may
be the hot war, but Pakistan is where the cold, calculating planning
is actually going on. Al Qaeda in Iraq is a branch office. Corporate
headquarters is in Pakistan." (Gov. Mike Huckabee, Remarks To The
Center For Strategic And International Studies, Washington, D.C.,
9/28/07)

Gov. Huckabee: By Supporting Pakistan's Government, "Our Government"
Is To Blame If Al Qaeda Attacks Us. GOV. HUCKABEE: "If al Qaeda
attacks us tomorrow, that attacked will be postmarked Pakistan, not
Iraq. Pakistan has become the new Afghanistan. Another attack will
spark justified outrage that we let bin Laden and his people get away.
Concerns about Pakistan's delicate sensibilities will be drowned out
by the wailing about American casualties. The American people will not
understand why our supposed ally refused to help us or why our
government put up with their intransigence." (Gov. Mike Huckabee,
Remarks To The Center For Strategic And International Studies,
Washington, D.C., 9/28/07)
Gov. Huckabee: "I Would Prefer To Skip The Next Attack And The
Exasperated Fury That It Will Rightly Generate And Cut To The Chase By
Going After Al Qaeda's Safe Haven In Pakistan." (Gov. Mike Huckabee,
Remarks To The Center For Strategic And International Studies,
Washington, D.C., 9/28/07)

Arrogant?

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 he can do a better job than these people.

Tell me Mike, who is incorrectly arrogant? Oh yeah, that's right... I forgot you stayed at a Best Western... Ha, ha, ha... very funny.

Victor Davis Hanson: "Straw-in-the-Mouth Foreign Policy?"

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 Taliban and Saddam, and with consensual governments in their places, without a WMD program in Libya (and according to our brilliant intelligence agencies, one in Iran or North Korea either), with staunch U.S. allies like Sarkozy in France and Merkel in Germany.

Don't know what to make of the Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox evocations and the general prose style of the piece (e.g., "We played Brer Fox to his Brer Rabbit. We threw him into the perfect briar patch")—other than these references and other similar metaphors and similes sound like some beltway policy wonk in DC playing at Will Rogers, or throwing in here and there perceived Arkansas-isms as proof of down-home authenticity.

12/15 03:52 PM

Republicn camelot

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

Back Down in Little Rock
Eugene Fields and an old familiar feeling.

By David J. Sanders

It'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 already been convicted of DWIs in 1996, 1998, and 2000, but his 2001 felony-DWI conviction resulted in the maximum six-year prison sentence and a $5,000 fine.

The political contributions by the Fields family — large by Arkansas standards — went unreported at the time Huckabee granted Eugene Fields executive clemency. The size of the donations places the Fields family in the top tier of the state GOP's donors, alongside Arkansas aristocracy like the scions of the Fords and Stephens families. Both Scott Ford, CEO of Alltel, and Warren Stephens, CEO of Stephens, Inc., gave the Arkansas Republican party $10,000 in 2003. (Full disclosure: I write a column that is distributed by Stephens Media.)

A review of campaign-finance records shows that Fields's wife, Glenda, made two $5,000 contributions to the Arkansas Republican party — one on June 26, 2003 and another on July 14, 2003. Less than two months before Glenda Fields wrote the first of those checks, the Arkansas Court of Appeals denied Eugene Fields's petition for rehearing his 2001 felony DWI conviction.

Fields did not immediately report to prison. Four days before he began serving his prison sentence on August of 2003, he applied for commutation of his sentence. In his application, he claimed that his "alcohol abuse is under control" because of anti-depression medication, counseling, and his experience with Alcoholics Anonymous.

Political contributions weren't the only donations made by the Fields family. Also contained in his application (along with a character reference from his Southern Baptist pastor) were copies of thank-you notes and tax receipts for financial contributions from charitable causes and organizations he'd supported: The Salvation Army, Arkansas Children's Hospital, U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce, and the First Baptist Church of Van Buren's "Women's Mission Ministry." The scope of his charitable donations, which began around the time of his second DWI conviction, expanded as his DWI rap sheet grew.

On February 20, 2004, Huckabee announced his plan to make Fields eligible for parole. According to the Arkansas News Bureau, Huckabee "bristled" when pressed for specifics as to why he favored Fields's being made eligible for parole only after serving such a short portion of his sentence. Huckabee claimed that he had a reason: "Board recommended it. Sentence was within two months. That's the reason. What's hard about that?"

When Huckabee granted the clemency in April, Fields had served seven and half months of his six-year sentence. Fields had already appeared before the parole board, which voted 5-0 to grant parole, making him eligible for parole on June 1 of that year.

Huckabee's April 14 action accelerated the process, making Fields immediately eligible for parole and releasing him from prison. Field's commutation drew the attention of Rhonda Sharp, the Post Prison Transfer Board's spokeswoman told the Arkansas News Bureau. "I've never seen anything like this happen before," she said the day Fields's clemency was signed. "It's very unusual."



Several months after Huckabee's grant of clemency, Glenda Fields capped her previous contributions with a final $500 check to the state Republican party. That appears to be her most recent political donation.

What isn't known is if Huckabee and the Fields family had any connection other than the clemency review. However, another large political contribution to the state Republican party in 2000 and an alleged conversation about that contribution, which occurred that year between an Arkansas Republican-party official and one of Huckabee's close confidants, suggests perhaps there was: Fields's company, Fields Investments, made a $10,000 contribution to the state GOP on October 6, 2000 — the same day Republican vice-presidential candidate Dick Cheney appeared in Fort Smith at a campaign rally.

According to an Arkansas Republican who was working for the state GOP at the time, Jason Brady called him shortly thereafter inquiring about Fields's $10,000 donation. (Brady, who was known among Arkansas politicos as one of the former governor's most loyal aides, worked for Huckabee either formally or informally every day of Huckabee's nearly eleven-year tenure as governor.)

Brady had taken a leave of absence from the governor's office to run the Victory 2000 Committee, a fundraising and campaign committee directly overseen at that time by Huckabee. The former state GOP official — who wishes to remain anonymous — said that Brady called him about the Fields donation to inform him that the donation was supposed to go to the Victory 2000 account (as opposed to the state party's treasury, which Huckabee did not control) and told him "that the money was his" and that it was "the governor's deal."

Brady left Huckabee's presidential campaign earlier this year and he now works in Jefferson City, Missouri. Attempts to contact him were unsuccessful.

Replying to a series of questions this author submitted Friday evening about Governor Huckabee's decision-making process when granting Fields clemency, the Huckabee campaign issued this one-paragraph response: "Eugene Fields requested clemency before going to prison. Fields deserved time in jail and received it. In prison, he participated in a program to help other inmates with alcohol dependency issues overcome their illness. After completing his own alcohol-rehabilitation treatment, and with strong support from the community, his prison sentence was reduced to make room in an overcrowded system for violent offenders. He later relapsed and, due to his actions, he received the maximum penalties." Appended to this response was an overview of Huckabee's history of clemency decisions generally, which ended by stating that "there was no connection between those clemencies and any political donations."

So was Field's commutation normal or unusual? Public records reveal seven cases of felony DWI in which Huckabee granted a commutation. Based on these records, the Fields commutation was highly unusual in three respects.

First, his case was the only one in which public objections were raised. Both the Crawford Country prosecutor and the county sheriff strongly objected to Fields's executive clemency.

Second, there is a disparity between the Fields case and the others in respect to the time between conviction and clemency. When last convicted, Fields was 62 years old; but when Huckabee commuted his sentence he was 65 years old — a difference of three years. The years between convictions and executive clemencies for the others are as follows: 15 years, 17 years, 9 years, 14 years, 13 years, 10 years, and 14 years.

Third, Fields's application contained none of the standard justifications for commutation requests. The form for executive clemency contains four reasons for clemency requests – the correction of injustice, a life-threatening medical condition, an excessive sentence, and exemplary institutional adjustment — and applicants are instructed to check the applicable box or boxes. The only comment Fields supplies for "reason(s) for applying for a commutation of my sentence" is a handwritten "N/A."

(In another section of the application, Fields supplied his own justifications for commutation: his alcohol-related "health problems" and that the felony charge hampers his "efforts to help unfortunate children." Although Fields's charitable donations are sizable and commendable, the justifications he offers clearly are outside the standard reasons for commutation that the application form describes in detail.)

Apparently, Huckabee was not swayed by the objections of law-enforcement officials, the conspicuous lack of justification on Fields's application, or the relative rapidity with which he granted executive clemency. Perhaps the famously forgiving governor thought that Fields learned his lesson.

If so, he was mistaken. In 2006, Fields was arrested for DWI after he almost crashed head-on with a police car while crossing a state highway's center line. He pled guilty to the charge.

To be sure, all of this is merely suspicious and doesn't prove Huckabee acted improperly. But the case will undoubtedly get even more attention, and probably get murkier rather than clearer. Welcome back to Arkansas.

— David J. Sanders is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau. Sanders briefly collaborated with an NBC producer on this story.

Republicn camelot

Tin Mike

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 plenty of evidence to suggest that Huckabee played a role in Dumond's release, Huckabee denies it. But even if one were to give him the benefit of the doubt in this instance, it does not explain away the rest of his record.
Over the course of his 10 and a half years as governor, Huckabee granted a staggering 1,033 clemencies, according to the Associated Press. That was more than double the combined 507 that were granted during the 17 and a half years of his three predecessors: Bill Clinton, Frank White, and Jim Guy Tucker.
In many cases, Huckabee's actions set loose savage criminals convicted of grisly murders over the passionate objections of prosecutors and victims' families.
"I felt like Huckabee had more compassion for the murderers than he ever did for the victims," Elaine Colclasure, co-leader of the Central Arkansas chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, a group that works on behalf of victims' families, told TAS. "He was kind of like a defense attorney. He couldn't see the pain and suffering that the victims were going through."
Among the violent criminals Huckabee granted clemency to were Denver Witham, who was "convicted of beating a man to death with a lead pipe at a bar," according to the AP; Robert A. Arnold Jr., who was convicted of killing his father in law; Willy Way Jr., who pled guilty to shooting a grocery store owner as his wife looked on; and James Maxwell, who murdered a reverend. According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, when the reverend's daughter met with Huckabee to plead that Maxwell be denied clemency, Huckabee "'affectionately referred' to her father's killer as 'Jim.'"
Larry Jegley, a prosecuting attorney from Arkansas's 6th judicial district, which encompasses Little Rock, was a fierce critic of Huckabee's clemency policies throughout his time as governor. Jegley told TAS that jurors who had voted to convict criminals complained to him that Huckabee's commutations disrespected their service. Meanwhile, Huckabee's willingness to grant clemency complicated plea bargain agreements, Jegley said, because he could no longer assure victims' families that a murderer would not be eligible for parole prematurely. When he tried to make such assurances, he recalled, families would snap back, "Well, Mike Huckabee lets people out all the time." Huckabee's decision to offer commutations to violent criminals were so frequent, that it forced Jegley to call a press conference on the matter. Jegley is a Democrat, which some may argue makes him biased. But nonetheless, it is quite novel for a Republican to be under fire from a Democrat for being too soft on criminals.
When Huckabee did backpedal on his decisions, it was only after tremendous public pressure, or, in one case, a lawsuit.
In 2004, Huckabee agreed to commute the sentence of Don Jeffers, who pled guilty to beating and strangling a man to death in 1980. The Saline County Prosecuting Attorney at the time, Robert Herzfeld, another Democrat, wrote to Huckabee to complain about the decision and request an explanation, according to the Arkansas News Bureau. Herzfeld received a letter from Huckabee's adviser on criminal justice in response that said, "the governor read your letter and laughed out loud." The commutation was eventually stopped, but only after Herzfeld sued Huckabee and the state attorney general's office concluded that certain procedures were not properly followed.
Later that year, Huckabee created a firestorm when he announced his plans to grant clemency to Dennis Lewis, who shot and killed a pawnshop owner in a robbery, and Glen Martin Green. As Arkansas Leader columnist Garrick Feldman described it, Green "beat an 18-year-old woman with Chinese martial-arts sticks, raped her as she barely clung to life, ran over her with his car, then dumped her in the bayou..." Under intense public scrutiny, Huckabee reversed his decision weeks later, and vowed to be more open about his reasoning for making such choices in the future.
But because Huckabee gave little explanation for his decisions for much of his time as governor, it created a vacuum for others to draw educated conclusions. In a long 2004 investigative article, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette found that prisoners had a better chance of being granted clemency by Huckabee if they had a mutual acquaintance, labored at the governor's mansion under a prisoner work program, or a minister intervened on their behalf.
While there are opportunities to debate his motivations further, there should be no disputing the fact that Huckabee's proclivity for releasing violent criminals into society warrants close examination by Republican primary voters trying to determine whether he could be trusted as the leader of the free world during a time of war. Some may argue that this is an unfair basis by which to evaluate Huckabee. But while it may be an imperfect comparison, given that Huckabee has no foreign policy experience, the only way to judge him is to explore his actions as governor.
Huckabee has already given conservatives ample reason to fear that he is out of his depth when it comes to foreign policy. Last week, he pleaded ignorance when asked about the National Intelligence Estimate, one of the most important national security stories of the year. As the National Review noted in a scathing editorial on Monday, Huckabee has used populist appeals as a substitute for knowledge of international affairs. "I may not be the expert that some people are on foreign policy, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night," he joked to Don Imus. At other times, Huckabee has resorted to making absurd analogies in a ham-handed attempt to put complex problems in human terms. In arguing for launching diplomatic relations with Iran, he said, "all of us know that when we stop talking to a parent or a sibling or a friend, it's impossible to accomplish anything, impossible to resolve differences and move the relationship forward. The same is true for countries." One does not know where to start when critiquing a major presidential candidate who makes a serious comparison between engaging in diplomacy with the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and resolving trivial family disputes. Forget the comparisons to Jimmy Carter -- do conservatives want Bill Cosby to be commander in chief?
Just as Huckabee has cited executions in Arkansas as evidence that he was not as soft on criminals as the rest of his record strongly suggests, his defenders have pointed to examples of tough foreign policy statements he has made to argue that he is not as weak-kneed on national security as he seems. "I would prefer to skip the next attack [on the United States] and the exasperated fury it will rightly generate and cut to the chase by going after Al Qaeda's safe haven in Pakistan," Huckabee said at a September speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. But vacillating from one extreme to the other is not an example of intelligent foreign policy -- it's indicative of inexperience. Wasn't it just a few months ago that conservatives were slamming Barack Obama for wanting to negotiate with Iran and invade Pakistan?
America is in the midst of a historic struggle against radical Islam and faces a series of enormous foreign policy challenges. Those considering voting for Huckabee for the highest office in the land need to look at not only his words but his time as governor to determine whether he is the type of strong leader America requires to guide the nation through this difficult time. If his disturbing record of extending forgiveness to the most violent of criminals is any indication of how he would govern as president, there is cause for grave concern.

 

Philip Klein is a reporter for The American Spectator.