GOP’s “scam artist” problem: Mike Huckabee & the right’s tradition of organized theft

[DonViejo]

Mike Huckabee is a grifter and charlatan. Here's why he represents the worst qualities of modern conservatism

SIMON MALOY

Last month, Right Wing News put together a report examining the financial data for 17 conservative and “tea party” political action committees and breaking down how those groups spent the considerable amount of money they collected in donations. What they found was a widespread and lucrative scam operation. The report ranked the groups by the amounts they spent during the 2014 election cycle, and found that the bottom 10 PACs spent a combined $54 million overall, but just over $3.5 million was actually spent on candidates running for office. The rest was pocketed by consultants or vendors, and it was all (probably) legal, owing to our grossly complex and loophole-ridden campaign finance laws.

What the report did was to spell out in quantifiable terms one of the defining characteristics of the modern conservative movement – it is a lucrative moneymaking machine for scam artists and hucksters. If you’re a politically engaged conservative, you’re being inundated by radio hosts, right-wing publications, think tanks, and all manner of unscrupulous activists who purchased your email address and want to exploit your love of Ronald Reagan or Ted Cruz to squeeze a few dollars out of you. And there’s at least one 2016 presidential candidate who’s in on the grift: Mike Huckabee.

The New York Times reported yesterday that Huckabee, who is entertaining another presidential bid, was until recently a pitchman for a shady company that claims it can “reverse diabetes” with cinnamon and chromium picolinate. Huckabee’s also lent his name, face, and reputation to people claiming to have “natural” methods to reverse the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, financial firms that perpetrate blatant fraud upon their customers, and a group that claims to have found the cure for cancer in the Book of Matthew.

That’s bad enough, but it’s made even worse by the fact that part of Huckabee’s public image is that of a person who took control of his own health and transformed his life for the better. He testifies for the efficacy of the cinnamon cure for diabetes by claiming that similar “techniques” worked to treat his own diabetes. He’s abusing that image to sell people with life-threatening health problem bottles of dodgy herbal supplements and cockamamie Bible-based cancer cures. At best he’s a scam artist; at worst he’s a monster.

Huckabee’s people know that this doesn’t make him look good, which is why they’re adamant in pointing out that the former governor isn’t in the cinnamon-and-insulin business anymore. Per the Times: “Mr. Huckabee’s spokeswoman, Alice Stewart, said his contract to promote the diabetes cure ended the first week in March. ‘It was something created several months ago, back in 2014, but due to possible future plans, they have concluded the relationship.’” If Huckabee does run, this shady business will follow him around.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/17/gops_scam_artist_problem_mike_huckabee_the_rights_tradition_of_organized_theft/

[Downwinder]

1. Aptly named.

Wonder if the huckster part is genetic.

[Segami]

2. Huckster's know their marks well...

[JaneyVee]

3. You mean his Biblical cure for cancer found on page 897 of the Bible is bullshit?

I'M SHOCKED! SHOCKED I TELL YA!

[rickford66]

4. Fine. Let them waste their money.

[Gothmog]

5. The Huckster is a good name for Huckabee

[Enrique]

6. i heard his diabetes commercial recently

i could hardly believe it, even for Mike Huckabee.