Mike Huckabee Is Not a Sane Man-Matt Taibbi

[underpants]

http://alternet.org/columnists/story/68057/

Surging Mike Huckabee may talk about poverty and trade, but the wild-eyed Baptist goofball doesn't believe he is evolved from primates. Does that even worry Republican voters?

Huckabee, who in recent years has lost 100 pounds, has the roundish, half-deflated physique of an ex-fatty. With his button nose and never-waning smile, he looks slightly unreal, like an oversize Muppet. I was so taken aback by his appearance that I checked his hands to make sure they had the right number of fingers. After the Richards tale, he went on to tell me about the band he plays bass for, and how he has jammed with the likes of Percy Sledge and Grand Funk Railroad, and how he prefers John Entwistle to Flea's slap-and-pop style of bass-playing. Ten minutes later, driving away from the fund-raiser, I caught myself thinking: Hey, this guy doesn't seem like a total dickhead. I can almost see him as president. ...

Then I woke up and did some homework that changed my mind. But I confess: It took a little while. Huckabee is that good.

Ever since Huckabee turned in a dominating performance at a summit of Christian voters in Washington a few weeks ago, he has been riding a surge among likely Iowa voters (he's now second to Mitt Romney, and gaining). The media, like me, have been charmed by their initial impression: "It's hard not to like Mike Huckabee," gushed Newsweek. Even The Nation said he has "real charm."

But all the attention on his salesmanship skills obscures the real significance of his rise within the Republican Party. Mike Huckabee represents something that is either tremendously encouraging or deeply disturbing, depending on your point of view: a marriage of Christian fundamentalism with economic populism. Rather than employing the patented Bush-Rove tactic of using abortion and gay rights to hoodwink low-income Christians into supporting patrician, pro-corporate policies, Huckabee is a bigger-government Republican who emphasizes prison reform and poverty relief. In the world of GOP politics, he represents something entirely new -- a cross between John Edwards and Jerry Falwell, an ordained Southern Baptist preacher who actually seems to give a shit about the working poor.

Coupled with his apparent gift for wooing the star-fucking national media class, Huckabee's seizure of political territory long claimed by the corporate right is what makes him so dangerous. Because for all his political waffling in other areas -- Huckabee has flip-flopped on a host of earthly political issues, from taxes to local control of school boards -- he leaves absolutely no doubt about his commitment to religious wackohood.

Huckabee has also been accused of paying himself as a consultant to his own senatorial campaign, allowing special interests to pay for airline tickets for his daughter, receiving a canoe from a Coke bottler and -- hilariously, if you're wont to laugh at the sheer small-town gauche greediness of it all -- setting up a "wedding registry" at Target and Dillard's department stores so citizens could lavish the Huckabees with gifts as they renewed their marriage vows. The long list of desired goodies included twenty-four settings of Lenox "Holiday Nouveau" china, a KitchenAid mixer and a "Jack La Lanne power juicer." If you didn't want to pick out something yourself, the Huckabees were glad to take straight cash. "Message from the couple," the registry noted. "Target GiftCards are welcome."

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. I've said all along that he is the dark horse to watch.

He's very personable, he's the best spoken of all the repub candidates, has an easy manner and a quick wit - came off well on the Daily Show a few months ago.

Of course, he's also absolutely batshit.

But with McCain already tanking, and if Romney and Guiliani screw up just a little bit (as the Ghoul seems to be doing already), he would get the nomination and stand a very good chance going up against anyone we put up in the general.

The only reason it's between Guiliani and Romney right now is that they were the media nominees. A surprise win for Huckabee in any of the early primaries could change all that in an instant.

[underpants]

2. Everyone EVERYONE does want an "outsider"

and being a governor and an "outsider" is almost the perfect mix.

Still too early to say-Huck could do it and he would be formidable in the general election but something tells me the long arm of the BIG PARTY 9parties really) will have the final say.

[truedelphi]

3. It is sad about that - the long arm of The Big Party

I liked things Huckabee said about re-visiting the tax code.

But then there is his religious stance. How many of us would have to hide in a closet until
*his* Presidency was over?

[grasswire]

4. do you want a bona fide FREEPER for president?

Huckabee is a bona fide member of freerepublic.com. He even played the freepers' inaugural ball in 2001 with his band.

Do we really, really want a freeper for president?

[underpants]

5. I didn't know that

that is scary but what is even scarier are the people willing to direclty engage them.

Huckabee
Snow
B-1 Bob Dornan