Huckabee was wondering who would stand in for him on SNL.
"They were saying if I couldn't show up they were going to either get Brad Pitt or George Clooney," the Republican presidential candidate, who's set to appear on the show Saturday night, joked with reporters.
"People are always running into me at airports, aren't you Brad Pitt? I know I look just like him," Huckabee continued.
Thanks to Michele McNeil, I saw the piece in the National Review whining that McCain has no interest in education.
Of course, it's written by a Fordham guy, Mike Petrilli, so what he really means is, "McCain won't go all crazy for charter schools, which means he must now care about education."
The concern is, then, that if McCain doesn't care about it, then he'll give way to people like Petrilli to act out their radical anti-public schools agenda.
Then Michele goes on to give me heart palpitations by imagining Mike Huckabee as Education Secretary, or in this case, the Preacher to the Teachers. (Thanks, for that, Michele. My heart's almost back to a normal rhythm now. I'll be fine.) Huckabee sounds good with his touchy feely talk about arts education, which I certainly agree with. But that's just window dressing for his radical agenda to redesign public education with vouchers and charters and bible based biology books.
Seriously, if you haven't read Michele's blog you're missing out. Why don't you people ever listen to me?
It's becoming a cliche of the reporting in this election to call Huckabee a "populist." I'm not sure what the basis for his supposed populism really is--the fact that he likes to eat at Olive Garden? Or that he carries an insurance card and a couple of bucks in his wallet?
There's certainly nothing in his program that should be called populist. As John Harwood explains, his populism seems more rhetorical than substantive:
In one memorable riff at the Reagan Library early this year, Huckabee called it “criminal” for corporate CEOs to take fat bonuses while shipping the jobs of ordinary workers overseas, adding “If Republicans don’t stop it, we don’t deserve to win in 2008.”
In a Christmas Eve interview on CNBC, I asked Huckabee what he intended to do about it. His answer: nothing soon in the way of new laws or regulations. He said use the bully pulpit to shine a spotlight on the practices and seek increased responsibility from corporate boards of directors.
So there's really no policy here to address fatcat CEO's: just a bunch of talk.
But what really proves that Huckabee's populism is fake is his far out "fair tax" proposal. Huckabee's plan allows him to scream and moan about the IRS knowing that it would take a constitutional amendment to repeal the 16th amendment. So calling for the fair tax is really a consequence free way of taking a supposedly populist stance on taxes.
But the tax plan Huckabee endorses would really hurt working families. By taxing consumption, working and middle income families would pay a much larger percentage of their income on taxes than upper class families. Meanwhile the superrich could evade taxes:
But beyond the legerdemain and “fantasy” numbers put out by FairTax, the plan for a national sales tax—which would ignore corporate income and capital gains as well as wages—is most vulnerable to criticism that it hits the poor and middle class hardest. Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist who worked in the Reagan administration, wrote that under the FairTax plan, “there would be an enormous shift in the tax burden from the wealthy to those with lower and middle incomes.” As Money magazine explained:
Let's say a hedge fund manager has a good year and earns $1 billion. If he can somehow manage to scrape by spending, say, $100 million, the other $900 million is tax free. He'll have paid about 2% of his income in taxes that year.
Such a scheme is far more regressive than the current income tax, and no other candidate has proposed anything so radical. Nevertheless, Huckabee continues to employ the FairTax plan as part of his “populist” image, which pundits and his right-wing opponents alike—not to mention religious-right leaders—have bought into.
What's populist about a 30% tax (it's not 23%, the number Huck uses) on goods and services? Under the crazy scheme Huckabee endorses, the government would mail out checks to offset the poverty level spending... everything after that would cost 30% more due to the national tax. And that's true no matter what you're spending it on.
Under the proposal, known to supporters as the FairTax, the Internal Revenue Service and the entire income and payroll tax system would be abolished. Americans would then pay a sales tax on virtually everything: a new home, yard work, food, health care. Only education would be broadly exempted.
FairTax advocates say a 23 percent tax rate would maintain the same amount of money flowing into the Treasury, though that number is debatable. An item priced at $1 would actually cost consumers 30 percent more, or $1.30. FairTax advocates say that amounts to a 23 percent rate, because 30 cents is 23 percent of the product's after-tax cost of $1.30.
To offset the burden on the poor, the FairTax system would send monthly checks to everyone in the nation, compensating for taxes paid up to the poverty level and ensuring that some minimum standard of living would go untaxed. The president's tax overhaul panel, in its final report, estimated that such a program would cost $600 billion to $780 billion a year, making "most American families dependent on monthly checks from the government for a substantial portion of their income."
Huck also claims that the Fair Tax system would rid Washington of tax lobbyists. I doubt it. They would go to work immediately trying to exempt all kinds of items--yachts, for instance--from the consumption tax.
Nothing populist about that. Or about anything Huckabee proposes.
Reading Mike Huckabee's list of endorsements is like perusing a Who's Who of Greater Wingnuttia. Allow me to indulge my readers in a selected but impressive list of the endorsements Huckabee has received:
The Home School Legal Defense Association, shows that Huckabee is intent on destroying public education and, oddly, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:
Mike Huckabee, as governor, was the first to appoint a homeschooler to the Arkansas State Board of Education, and to our knowledge the first to do so in any state. He is adamantly opposed to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (my emphasis--ohdave) and is committed to stopping the erosion of parental rights. He is pro-life. He supports traditional marriage. He believes that the Internal Revenue Service should be abolished and replaced with the Fair Tax—a move that we strongly support because it would greatly benefit homeschooling families. He believes and is willing to say that Islamic extremism needs to be understood as a theologically driven threat. He believes that America must be strong, but should never be perceived as a bully. He believes that our borders must be secured not only from illegal immigration but from the growing trend among American judges of “illegally importing” international law into our American judicial systems.
As a rockin' bassist, you would expect Holy Huck to receive the endorsements of rockers everywhere. Well, there's one at least. Musical genius and family values champion Ted Nugent of "Wango Tango" fame. Even fellow wingnuts find this one tough to swallow:
...off-his-rocker rock-star Ted Nugent's endorsement seems the least likely to inspire Christian conservative confidence. First, the "Motor City Madman's" radical hunting mantra has made him a marked man among animal lovers, and rumors have it that PETA has his poster up as "America's Most Wanted." On the flip side, his rock lyrics ("When in doubt/I whip it out; I got me a rock n' roll band ... it's a FREE for ALL") despite Ted's claims of "all in good fun" aren't likely to replace Charles Wesley's in main-line Christian hymnals anytime soon. But closer to the radical message of the reformed family man may be his appearance on the Kevin Matthews radio program several years ago.
When Matthews asked him how we can recapture the traditional American values, the never-predictable Nugent told his host he could change America forever in less than a minute, if Matthews would give him that much unedited air time. Bracing for the worst, Matthews agreed—only to be shocked—in a positive way—by hearing Nugent devoutly pray the Lord's Prayer.
Maybe he could write a song for Huck and he to perform together? He is a master lyricist after all. Let's not forget the inspiring and pure lyrics of "Cat Scratch Fever":
The first time that I got it I was just ten years old.
I got it from the kitty next door
an I went to see the doctor and he gave me the cure
I think I got it some more
They give me cat scratch fever
Cat scratch fever
I got a bad scratch fever
The cat scratch fever
It's nothin dangerous
I feel no pain
I've got the choo-choo train
You know you got it when you… you going insane
It makes a grown man cry cry …oh won't you make my bed
well I make the pussy purr with the stroke of my hand
They know they gettin' it from me
They know just where to go when they need their lovin man
They know I doin’ it for free
More dignitaries coming on strong for Huck:
Cultural icon Rick Flair: 
...the endorsement of Huck by Ric Flair, former WWE and WWF megastar, carries a "muscle" all its own. Flair was adopted by Richard Fliehr at an early age, his real birth name unknown due to a scandal at the Tennessee Children's Home Society. Flair (a.k.a. "The Nature Boy") won a state private school wrestling championship in high school, but later dropped out of college to become a professional wrestler after meeting AWA star, Verne Gagne. Flair was just about to break into the big time when a plane crash broke Ric's back in three places, and doctors told Flair he would never wrestle again. Undaunted, Flair threw himself into physical therapy, and less than two years later, won his first of many NWA Championships, and today he continues to inspire all who attempt to come back from physical hardships and handicaps.
More beauties after the jump.
A congregation in Irving Texas:
New Beginnings church hasn’t endorsed anybody in the 2008 presidential race, but God probably has, pastor Larry Huch said Sunday.
The Almighty, who chose a Goliath-slayer to reign over Israel years ago, apparently has selected an Arkansan to rule over the United States, the Irving pastor repeatedly told his congregation as Mike Huckabee stood nearby.
Huch, saying he believes he has a word from God for the Republican hopeful, quoted a Scripture passage from 1 Samuel that ends with the Lord declaring: “Arise and anoint [David to lead the nation ] for this is the one.”
The crowd, some of them wearing yarmulkes, cheered noisily after Huch’s declaration, and they later stretched their hands toward Huckabee as they prayed for campaignseason favor from heaven.
"Minuteman"Jim Gilchrist:
For months, Jim Gilchrist promised that his Minuteman Project would peacefully observe the Arizona border as a protest against illegal immigration. Volunteers — he said there would be 1,300 of them — would be carefully screened, with FBI help, to keep out white supremacists and racists. No one would be allowed to bear guns except those who had permits to carry concealed weapons.
Gilchrist said that critics who called his group "vigilantes" — naysayers who included President Bush — were absolutely wrong about his volunteers.
Indeed, Gilchrist told USA Today, these men and women sought only to bring attention to a major social problem. Most were "white Martin Luther Kings."
Jerry Jenkins and Tim Lahaye of the "Left Behind" series.
Indeed, an underlying theme in the LEFT BEHIND books is that virtually anyone who disagrees with the authors' opinions is doing the devil's work. That includes supporters of interfaith dialogue. In a parody of ecumenism, leaders of the world's religions join to create a single world faith, sponsored by the Antichrist. To indicate their view of theological feminism, the authors make the second-highest cleric in the evil religion a woman, who speaks of "the great one-gender deity."
And yet, the central pillar of the new faith is the Roman Catholic Church, and Carpathia designates a Catholic archbishop as the world's "Supreme Pope." Catholicism, viewed in the mirror of the Last Days, is not just a "false religion," but the devil's handmaiden -- or to use standard apocalyptic jargon, the "whore of Babylon." LaHaye, a long-ago alumnus of the fundamentalist Bob Jones University, apparently learned that institution's anti-Catholic lessons well.
The series' depiction of Jews is as revealing. An Israeli scientist helps bring Carpathia to power, arranging a treaty by which the new leader brings Mideast peace. "God's chosen people ... had signed a deal with the devil," readers are informed. Jews must also pay for a more ancient error -- rejecting Jesus. "Israel remains largely unbelieving," announces a divine messenger at the Western Wall, "and will soon suffer for it." But the series presents some Jews positively: those who accept Christianity and become Last Days evangelists.
Virulent Catholic hater John Hagee (see my post here).
Ohio's own Phil Burress, who believes that someone somewhere is having sex and it should be stopped, is on board. Burress became famous trying to shut down the Mapplethorpe exhibit in 1990, and more recently for leading the charge to stop strippers and patrons from touching:
Ohio already has a law to give townships leeway to regulate adult business. Republicans are supposed to favor local control – a system that places such decisions in the hands of local governments.
But Burress doesn’t like local control unless he can control the locals. He and his group won passage of law to close strip clubs and adult bookstores at midnight and make it a crime if customers touch topless dancers – even if the touching is an innocent as a handshake or a pat on the back.
It's not too late to get on the bandwagon, America!
Bill Kristol begins trotting out the usual GOP acid test, in the hallowed pages of the NYT no less, about "likeability". You know, which of the candidates would you most like to go hang out with. Drink a beer or two.
Well surprisingly, I know you're shocked, it's that holiest of holies, Huckabee himself, who passes the Bill Kristol likeability test.
After all, nothing probably sounds more fun to a regular guy like myself than going to luncheons with a bunch of conservative evangelical Christians who think gays and lesbians are going to hell, or chumming around with a bunch of average Joes who believe in beating their kids into submission. That sounds way more fun, than say, this:
Here's the beauty of pickup basketball: You may be a U.S. senator, a living symbol of racial healing and perhaps even the next President of the United States, but if you're gliding in for an easy layup and each point is precious, I've got no choice then, do I? You're getting hacked. So, yes, I'm hammering that arm and crashing headlong into your whippet-thin frame; and, yes, it's a foul so flagrant, so absurdly desperate, that all you can do, body buckling, is laugh. Hey, it's pickup. Everyone, even you, uses whatever he's got to win.
"Believe me," Barack Obama says, walking to the top of the key, "you can get shot for doing that."
He's not serious. I think. But he wants me off his back, and invoking jumpy Secret Service men is a wise ploy. With the race for the Democratic presidential nomination whisker-close, Obama can't afford to show up for some Dubuque meet-and-greet with a mysterious fat lip. His wife, Michelle, warned me, "Don't break his nose, give him a black eye or knock his teeth out. Or I'll have to come find you."
Actually, Michelle understands. She hails from a Chicago family that believes the game -- when you pass, when you call fouls, how you check the ball -- reveals character. Once her romance with Barack got serious, she pressed her brother, Craig Robinson, to conduct the acid test: Go play. Robinson tried to duck it; he had starred at Princeton, and Barack had been a benchwarmer for his Hawaiian high school team. "All I could think was, This guy's going to be terrible, and I have to report that back," says Robinson, who's now the coach at Brown. "And you can't fudge it, because if he turns out to be a jerk and you knew but didn't say it, you're in trouble."
Now, some of you, I'm sure would read that and think, "Wow, Obama sounds like a pretty likeable guy." I'm sure you might even like basketball, and be impressed by someone who can hold their own on the basketball court.
Not me. When I'm not out pandering to child beaters, there's nothing more fun than hanging a few dogs that had it coming to 'em.
Besides, Obama sounds like kind of a show off.
Obama hits two jumpers to go up 3-2, and I remember what Michelle told me: "He's very good at the last minute."
"All right," I say coyly, flipping him the ball. "This is for the presidency...."
He drills a 19-footer, heels barely leaving the ground. "Did you hear me?" I say.
"Why do you think I hit it?" he says.
I back him down twice to tie 4-4. He drains two more, but I swish one to cut it to 6-5. Now Obama closes in, blocks my last shot, grabs the ball. He shuffles out wide, turns and sets, face blank. I thunder toward him, arm outstretched, feeling suddenly like Hillary and Edwards and anyone else in Iowa trying desperately to stop Obama's rise.
The ball drops through the net like a stone.
Ok, we're starting to see a pattern of Mike Huckabee's connections to really extreme evangelical leaders. Republicans, here's what you are voting for.
GottaLaff at Cliff's place posted a great piece on Huckabee's connections to the Christian Constructionists. And The Cincinnati Beacon reported on Huck's connections to Bill Gothard. Those two stories appear to be related, as the fundraiser Justin reports on appears to have taken place at the Houston home of Steven Hotze. It would be interesting to know, by the way, why the Staddon Family took down their photo of Huckabee and Gothard, and the post that they wrote about the fundraiser which was highlighted on the Beacon--are they ashamed of their Gothard-Huckabee connection? (If anyone is smart enough to find this post cached, let me know.)
Meanwhile, Huck also appears to have had his "Bob Jones Moment," appearing and preaching at the San Antonio megachurch of John Hagee on a break from his campaign in Iowa. Apparently, he felt the need to kiss the ring of various evangelical leaders in order to keep his campaign going. Here's Hagee, profiled by Bill Moyers (this is part I of V):
Hagee has an interesting background, and appears to be hostile to Catholics.
Taking a break from the Iowa campaign trail, Huckabee delivered a Christmas season sermon at Cornerstone about Christ's birth and embraced Hagee, calling him "one of the great Christian leaders of our nation."
Hagee is a fiery preacher best known for his writings on the Middle East, where he reads contemporary events as unfolding Biblical prophecy. He is staunchly pro-Israel, saying that God had made his love for the land and its people clear.
But some Catholics were angry about the visit.
"Hagee has a history of denigrating the Catholic religion," said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, the largest Catholic civil rights group in the United States.
In his recent book "Jerusalem Countdown," Hagee wrote: "Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews."
Read the whole thing here. But wait, there's more.
The Catholic News Agency reported on Huck's sermon at Cornerstone as well, and gave this rundown of Hagee's anti-Catholic views:
It’s not hard to find evidence that Rev. Hagee does not think highly of Catholics or the Catholic Church. In a video discussing the biblical book of Revelation, John Hagee suggests the Pope is the anti-Christ, and that the Catholic Church is "The Beast" (17:30 and following) mentioned in the book.
Another cause for concern is the pastor’s latest book “Jerusalem Countdown”, which has recently been revised and updated. “Though most of his rantings in this book are directed at Muslims, he just can't help but take another shot at Catholicism,” says Donahue.
“In one chapter, ‘Centuries of Mistreatment,’ he misrepresents the history of the Catholic Church so badly,” explains Donahue, “that it would be hard for any anti-Catholic bigot to beat.”
Hagee sees anti-Semitism as being born out of the Catholic Church.
“Anti-Semitism in Christianity began with the statements of the early church fathers, including Eusebius, Cyril, Chrysostom, Augustine, Origen, Justin, and Jerome .... This poisonous stream of venom came from the mouths of spiritual leaders to virtually illiterate congregants, sitting benignly in their pews, listening to their pastors. They labeled the Jews as 'the Christ killers, plague carriers, demons, children of the devil, bloodthirsty pagans who look for an innocent child during the Easter week to drink his blood, money hungry Shylocks, who are deceitful as Judas was relentless,'" writes Hagee.
Meanwhile, Hagee endorses an attack on Iran, says the President doesn't need congressional authority to do so:
GOYETTE: I know you are a champion of taking the war to Iran—I wonder if you are a champion of the United States Constitution.
HAGEE: I certainly am.
GOYETTE: So you think we need a declaration of war to expand this war to Iran?
[over four minutes of Hagee hemming and hawing deleted]
HAGEE: We do not have a war declaration for Iraq, and neither does the president need one to expand it into Iran.
CHARLES GOYETTE: Okay, that's the answer I was looking for. He can do it on his own authority.
HAGEE: He certainly can. We're in Iraq on his authority.
He also says things like this:
From its website and publications it appears that Hagee's Cornerstone Church emphasizes acquiring wealth as a sign of God's favor. Most churches and synagogues have rejected these notions as heresy.
"In an interview this month with the San Antonio Express-News, Hagee all but scoffed at Jews opposed to his domestic agenda:
I think if I could put a dividing line, the Orthodox and Conservatives who have a Torah appreciation give us wholehearted support. The rest who are not driven by the Word of God have a liberal agenda.
And the liberal agenda is they are pro-abortion. They're pro-homosexual. They're pro-gay marriage — they want men to marry men and women to marry women — and their difference with me is not really what I'm doing with Israel. Their hostility to me is poisoned by their liberalism. They take a liberal position that poisons their view of what we could be doing for Israel. "
In the video, near the end, Hagee suggests that Hurricane Katrina was sent to the US in response to the US support for removing settlers from the Gaza Strip. He has also advocated attacking Iran which he perceives to be a threat to Israel.
Some possible questions for Father Huck:
Does the President need Congressional authority to attack Iran?
Do you support John Hagee's comments about Iran?
I have to admit to a fascination with Mike Huckabee. He reminds me of a character Flannery O'Connor might have invented, like the Bible salesmen who makes off with a lonely girl's wooden leg, or the itinerant field worker who marries a widow's deaf, untutored daughter and leaves her at a diner when they are supposed to be on their honeymoon.
Like those great and despicable characters, Huckabee speaks well--in fact I would argue that he is the best speaker on the campaign trail. I don't want to get into an oratorical analysis, but the guy's body language and inflection are nearly perfect. I'd love to see a debate between Edwards and Huckabee--my dream electoral matchup.
I also like some of what Huckabee says about education--specifically his advocacy of arts education, an advocacy that Democrats would do well to imitate, his challenges to federal intrusions into state control of education, and his promotion of healthy life habits (which I'll get to in a moment). I also love the fact that he represents the wing of the party that really believes in all of the God stuff--and the prospect of such a candidate actually winning has the party bosses biting their nails.
For years, the Republican Party has played the Christian card, pushing "family values" and decrying abortion and (more recently) gay marriage and, in return, collecting the votes of evangelicals across the country (including key presidential swing states). But if Huckabee wins Iowa and continues to do well in subsequent states, how will the GOP elite react to the possibility of this former Baptist minister nabbing the nomination? My hunch: with panic. While Huckabee can pull social conservatives, he's not what the party needs to attract independents and those suburban GOPers who are not social conservatives.
But Huckabee keeps getting caught in weirdly deceptive inconsistencies and being unprepared on foreign policy issues. It's in these moments that we find that Holy Huck is working out a carefully scripted persona that doesn't necessarily match the past that he is trying to shed like the 110 pounds he famously lost.
Take for example his conflicting attitudes on vouchers--was against them, now he's for--AIDs patients, and so on. He's been caught off guard on the NIE on Iran, to the chagrin of national reporters (although I suspect most voters couldn't care less0 and not knowing that Pakistan lifted martial law a couple of weeks before Bhutto was assassinated, leading reporters and bloggers to wonder who on earth is briefing this guy on foreign policy? But all of that is really secondary to the mythology Huckabee is trying to create about himself, to the personality that he is trying to sell.
That personality that he is trying to cultify is that of a plain spoken regular guy, a guy just like you and I, but a man of prodigious faith, with all of the right conservative attitudes. The demands of a national politician are different from those of a governor in Arkansas, so the record is littered with stories like the commutation of Wayne DuMond's sentence and scholarships for immigrants. Those stories rankle the rank and file, but a man with Huckabee's rhetorical skill and believability can spin those stories to either displace blame (it was the parole board that let Dumond off!) or work them into a larger narrative of Christian love and forgiveness.
Then when you mix in his belief that God wants him elected and is behind the campaign surge (see the video above), you have a pretty powerful personal story.
That weight loss is a concious part of the narrative Huck is trying to construct about himself, a narrative that insists on old fashioned values of hard work and self control that the conservative base eats up, no pun intended. I would recommend that readers spend some time examining his weigh loss story, and whether he had gastric bypass surgery. Plutarch has a fascinating examination of this question. Of course, if it were confirmed that he had gastric bypass, it would change the narrative to one of a man conciously fashioning himself to be president, to the extent of dropping 110 pounds through surgery knowing that Americans won't elect a fat president. As Plutarch notes, Holy Huck would have to release his medical records in order to confirm the story he's trying to sell about himself.
The regualar guy bit seems to be taking hold, if nonsense like this is any indication:
Wednesday at the Beacon Drive-In, I saw Huckabee pull out his wallet, trying to make a point about tamper-proof identification for immigrants. Inspired, I approached him moments later and said, "Show me the entire contents of your wallet and I will truly know you."
Huckabee: "Err ... OK."
He carried a handgun permit, frequent-flier club cards, five credit cards, two gift cards, a Marriott card, an AARP card, his hunting and fishing permit, expired duck stamps from last year, a slip listing the contact numbers of his band, Capitol Offense, and about $175 in cash, mostly in small bills.
He needs the frequent-flier cards because he travels on normal planes - US Airways for this trip. He needs the credit cards and cash because he pays for stuff. Some candidates have their staff handle the taxis and tips, but his national field director is his daughter, Sarah, so he's probably used to grabbing the tab.
The wallet tells me Huckabee is a fairly normal guy.
I'm not sure what the author expected... coupons for back waxing? Membership card to NAMBLA?
But this is what the modern presidential campaign is: an extended advertising campaign. Look at how Bush contructed a ranch and a cowboy image to shed images of Kennebunkeport and Exeter elitism. Huckabee, a former advertising exective knows what he's doing. At this point, he has to win the nomination doesn't he? Just to make the story work out? It'll be too late when we realize he's left us behind at the diner, while he drives on to New Orleans and beyond, begging the Lord to wash away the sins of all the riff raff of the world.
Mike Huckabee was on NPR yesterday, questioning why he was being asked about his religious beliefs, why anyone would care what he said in a church 20 years ago, and suggesting that those questions were out of bounds. OK, fine, then stop talking about your faith, Mr. Huckabee, when trying to woo your evangelical base,and people will stop asking you about it.
Now that Huckabee has hired Ed Rollins, it brings up a question that I hope pundits and reporters will begin asking, although I doubt they will. Will the moralistic Huckabee, who doesn't allow alcohol on his campaign, put up with the kind of Republican dirty trick campaigns that have benefitted his predecessors, indeed, the kind carried out by Ed Rollins himself:
No stranger to controversy, Rollins might also be a familiar name because of his notorious stint as Christie Todd Whitman's campaign manager during her successful 1993 run for governor in New Jersey.
After her victory, Rollins was quoted in a Time magazine article to have secretly paid black ministers and Democratic activists to stay home on Election Day leading to Whitman's slim victory over then- incumbent, Jim Florio.
"We went into black churches and we basically said to ministers who had endorsed Florio, 'Do you have a special project?' And they said, 'We've already endorsed Florio.' We said, 'That's fine -- don't get up on the Sunday pulpit and preach. We know you've endorsed him, but don't get up there and say it's your moral obligation that you go on Tuesday to vote for Jim Florio.' " said Rollins, according to the Nov. 1993 Time article.
Rollins also claimed in the same article that Republicans offered compensation to Democratic "key workers" to "go home, sit and watch television."
Will anyone ask Rollins or Huck about this? Probably not, they'll just talk about his 1984 campaign and how wonderful it was. Rollins said he's been looking for another Reagan ever since then... Is that why he signed on to the campaigns of Katherine Harris and Ross Perot?
Huckabee isn't quite sure what he wants to say on education.
At times he takes a states' rights approach to education, arguing that it isn't a federal function. Sort of an old-fashioned notion, but I'm glad to see him raise it. The proper federal role in education really needs to be a point of debate, and the increasing federal mandates without funding should be a major issue in the campaign.
Huckabee claims he wants to limit the federal role, but then talks about "keeping score" by testing (as pointed out in the comments to Marc Ambinder's post here).
I love to hear Huckabee talk about increasing the role of the arts in education... (but of course the more artistic people are the more likely they are to vote Democratic, right?!) But how can you make that argument and still say there's no federal role in government?
I would love, frankly, for a Democrat to take the position that increasing the study of the arts should be a federal priority. Even though Huckabee is full of contradictions--will he or won't he, for example, promote the teaching of evolution?--on education, I think his message on education is something the Democrats should be paying attention, and stealing the better parts of.
And is receiving the endorsement of the NEA in New Hampshire a plus or a minus for a Republican?! Just wondering.
I'll give Mike Huckabee credit. He's trying to walk a tightrope that I didn't think could be walked. He is trying to appeal to the religious base of his party at the same time that he is trying to appeal to a wider electorate that may not share the same beliefs.
But as Blue Texan at FDL writes, Huckabee can't continue to have it both ways on his religion.
Huckabee seemed annoyed that he was asked so often whether he thought creationism should be taught in public schools.
"That's an irrelevant question to ask me — I'm happy to answer what I believe, but what I believe is not what's going to be taught in 50 different states," Huckabee said. "Education is a state function. The more state it is, and the less federal it is, the better off we are."
But at another function:
Huckabee, at a dinner in Des Moines, told reporters that the theory of intelligent design, whose proponents believe an intelligent cause is the best way to explain some complex and orderly features of the universe, should be taught in schools as one of many viewpoints. "I don't think schools ought to indoctrinate kids to believe one thing or another," he said.
So for one audience, he says the issue of what our children are being taught in public schools is "irrelevant," and for another, he's arguing that teaching sound science is tantamount to "indoctrination." C'mon.
Bingo. And the education piece of his answer is one reason why it matters whether he thinks creationism is science or not, why his beliefs about creationism matters.
At the CNN debate, Huckabee was asked about his beliefs, and he tried to do his usual dance, insisting that God created the universe but saying, "I don't know how he did it." That's a reasonable position that many Americans would agree with I think. But Blitzer pressed him on it, and asked him if he believed that God created the earth in 6 days 6,000 years ago. Huckabee again said he didn't know. (You can see the video here.)
But then he let his inner science-hater come out. "If anyone wants to believe that they are the descendants of a primate, they are welcome to do it."
Clearly one of the reasons why this matters is education policy. And Huckabee has also tried to avoid the question of how evolution would be taught in schools by claiming that as a state function. It's a tricky dodge for Huckabee, since many primary voters want a creationist to vote for, but that position makes him seem extreme to more moderate general election voters.
And the answer he gives, that education is a state function, just isn't good enough anymore. I agree with Huckabee that the federal government should have a supporting role in education. But currently the government has a much stronger role. And as of today, an important commission is recommending national curriculum standards.
In a major departure for American education, a major advisory panel is calling for voluntary national curriculum standards and national tests for American schoolchildren.
Such standards would spell out, for the first time on a national level, what children should be expected to learn and what level of achievement is good enough at different stages, according to the National Council on Education Standards and Testing, an advisory group of major political and educational leaders whose approval is crucial to the success of any such effort. The council, created by Congress last June, concluded its deliberations today. Its final report will be made public in mid-January.
Likewise, an editorial at Ed Week (subscription required) argues that national standards are the only way to close the loophole in NCLB that allows states to set their own low standards to which they are held accountable.
Now a political football, NCLB is unlikely to be reauthorized before the next presidential election. The intervening months are an opportunity for states to work together to set common standards. Presidential candidates could be pressed to pledge adequate resources to allow states to develop common standards and tests. While state participation should be voluntary, once 20 or so states sign on, the rest will follow. And that would be a big step toward a healthy, internationally competitive public education system.
It's not good enough for Huckabee to say there won't be national standards. In today's educational climate, national standards could very easily be on the table in the next five years, and appointees to the education department by the next president could have a huge role in defining what standards in science might look like. In such a context, Huckabee's views on teaching science really do matter. He can't dodge the question forever.
