{"id":675,"date":"2007-11-27T16:51:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-27T16:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=675"},"modified":"2007-11-27T16:51:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-27T16:51:00","slug":"novak-outs-huckabee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=675","title":{"rendered":"Novak outs Huckabee"},"content":{"rendered":"

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http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/11\/25\/AR2007112501547_pf.html<\/a>
\n<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The False
\nConservative<\/span><\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

By Robert D. Novak
\nMonday, November 26, 2007; A15<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Who would respond to criticism from
\nthe Club for Growth<\/a> by calling the
\nconservative, free-market campaign organization the “Club for Greed”?
\nThat sounds like Howard Dean, Dennis
\nKucinich<\/a> or John
\nEdwards<\/a>, all Democrats preaching the class struggle. In fact, the rejoinder
\ncomes from Mike
\nHuckabee<\/a>, who has broken out of the pack of second-tier Republican
\npresidential candidates to become a serious contender — definitely in Iowa<\/a>
\nand perhaps nationally.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Huckabee is campaigning as a
\nconservative, but serious Republicans know that he is a high-tax, protectionist
\nadvocate of big government and a strong hand in the Oval
\nOffice<\/a> directing the lives of Americans. Until now, they did not bother to
\nexpose the former governor of Arkansas<\/a>
\nas a false conservative because he seemed an underfunded, unknown nuisance
\ncandidate. Now that he has pulled
\neven<\/a> with Mitt
\nRomney<\/a> for the Iowa caucuses and might make more progress, the beleaguered
\nRepublican Party has a frightening problem.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The rise of evangelical Christians
\nas the force that blasted the GOP<\/a>
\nout of minority status during the past generation always contained an inherent
\ndanger: What if these new Republican acolytes supported not merely a
\nconventional conservative but one of their own? That has happened with
\nHuckabee, a former Baptist minister educated at Ouachita Baptist University and
\nSouthwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The danger is a serious contender
\nfor the nomination who passes the litmus test of social conservatives on
\nabortion, gay marriage and gun control but is far removed from the
\nconservative-libertarian model of Barry
\nGoldwater<\/a> and Ronald
\nReagan<\/a>.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

There is no doubt about Huckabee’s
\nrecord during a decade in Little
\nRock<\/a>. He was regarded by fellow Republican governors as a compulsive
\ntax-and-spender. He increased the Arkansas tax burden 47 percent, boosting the
\nlevies on gasoline and cigarettes. When he lost 100 pounds and decided to press
\nhis new lifestyle on the American people, he was hardly being a
\nGoldwater-Reagan libertarian.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

As a presidential candidate,
\nHuckabee has sought to counteract his reputation as a taxer by pressing for
\nreplacement of the income tax with a sales tax. More recently he signed the
\nno-tax-increase pledge of Americans for Tax Reform<\/a>.
\nBut Huckabee simply does not fit within normal boundaries of economic
\nconservatism, such as when he criticized President
\nBush<\/a>‘s veto of a Democratic expansion of the State Children’s Health
\nInsurance Program. Calling global warming a “moral issue” mandating
\n“a biblical duty” to prevent climate change, he has endorsed a
\ncap-and-trade system that is anathema to the free market.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Huckabee clearly departs from the
\nmainstream of the conservative movement in his confusion of “growth”
\nwith “greed.” Such ad hominem attacks are part of his intuitive
\nresponse to criticism from the Club
\nfor Growth<\/a> and the libertarian Cato Institute<\/a>
\nabout his record as governor. On “Fox
\nNews<\/a> Sunday” on Nov. 18, he called<\/a> the
\n“tactics” of the Club for Growth “some of the most despicable in
\npolitics today. It’s why I love to call them the Club for Greed, because they
\nwon’t tell you who gave their money.” In fact, all contributors to the organization’s
\npolitical action committee (which produces campaign ads) are publicly revealed,
\nas are most donors financing issue ads.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Quin Hillyer, a former Arkansas
\njournalist writing in the conservative American Spectator, called Huckabee
\n“a guy with a thin skin, a nasty vindictive streak.” Huckabee’s
\nretort was to attack Hillyer’s journalistic procedures, fitting a mean-spirited
\nimage when he responds to conservative criticism.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, he is getting
\nremarkably warm reviews in the news media as the most humorous, entertaining
\nand interesting GOP presidential hopeful. Contrary to descriptions by old
\nassociates, he is now called “jovial” or “good-natured.”
\nAny Republican who does not sound much like a Republican is bound to get friendly
\npress, as Sen. John
\nMcCain<\/a> did in 2000 (but not today, with his return to acting more like a
\nconventional Republican).<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

An uncompromising foe of abortion
\ncan never enjoy full media backing. But Mike
\nHuckabee<\/a> is getting enough favorable buzz that, when combined with his
\nevangelical base, it makes real conservatives shudder.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2007\/11\/25\/AR2007112501547_pf.html   The False Conservative By Robert D. Novak Monday, November 26, 2007; A15 Who would respond to criticism from the Club for Growth by calling the conservative, free-market campaign organization the “Club for Greed”? That sounds like Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards, all Democrats preaching the class struggle. In fact, the rejoinder … Continue reading Novak outs Huckabee<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-huckabee-shameful-record","category-presidential-candidates"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}