{"id":722,"date":"2007-10-16T20:51:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-16T20:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=722"},"modified":"2007-10-16T20:51:00","modified_gmt":"2007-10-16T20:51:00","slug":"huckabee-continues-to-defy-the-constitution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/?p=722","title":{"rendered":"Huckabee continues to defy the Constitution"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/justin\/?articleid=11743    <\/p>\n

October 12, 2007\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\nThe Huckabee Horror
\n
\n
\nHe’d shred the Constitution ‘in a heartbeat’
\n<\/span> <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
by Justin Raimondo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n

T<\/b><\/font>he most recent GOP presidential debate<\/a>,
\nheld in Dearborn, Michigan, this time, was mostly a very dull affair. Hardly
\nany of the usual entertaining histrionics: even the naturally theatrical<\/a>
\nRudy seemed unusually subdued. As the soft buzz of the television blended in
\nwith the sound of the bus going by and the barking of neighborhood<\/a>
\ndogs, I was lulled into a comfortable haze, and nearly drifted off to sleep
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u201c when suddenly Chris Matthews’ voice cut through the mental murk, like a headlight
\ncutting through the thick San Francisco fog rolling down my street:<\/p>\n

“Governor Romney, that raises the question, if you were president of
\nthe United States, would you need to go to Congress to get authorization to
\ntake military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities?”<\/i><\/p>\n

The way the Stepford candidate phrased his
\nanswer<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c “You sit down with your attorneys” \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was the biggest
\nmisstep of his campaign, so
\nfar<\/a>. Whoever programmed him neglected to put the
\nConstitution<\/a> in his database, as Ron
\nPaul<\/a> rightly reminded<\/a>
\nthe audience. Yet I’m getting a little tired of people saying “it
\nwill come back to haunt him<\/a>.” It’s really not a fair criticism, if
\nyou go and read the
\ntranscript<\/a>. What he was saying is that he hopes it doesn’t come to that,
\nin the case of Iran, and that the US should exhaust every effort to resolve
\nthe alleged<\/a>
\n“crisis” diplomatically. He clearly hopes to prevail by taking punitive
\nmeasures short of war. <\/p>\n

On the question of presidential power, however, Romney simply refused to answer,
\nand started yammering<\/a>
\nabout his lawyers again. <\/p>\n

Obliquely noting Romney’s sleek evasion, Matthews repeated his question to
\nDuncan Hunter<\/a>, who I guess
\nmust be running for Secretary of Defense, because of the air of expertise with
\nwhich he explained that it all depended on whether we are dealing with a “fleeting
\ntarget.” This faux version of military-speak refers, I suppose, to some
\n“24<\/a>“-like
\nscenario in which the Evil
\nIranians<\/a> have somehow gotten their hands on a super-weapon capable of obliterating
\nAmerican cities at the push of a button. What kind of a “fleeting target”
\nis an alleged nuclear site in Iran? What, I wondered, is that old fool talking
\nabout? <\/p>\n

Ron Paul<\/a> made a mistake<\/a>
\nin responding to the question purely reactively. Why criticize Hunter, whose
\ncandidacy is a joke? Paul let himself get drawn into Hunter’s Hollywood-generated
\nfantasy, at least momentarily, and only got back on track when he described
\nall this talk of an Iranian “threat” as war
\npropaganda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In striking contrast to Paul, however, the most shocking answer of all was
\ngiven by none other than the mild-mannered, outwardly likeable Mike
\nHuckabee<\/a>. The Arkansas governor’s public persona is that of a small-town
\nmayor chock full of down-home American wisdom straight from the heartland, measured
\nand never shrill. Yet the friendly farmer down the road evaporated before our
\neyes, and something awful and Cheney<\/a>-like
\nappeared in his place, when Matthews directed his question at Huckabee:<\/p>\n

“Governor Huckabee, same question. Do you need Congress to approve
\nsuch an action?<\/p>\n

“HUCKABEE: A president has to [do] whatever is necessary to protect the
\nAmerican people. If we think Iran is building nuclear capacity that could be
\nused against us in any way, including selling some of the nuclear capacity to
\nsome other terrorist group, then, yes, we have a right…<\/p>\n

“MATTHEWS: Without going to Congress?<\/p>\n

“HUCKABEE: And I would do it in a heartbeat.”<\/i><\/p>\n

“In a heartbeat” \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there goes the Constitution!<\/p>\n

One could plausibly argue, as Garet Garrett did<\/a>,
\nthat Congress surrendered its constitutional prerogative long ago. Even after
\nJapan attacked Pearl
\nHarbor<\/a>, FDR, that most
\nimperious<\/a> of Presidents, would not have dared go to war without a
\nvote<\/a> of the people’s representatives. Yet, “nine years later,”
\nas Garrett pointed out, “a much weaker President did.” That was Truman,
\nwho sent US troops to Korea without<\/a>
\ncongressional approval, and, in defense of his action, claimed that the war-making
\npower invested in Congress by the Founders was “obsolescent.” The
\nPresident and his partisans argued that we had to be able to react to the Soviet
\nthreat<\/a> at a moment’s
\nnotice: it was an early version of the Jack Bauer scenario, albeit even less
\nplausible. Yet Congress swallowed it hook, line, and sinker, and, under the
\ntutelage of a Democratic administration, American conservatives, once opposed
\nto the imperial presidency, were seduced<\/a>
\nby the cold war. Later, the “war on terrorism” allowed them to be
\ntalked into surrendering<\/a>
\nthe last remnants of their historic devotion to the Constitution. Which is how
\nwe arrived at the sad spectacle of some backwoods governor proclaiming his willingness
\nto ditch it “in a heartbeat.” <\/p>\n

Taken somewhat aback, I think, by Huckabee’s unseemly eagerness to discard
\nthe whole idea of the consent of the governed without even so much as a by-your-leave,
\nMatthews asked: “Without going to Congress?” Huckabee answered by
\nwithdrawing into the safety of Hunter’s “fleeting target” Hollywood
\nfantasy, asserting his duty to strike first and ask Congress later, “because
\nit’s actionable right now.” Matthews, however, clearly impatient with all
\nthese elaborate evasions, took it to the next level:\n<\/p>\n

“MATTHEWS: If Congress says no, what do you do, Governor?<\/p>\n

“HUCKABEE: You do what’s best for the American people and you suffer the
\nconsequences\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.”<\/i><\/p>\n

One dearly hopes one of those consequences will be the impeachment of President
\nHuckabee. <\/p>\n

Even worse than the brazenness of such a power grab, however, is the Governor’s
\ndemagogic rationale for it:<\/p>\n

“But what you don’t do is what you never do, is let the American people
\none day get hit with a nuclear device because you had politics going on in Washington,
\ninstead of the protection of the American people first.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Do we really face the prospect of having to choose between democratic governance
\nand survival? This contention, aside from seeming a bit overwrought, is not
\nbased on any conceivable scenario, nor is it remotely concerned with Matthews’
\noriginal question, which posed the prospect of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
\nWe are not talking about Hunter’s “fleeting target” here, but about
\na long-term<\/a>
\nprogram by Iran to acquire a nuclear capability, the progress of which is being
\nclosely
\nwatched<\/a> by the international community, and minutely
\nmonitored<\/a> by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Furthermore, it is
\nabsolute nonsense to believe that, even if Iran does go nuclear in the next
\nten
\nyears<\/a> or so, it will be able to launch a nuclear attack on the continental
\nUS. We haven’t heard anything less credible since George W. Bush asserted<\/a>
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u201c with a straight
\nface!<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that unmanned
\ndrones<\/a> sent by Iraq could devastate American cities. <\/p>\n

Both McCain and Thompson gave surprisingly common-sensical answers, with the
\nformer quickly disposing of the Jack Bauer scenario and going on to say that,
\nin the case of the more likely course of events \u00e2\u20ac\u201c “a long series of build-ups,
\nwhere the threat becomes greater and greater” \u00e2\u20ac\u201c of course<\/i> he’d consult
\nwith Congress. Thompson concurred with McCain, but Benito Giuliani took the
\nHuckabee line, and then some. <\/p>\n

After declaring that it would have to be an “exigent circumstance,”
\nhe illustrated what such a circumstance might be by going after Ron Paul, <\/p>\n

“And the point of \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I think it was Congressman Paul made before \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that
\nwe’ve never had an imminent attack, I don’t know where he was on September 11th.<\/p>\n

“PAUL: That was no country. That was 19 thugs. That had nothing to do with
\na country.<\/p>\n

“GIULIANI: And since September \u00e2\u20ac\u201c well, I think it was kind of organized
\nin Afghanistan and Pakistan. And if we had known about it, maybe \u00e2\u20ac\u201c maybe hitting
\na target there, quickly, might have helped prevent it.<\/i><\/p>\n

“In any event, we’ve had 23 plots since September 11, where Islamic
\nterrorists are planning to kill Americans, that we’ve had to stop. So imminent
\nattack is a possibility, and we should be ready for it.”<\/i><\/p>\n

To begin with, it’s just not plausible that hitting targets in Afghanistan
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u201c or Pakistan, where, Giuliani avers without evidence, the 9\/11 plot was also
\nhatched \u00e2\u20ac\u201c would have smashed a terrorist ring inside
\nthe US<\/a>. The plot was hatched and implemented years before the dirty deed
\nwas done, and the hijackers had been living in the US \u00e2\u20ac\u201c including in the general
\nvicinity of Rudy’s “sanctuary
\ncity<\/a>” for immigrants, both legal and illegal \u00e2\u20ac\u201c for a good length of
\ntime.<\/p>\n

Secondly, twenty-three presumably thwarted terrorist attacks since 9\/11? This
\nis big news, except for one thing<\/a>:
\nit isn’t<\/a>
\ntrue<\/a>.
\nNearly every case of suspected domestic “terrorism” has been bogus,
\nthe product of an overzealous
\nprosecutor<\/a>, or just plain trumped-up<\/a>
\nfrom the get-go. The US government has even backed
\ndown<\/a> from charging Jose
\nPadilla<\/a>, an American citizen locked up without
\ntrial<\/a>, with doing what then-Attorney General John Ashcroft said<\/a>
\nhe was guilty of, which was supposedly plotting to set off a “dirty bomb”
\non American soil. Where did Giuliani get the number “23” from? Probably
\nthe same place the Reverend Louis Farrakhan got the
\nnumber 19<\/a>. <\/p>\n

If Giuliani has information that Iran is organizing a terrorist attack on US
\nsoil, then perhaps he ought to let us in on it: and, well, you can see how far
\nwe’ve strayed from Matthews’ original question \u00e2\u20ac\u201c about Iran, remember? <\/p>\n

As I’ve pointed out before<\/a>,
\nGiuliani’s foreign
\npolicy team<\/a> is focused like a laser on the goal of attacking Iran, and they
\nmake no bones about it. Norman
\nPodhoretz<\/a>, one of Giuliani’s top<\/a>
\nforeign policy lieutenants, “prays<\/a>”
\nthat Bush will launch the hit before Giuliani is sworn
\nin<\/a>. If Poddy’s prayers go unanswered, however, then there can be little
\ndoubt Rudy
\nthe Reckless<\/a> will make his dream of war come true.<\/p>\n

What killed the Republican party’s long-lost<\/a>
\nlove of liberty, it’s realism and prudence in the field of foreign affairs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c
\nthink of Robert A Taft<\/a>,
\nor, better yet, Rep.
\nHoward Buffett<\/a> (yes, father to that other<\/i> Howard Buffett) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is the
\ncancer<\/a>
\nof militarism, and the baneful influence<\/a>
\nof the very military-industrial
\ncomplex<\/a> President Dwight Eisenhower warned
\nus against<\/a>. To hear Huckabee’s contempt \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there is no other word for it
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u201c for the constitutional order, and his apparent indifference to the war-weariness<\/a>
\nof the American people, was shocking: this guy, after all, is supposed to be
\na moderate<\/i>, of sorts, and yet here he is up-ending every law and tradition
\ndesigned<\/a> to limit
\nthe abuse of power. <\/p>\n

From the perspective of those<\/a>
\nconcerned with preserving what’s left of our old republic, as well as preventing
\nthe next war, the team of Giuliani-Huckabee is the worst of all possible eventualities.
\nYet that is what we may very well get from the GOP. It seems clear enough, to
\nme at least, that the Arkansas governor is running for Vice President \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an office
\nthat has acquired<\/a>
\nmore visibility than it used to \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and if Giuliani has yet to give much thought
\nto a running mate, as of Wednesday night he may have recognized in Huckabee
\na compatible spirit.<\/p>\n

A Giuliani-Huckabee ticket would embody the complete prostration of the old
\nconservatism, with its emphasis on the constitutional separation of powers,
\nbefore the war-god of neoconservatism, and the new reality of what Lew
\nRockwell<\/a> trenchantly describes as “red-state
\nfascism<\/a>.” Is there no one left, within the GOP, of any prominence besides
\nRon Paul to stand up in defense of the former? If so, then the GOP has truly
\nreached the end of the road, and all its future defeats will be well-deserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

http:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/justin\/?articleid=11743    October 12, 2007 The Huckabee Horror He’d shred the Constitution ‘in a heartbeat’ by Justin Raimondo The most recent GOP presidential debate, held in Dearborn, Michigan, this time, was mostly a very dull affair. Hardly any of the usual entertaining histrionics: even the naturally theatrical Rudy seemed unusually subdued. As the soft buzz of … Continue reading Huckabee continues to defy the Constitution<\/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-722","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\/722","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=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arkansasfreedom.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}