RS: "Mike Huckabee, Our Favorite Right-Wing Nut Job"

[flvegan]

I just finished reading the paper version of Rolling Stone. Worth a read.

Matt Taibbi

MIKE HUCKABEE, THE LATEST IT GIRL OF THE Republican presidential race, tells a hell of a story. Let your guard down anywhere near the former Arkansas governor and he'll pod you, Body Snatchers-style — you'll wake up drooling, your brain gone, riding a back seat on the bandwagon that suddenly has him charging toward the lead in the GOP race.

It almost happened to me a few months ago at a fund-raiser in Great Falls, Virginia. I'd come to get my first up-close glimpse of the man Arkansans call Huck, about whom I knew very little — beyond the fact that he was far behind in the polls and was said to be very religious. In an impromptu address to a small crowd, Huckabee muttered some stay-the-course nonsense about Iraq and then, when he was finished, sought me out, apparently having been briefed beforehand that Rolling Stone was in the house.

<snip>

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.

But Huckabee is also something else: full-blown nuts, a Christian goofball of the highest order. He believes the Earth may be only 6,000 years old, angrily rejects the evidence that human beings evolved from "primates" and thinks America wouldn't need so much Mexican labor if we allowed every aborted ­fetus to grow up and enter the workforce. To top it off, Huckabee also left behind a record of ethical missteps in the swamp of ­Arkansas politics that make White­water seem like a jaywalking ticket.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/17324246/matt_taibbi_on_mike_huckabee_our_favorite_rightwing_nut_job

[terrya]

1. I'll have to pick that issue up.

I'm a big fan of Matt Taibbi. Excellent writer.

Thanks for posting this, flvegan.

[BushOut06]

2. I almost hope that Huckabee wins the GOP nomination

It wouldn't even be a contest. He might get the extreme evangelical vote, but the vast majority of Americans aren't going to want someone who thinks the universe is only 6000 years old.

[NewJeffCT]

5. Will that sort of thing come out during the race, though?

Somehow, I don't think it will be that big a deal - most Republic scandals seem to be swept under the rug. And, if somebody mentions it, they just say it was a "youthful indiscretion" even if they were 45 years old when it happened.

[Bucky]

7. Sadly, they've already gotten use to a guy who actively denies reality

Never overestimate peoples' gullibility. Huck's a remarkably charming guy. Pray for Mitt to sew it up before he catches fire. Huckabee is the one guy who could actually make Bush look like a moderate president

[Beerboy]

3. Wow.

The Repigs are running a guy named "Huckabee"? 'President Huckabee'. Yeah, right, the voters of the USA are going to let that happen.
Idiots.

[NewJeffCT]

6. And in 1999 and 2000

I bet most Democrats would have preferred to run against Bush as opposed to the more moderate seemeing McCain. Bush seemed like an intellectual lightweight and was not a good speaker, while McCain was a straight talker and a maverick who appealed to the mainstream...

So, be careful what you wish for.

[BushOut06]

9. You missed the great "Jeb" versus "Buddy" gubanatorial race in Florida awhile back

Unfortunately, we got stuck with two terms of Bush-lite.

[Blue_Tires]

11. very true

i remember wanting bush to win the nomination, thinking america would see him as a failed, no-substance governor trying to bankroll on his father's name...i thought the race would be an easy gore win, but then all those fun things happened like who invented the internet, earth-tone suits, who we'd rather have a beer with, compassionate conservatism, fuzzy math, putting the adults back in charge, and of course the theft of florida and an infamous ussc decision...

seems like a completely different planet since then....

[MADem]

4. Matt Taibi is a very perceptive individual. He NAILS the essence of Huckabee. NT

[BushOut06]

10. Essence of Huckabee?

Sounds like something I wouldn't want to get on me.

Either that, or some new fundie fragrance.

[zabet]

8. Good article.

Huckabee needs to change
his name to Hucksterbee.

This is disturbing...

"This God stuff isn't just talk with Huck. One of his first acts as governor was to block Medicaid from funding an abortion for a mentally retarded teen­ager who had been raped by her stepfather — an act in direct violation of federal law, which requires states to pay for abortions in cases of rape. "The state didn't fund a single such abortion while Huckabee was governor," says Dr. William Harrison of the Fayetteville Women's Clinic. "Zero.""

[Matariki]

12. I think he's really a performance artist

I heard his Chuck Norris Endorsed ad this morning - basically him telling Chuck Norris jokes. His presidential bid ad. Chuck Norris jokes.

Tell me that's not genius. Not political genius, mind you, but pure merry prankster style genius.

[Hawaii Hiker]

13. Great article!

"Huckabee at most times is gentle and self-deprecating in his public address, but when he talks about religion, he gets weirdly combative and obnoxious, often drifting into outright offensiveness. At one appearance, Huckabee — who's been known to make fart jokes in front of the state legislature — said he would oppose gay marriage "until Moses comes down with two stone tablets from Brokeback Mountain saying he's changed the rules." And he recently scored a rare offend trifecta, simultaneously pissing off immigrants, Jews and the pro-choice crowd when he ludicrously claimed that a "holocaust" of abortions had ­artificially created a demand for Mexican labor".


See, at the end of the day, Mike Huckabee is just another religious wacko, who caters to the Revival Tent wing of the Republican party...