Webloggin » The Potential Huckabee Nightmare

The Iowa caucus is practically upon us and polls are pointing to a very tight race between Mike Huckabee (approx 29% RCP Average) and Mitt Romney (26% RCP Average) with John McCain, Fred Thompson, Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul pulling up the rear. The spread gives Huckabee a +3 point advantage and that poses a real problem for me.

The last thing the Republican party needs is a conservative pretender that is more in line with the New York Times than the conservative party base on the issues of immigration and the United States’ role in fighting terror when pitted against world opinion. Who can forget that disastrous article Huckabee wrote for the Council on Foreign Relations where he made the claim that the United States is attempting to dominate others to the detriment of world opinion?

It appears that Iowa voters have. Here is a reminder.

“The United States, as the world’s only superpower, is less vulnerable to military defeat. But it is more vulnerable to the animosity of other countries. Much like a top high school student, if it is modest about its abilities and achievements, if it is generous in helping others, it is loved. But if it attempts to dominate others, it is despised. American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out. The Bush administration’s arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the United States’ main fight does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists.”

Perhaps Mike Huckabee confused world opinion with the New York Times. Unfortunately that is not Huckabee’s only problem. On the issue of immigration Huckabee again takes the side of Democrats where he stands more on the side of the opinion that Republican opponents of pro-illegal immigrant policies are xenophobic racists.

Just two years ago, Huckabee appeared before the open-borders Hispanic group, The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), preaching an open-door policy. According to the Arkansas News Bureau, Huckabee also criticized state legislation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and enhanced reporting of illegal aliens as un-Christian, un-American, irresponsible and anti-life — not to mention “inflammatory,” “race-baiting” and “demagoguery.”

Just last year, Huckabee lambasted opponents of the bipartisan shamnesty bill providing a mass pardon to illegal aliens as “driven by racism or nativism.” He called strict immigration enforcement — the kind he now supports — “sheer folly” in his campaign-timed book released earlier this year. He actively invited the Mexican government to establish a consulate in Arkansas — giving its office a $1 per year special office space rate — so that its foreign officials could start dispensing security-undermining matricula consular ID cards to illegal aliens for banking and employment purposes. And he’s not only for government in-state illegal alien discounts, he’s for expanding them far beyond what the federal DREAM Act proposed.

The Club for Growth has been keeping track of Huckabee’s conservative bona fides and SURPRISE, Governor Huckabee falls flat from my perspective.

SPENDING - Under Governor Huckabee’s watch, state spending increased a whopping 65.3% from 1996 to 2004, three times the rate of inflation (Americans for Tax Reform 01/07/07). The number of state government workers rose 20% during his tenure (Arkansas Leader 04/15/06), and the state’s general obligation debt shot up by almost $1 billion, according to Americans for Tax Reform.

FREE TRADE - The club for growth calls the following a positive “In 2003, he pushed for free trade with Mexico, calling for a “strong market of the Americas” and supporting NAFTA (AP 10/03/03)”

But in my book NAFTA is the biggest sham to have hit the nation. Most people who talk about NAFTA talk about it in terms of manufacturing, usually with the side note that America is resigned to letting manufacturing move outside the border. The fact of the matter is that NAFTA affects much more than manufacturing and trucking. The software industry is one area that has been affected negatively by NAFTA IMHO. The real catch is that nations such as China and India are taking advantage of NAFTA by setting up shop just south of the U.S. border; circumventing any advantage that the United States had by having consulting companies in this time zone. Thus even consulting services are moving to Mexico to the detriment of both Mexicans and Americans, hurting both the south of Mexico and depressing white collar wages in the United States for consultants.

On school choice Huckabee is on the record as opposing vouchers. Nuff said. These are just a few of the criticisms surrounding Mike Huckabee.

Mike Huckabee has been running a campaign based on identity politics. When criticized he has been known to try and turn those criticisms around by claiming an attack on his evangelical beliefs or Christians in general; something that I am a staunch defender of. But the argument can not be used in lieu of a conservative record. This is no different than his defense of illegal immigration by using emotionally baited rhetoric infused with name calling. Standing behind the Christian card is no substitute for being a good conservative. The last thing this nation needs is another President that looks like one thing on the campaign trail and turns into something quite a bit different in office. Further we need someone who will unapologetically stand up for America and defend our honor with vigor.

I don’t know what they are drinking up there in Iowa but I hope the affects wear off before the hangover sets in.

Update: Many bloggers are getting on board with Fred Thompson especially in light of the records held by the two front runners:

See :

Flopping Aces - Fredhead Blogburst
Right Truth - Support Fred
Right Wing News
Fred File
JamieWearingFool - Getting on the Fred Thompson bus
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiller
Right Wing Nuthouse
The Discerning Texan