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Mike Huckabee: Isn’t it time we retire the term “RINO”?
Hot Air ^ | January 14, 2014 | Allahpundit

Posted on 01/14/2014 6:51:09 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

Apparently someone applied this term to Huck himself and it brought him up short. You’d think he’d be used to it after the millionth time.

I’m fine with swapping it out for another term, but how do I describe myself then? “Candy-ass … centrist”? That’s too vague. “Candy-ass … establishmentarian”? Better, but still a mouthful. Few substitutes have the pithy poetic zing of “candy-ass RINO.”

“Many of you used a term that I’d like to see outlawed from the vernacular of the party: RINO,” he said, calling it a “pejorative term” that questioned one’s purity…

“With all due respect, I’ve fought in the trenches of Republican politics for over two decades, but I wouldn’t pretend that I’m lord over determining who the real Republicans are versus the so-called RINOs,” he said…

Huckabee reminded his readers that Jesus once said that “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” referring to the Gospel of Matthew…

“I’d rather have a loyal dog who licks me than one with a pedigree who bites me,” he added. “I’d rather go to battle with someone who isn’t perfect than with someone who thinks he is.”

How Jesus ended up in a scolding about RINOs versus true cons, I don’t know. I don’t understand the dog analogy either. The point about conservatives and RINOs isn’t that the former has a “pedigree” and the latter doesn’t, it’s that the latter frequently advertise themselves as one thing and then vote as another. They’re the opposite of loyal. Although maybe that’s an insight into where Huck stands on all this. From the perspective of, say, John Boehner, it’s true — the RINOs are the loyal dog and tea partiers are the pedigreed ones who bite. How does that analogy work from the standpoint of conservative voters, though? Who would Huck’s erstwhile constituents in Arkansas regard as having more of a “pedigree,” tea-party freshmen or Beltway Republicans who’ve been in Washington gladhanding rich lobbyists for 25 years?

That’s a key irony about Huck, though: He’s really not a “RINO” in the sense that the term’s usually used these days. He’s no more a creature of the Beltway than those tea-party freshmen are; on the contrary, one of the core grievances of his 2008 campaign was that the GOP establishment disdains the sort of rural, religious, blue-collar voters that it purports to represent and that he connects with. He gets slapped with the “RINO” label because of his big-government heresies but there’s got to be another term to distinguish a social-conservative warrior from the sort of status-quo D.C. slicksters we all think of when the R-bomb is dropped. How about “Pope Francis Republican”? There’s a market for that out there. Not enough to get him close to the nomination in 2016 but enough to keep politics interesting.

Exit question: Isn’t there some support among tea partiers too for jettisoning increasingly outdated labels like “RINO”? Read this Erick Erickson post from October before you answer.

Update: A friend suggests “Eeyorepublican.” I could live with that.


TOPICS: Issues; Parties
KEYWORDS: gomerhuckleberry; gop; huckabee; manyrinos; rino; rinos
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To: doc1019

Okay, Gov’ner Huck,
You are in Luck.
We here mean to say,
What RINO substitutes
Are Okay:

* Probable Republican
* Undeclared Republican
* Undecided Republican
* Middle-of-the-road Republican
* Moderate Republican
* Liberal Republican
* Cave-In Republican
* Betrayer Republican
* Cowardly Republican
* Turncoat Republican
* Rockefeller Republican
* McCain Republican
* Romney Republican
* Boehner Republican
* McConnell Republican
* Bi-Partisan Republican
* Democrats’ Republican
* Democrat-Republican
* Neo-Democrat
* Obamacrat-Democrat-Republican
* Obamacrat.

What did you chose,
Gov’ner Huck?
We keep it simple,
Here in Flyover Country,
We call all of them RINOs.


21 posted on 01/14/2014 7:04:08 PM PST by Graewoulf (Democrats' Obamacare Socialist Health Insur. Tax violates U.S. Constitution AND Anti-Trust Law.)
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To: RitaOK

A return the Lord’s way (as opposed to the world’s wishful way, which has managed to gain great currency even here) will look like it has a wimpy side. It will look like tolerance and patience. However it will also have an ultimate goal that is crystal clear. God never put us here to have effective politicians anyhow. That’s only a side effect of fervent faith.


22 posted on 01/14/2014 7:04:19 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
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To: Graewoulf

Challenge him square on the level of his faith... assuming you even can.


23 posted on 01/14/2014 7:05:26 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Why don't we retire this execrable lie:

“I’d rather go to battle with someone who isn’t perfec

No one's asking for "perfection". But we do have standards. So live up to em and everyone will be happy.

24 posted on 01/14/2014 7:07:23 PM PST by DManA
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To: Junk Silver

WIN!


25 posted on 01/14/2014 7:11:32 PM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: DManA

Your quest will be in vain as long as you look on the human level. Checkered souls are the ONLY souls that are here, and how do you know how you would perform under the temptations and pressures of politics? Maybe a little differently than when safely on this board and a million people’s votes aren’t hanging on something that would only get you zotted here?

You are wise however to look to the man whose eyes are as firmly as you can find on the Perfect one. I don’t know a whole lot about Huck and how his faith plays out. It’s easy to idolize the status of being a Baptist (or Catholic or whatever) and that is NOT the same as being a faithful though still flawed Christian.


26 posted on 01/14/2014 7:15:03 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Apparently the AR legislature is much more conservative now than when Huckabee was there. It even appears that Jonesboro on January 14 elected a Tea Party Republican to a state Senate vacancy though the returns are incomplete, and the turnout was abysmal. Huckabee is probably unaware of the changes in the AR legislature since 2012.


27 posted on 01/14/2014 7:16:56 PM PST by Theodore R. (TX Republicans can't wait until March 4 to nominate Cornball and George P.!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What is Huckaphoney trying to sell us this time?


28 posted on 01/14/2014 7:17:24 PM PST by skeeter
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Huckaphony is a RINO.


29 posted on 01/14/2014 7:17:58 PM PST by VRWC For Truth (Roberts has perverted the Constitution)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Isn’t it time we retire the term “RINO”?
__________________________________________

WHY, NO


30 posted on 01/14/2014 7:18:12 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
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To: Graewoulf

Hey, you left off Cornball Republican!


31 posted on 01/14/2014 7:18:41 PM PST by Theodore R. (TX Republicans can't wait until March 4 to nominate Cornball and George P.!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

No. It must offend you sir.


32 posted on 01/14/2014 7:19:11 PM PST by Fungi
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
How Jesus ended up in a scolding about RINOs versus true cons, I don’t know.

Ummm... when the Name before Whom every knee will bow comes up, it's probably worth it to try to understand the context rather than just flipping it away as irrelevant! How did Jesus get into this? It's a VERY important question. Maybe you have some other Plan B savior. I don't. Huck doesn't.

33 posted on 01/14/2014 7:19:46 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
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To: doc1019

What would you wish us to call you then, Huck?

How about his old AR nickname, “Tax Hike Mike”?

As far as retiring; how about if we retire him? At least Romney had the decency to go away after loosing.


34 posted on 01/14/2014 7:21:52 PM PST by logic101.net (How many more children must die on the altar of "gun free zones"?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hey, you have something against fried tree rat?


35 posted on 01/14/2014 7:22:33 PM PST by logic101.net (How many more children must die on the altar of "gun free zones"?)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Yes, it would certainly help the RINOs if we did that.


36 posted on 01/14/2014 7:22:36 PM PST by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: logic101.net

Let’s go for the gold of hypotheticals.

A Huck presidency.

All of a sudden that doesn’t look so bad does it.


37 posted on 01/14/2014 7:23:14 PM PST by HiTech RedNeck (The Lion of Judah will roar again if you give him a big hug and a cheer and mean it. See my page.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I like Mike Huckabee. I wish he was our president now instead of what we have now. He was a better candidate than McCain or Romney. Huckabee, Palin would have been a great team.


38 posted on 01/14/2014 7:24:54 PM PST by make no mistake
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To: DManA
I wouldn't describe a republican who hasn't the guts or the principles to stand on practically any conservative issue as 'not perfect'.

RINO is the least profane term I can think of. Huck shouldn't complain.

39 posted on 01/14/2014 7:27:06 PM PST by skeeter
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Just pretend it's a government hard drive and destroy the acronym, Governor.

This is from wiki graffiti but I've heard it elsewhere also.

Shortly before announcing his candidacy for the President of the United States, Huckabee ordered that the drives of 83 computers and 4 servers be destroyed during his transition phase in leaving office. According to Claire Bailey, director of the Arkansas Department of Information Systems, the governor's office chose a combination of writing over the data and destroying the hard drives. Huckabee said that the decision to crush the hard drives was made in order to "protect the privacy of those who had personal information on the drives." Critics, however, recalled that early in Huckabee's term as governor, documents, e-mails and memos stored on hard drives formed the basis of embarrassing stories about Huckabee, including the allegations regarding personal use of the Governor's Mansion funds.

40 posted on 01/14/2014 7:28:40 PM PST by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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