Stop pickin on Papa!
Posted on 12/15/2007 9:20:42 PM PST by raccoonradio
Gov. Mike Huckabee has the soul of a Massachusetts state rep. Not to mention the ethics.
What other conclusion can you draw after studying the squalid career of the current front-runner for the GOP nomination for president?
The Huckster is from the same town as Bill Clinton - Hope, Ark. - and at the risk of engaging in geographic profiling, what more do you really need to know? From what I can tell, if Huckabee had been raised around here, he would now be known as either “Mr. Speaker” or “the defendant.”
This barefoot boy with cheek is lucky he came up in the hookworm capital of America, because even here in Boston, where political corruption is seldom prosecuted anymore, he would have been in deep doo-doo a long time ago.
In his years in politics, Huckabee has combined the veracity of Felon Finneran with the dextrous accounting of Good Time Charlie Flaherty, not to mention a law-abiding family not unlike Billy Bulger’s, the spot-on character judgment of M. Stanley Dukakis and, finally, a worse addiction to state aircraft than Jane Swift.
After studying a 34-page printout of Huckabee’s record, thoughtfully provided by a Concerned Citizen, my nomination for most innovative Huckabee money-grubbing scam is the “wedding registry” he and Mrs. Huckabee set up last year as he was leaving office. This came 32 years after their first marriage and just a year after they entered into a “covenant marriage,” whatever that is.
Told of Huckleberry’s “wedding registry,” a Republican legislator quipped, “Maybe I should do a registry for a car.”
Then there was his political action committee, Hope for America, supposedly to help other candidates. By September it raised $800,000, of which it disbursed to pols not named Huckabee . . . $3,900.
Sounds a little like those “golf charities” our solons set up and then neglect to incorporate, let alone dole out any money from - except to pay off their bar tabs.
In the ’90s, Huckabee got $70,000 from a convicted stock swindler who did 14 months in prison for forging a $1 million stock certificate. The money from the con man went to buy furniture at the governor’s mansion.
Leaving office early this year, Huckabee spent $13,000 in state funds to destroy the hard drives on the computers in the governor’s office. While he was governor, the state bought a $1.4 million Beechcraft turboprop - the Huckster and/or his wife flew on it 80 times in 2005 and 55 times last year.
He and his family used something called the Governor’s Mansion Account for their own private needs, including gourmet meals at Taco Bell [YUM] and Papa John’s Pizza, and nine pairs of pantyhose for the missus from J.C. Penney. His chief of staff told the press, “As long as the first family feels it’s proper, they can do it.” She then thought a moment and added, “That doesn’t sound very good, does it?”
It’s safe to say that when Mike Huckabee became a preacher, he didn’t take any vows of poverty.
He paid his wife $14,000 for her alleged work as the “treasurer” of his Senate campaign in 1992. He paid himself $43,500 for use of a plane he bought for that same campaign. He was the subject of 14 investigations by the State Ethics Commission.
He commuted the prison sentence of the stepson of one of his staffers. He commuted the murder sentences of any number of depraved killers, including at least one who had been turned down for release a total of three times by Gov. Bill Clinton, who himself should have gone to prison, and Clinton successor Jim Guy Tucker, who did (go to prison, that is).
Huckabee ran his wife for secretary of state in 2002 against a guy named Charlie Daniels - I’m not making this up! His name was Charlie Daniels. Welcome to Arkansas.
His son David was arrested last April for taking a handgun through security at the airport in Little Rock. Who does he think he is: an NBA player?
In the next debate, there’s only one thing Mitt, Rudy et al. need to say to this faker: “You have the right to remain silent. . .”
Howie Carr column ping. We’ll do this week’s show ping
on Monday.
It’s not the ghosts he should worry about, it’s the dead bodies - all the ones the Clintons left behind.
Oh, thought they meant real ghosts from Arkancides.
Now...about Ted Kennedy...
Howie BUMP
The media is behind Huck’s candidacy. That’s all you need
to know. (They feel Hillary or Barack can easily beat him.)
Sounds like a typical political sleazeball. Most of official Washington surely has done likewise and more or whatever greater-dollar sleaze is technically legal. I know that Guiliani used his oversized share of official funds for “personal” purposes. I haven’t heard about Mitt Romney. But if the legislature gives you a slush fund and tells you to spend it, what else do you expect? I never did understand the wedding registry, but it’s apparently legal, no matter how ridiculous.
You knew the new “man from Hope” was dirty by his political provenance. If you’re running for any office higher than dog catcher in Arkansas, you going to have to either tolerate, or participate in, some graft and corruption. Sadly, there are some folks in these quarters who’d rather have a disgraced Elmer Gantry/Jimmy Swaggart than someone who professes that he’s not the most regular church goer (you know, like those un-Christian souls, Abe Lincoln and Ronald Reagan).
The supporters of the Huckster aren’t delivering the money to him and I have trouble believing they’ll deliver the vote.
Huckster and Precious Willard, two turds of a feather.
I think that Fred Thompson still can pull this out. He’s in a similar situation that John Kerry was in at this time in 2003. He just needs to pull together conservatives worried about electability and supporters of other candidates who have serious qualms about them.
Anybody check with the missus about them pantyhose?
Personal attacks? I am not so sure this comes under personal attacks as it does out his ethics. Pahlease...a wedding registry? Do you know why a Wedding Registry? Because it escapes the gift clause. He can accept wedding gifts. Now come on ...dont you think thats a bit stretching it?
Good to see them using the appropriate title for the Huckster.
Howie nails it. The sooner Slickabee slides into well-deserved oblivion, the better for the party and the country.
*PING* to Dano!
Dano my FRiend, we need your Mick Huckabee graphic for this thread, it’s just not the same without it, and hey: *good news* this morning, the mods haven’t tampered with the headline!
Yet. ;)
Just kidding with ya pal, hope you’re having a good weekend!
Squalid. The perfect word to describe Huckabee’s time as governor of AK.
I haven’t been around FR much lately. As the media kept reporting on the HuckaBoom, I assumed-—when I came back to FR-—I would find Freepers jumping all over his bandwagon. But over the last few days that’s not what I’m seeing. There’s a lot of skepticism on these boards.
Freepers tend to be an arbiter of conservative preferences, but in this case they don’t seem to be on board.
So, the question is: If he hasn’t brought Freepers on board, where is all this support coming from?!
ping
I am going Ron Paul this time around. I will vote for him in the primary and if he makes it will vote for him in the general election.
I think he's got some following on FR. That following is certainly being shouted down by the Romneyites. But what is becoming clear is that the christian voting block isn't dead yet. At least that's my opinion.
And when people keep writing articles about how bad it is to mix christianity and government, or how christians are suppose to keep their beliefs quiet, or how scary it is because Huck might think the world was created in 6 days, or how nutty he is for saying mormonism isn't a christian religion..... all of this when reported as negativity about Huck just energizes the christian block.
Stop pickin on Papa!
I agree completely. But it’s weird.
Usually, if a candidate has wrapped up “christian” support, there will be a corresponding surge here on FR. (You know the type...they denounce-—in bold type-—anyone who supports another candidate...then question how good a christian that Freeper can be.)
I saw it with Pat Buchanan. Duncan Hunter is close. Even the Ron Paulites fit the bill (from a libertarian point of view). But I haven’t detected anything like a “surge” on FR for Huckabee.
I mean we've got people (freepers) posting articles that chastise Huck for being anti-gay. We've got freepers who support changing the tax code who are chastising Huck saying that he isn't "really" interested in a consumption tax, but that he's just "lying" to us about his intentions.
It all comes down to Huck's religion. They'll post articles about him, sling dirt, inuendo, (gossip) or whatever.... but this election right now is about christianity. And the more Huck is pummeled for his beliefs, the more some of us are going to support him for his beliefs.
One more thought. Right or wrong, good or bad, MANY MANY christians will not vote for Romney because he is mormon. That’s a bottom line.
It all reminds me of the 1988 GOP convention in Houston. Pat Buchanan was the most popular speaker. And Bush pere said “no new taxes”. But it made Republicans look like a prudish cult.
As I watch this campaign, I think the major issues are terrorism, nuclear proliferation, national defense, maintaining economic strength, unbound bureaucracy, federal spending, and a candidate who speaks to “family values” without sounding sermonic or scolding.
To listen to the news one would think the major issue is one’s religion. It’s bizarre how they hardly ever talk about all those other things.
(Of course, I know it’s designed to make Republicans vulnerable)
I disagree. If he used his position to profit, he needs to get hammered.
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