Posted on 12/20/2007 9:12:14 AM PST by Ol' Sparky
Why does the GOP Establishment fear Huck?
Juan Cole's got a bad case of left-wing Huckenfreude:
I simply can not tell you how much I am enjoying this. The GOP has been pandering to these stupid bastards for years, and every time I pointed it out I was called “anti-Christian” or something or other. Those of us who saw what the party was becoming were told to shut up, that it was good politics.
Enjoy your new GOP, folks. And here is something else to think about- are the evangelicals going to support Romney or Giuliani if you do manage to trash Huckabee enough to secure the nomination for them? Will the eye for an eye crowd learn to forgive and forget? Have fun!
But that's not why the GOP Establishment is panicking. They're panicking because a) Huckabee is a wild card who could lose massively in the general election; b) Huckabee doesn't owe any of them anything; and c) Huckabee's rise shows how badly, perhaps irretrievably, the fusionist settlement (uniting social and economic conservatives) has broken down, leaving the GOP in a shambles.
It's funny, but when it looked like Rudy Giuliani, a social liberal, was going to be the nominee, we didn't see many, if any, establishment Republican opinion leaders freaking out over what kind of danger to the future of the party and the nation he represented, even though as Ross points out, Giuliani hasn't exactly been deep on policy (I had to research Giuliani for our Dallas Morning News editorial board debate on which candidate to endorse, and I was genuinely startled by how vague he was on many things). I think it's fair to say that it was assumed that Giuliani would be a sound representative of the Republican Party, and that the social and religious conservatives would do like they always do and get in line. Pat Robertson sure did.
But lo, it turns out that the candidate who's caught fire comes straight out of the religious/social conservative wing of the coalition, and he is unsound on issues most important to the fiscal wing. It's not supposed to work that way. Nobody at the elite level seems to expect the economic conservatives to suck it up for the sake of party unity. What does that say about the place of social conservatives in the party all these years?
I don't want to overdo this. I think it's perfectly fine to be worried about Huckabee's vagueness, and his unpreparedness. I'm worried about these things too, which is a big reason why I can't say I'd vote for him (though honestly, any Republican who finds himself worked up over Huckabee's lack of knowledge about foreign affairs, say, should ask himself if he felt the same way about Gov. Bush in 1999 and 2000, and if not, why not). Still, it's hard to shake the belief that the real problem with Mike Huckabee, as far as the establishment is concerned, is that he's not clubbable.
Reader Conor writes on this topic:
I really don't think it is because he is a Christian Evangelical who believes to the core of his person. I don't think it is because he is a Christian Evangelical through and through and is the equivalent of Pat Robertson winning. I think it is that he is a populist and he is a hell of a better politician than any of the other folks at the top of the tier. Sure Huckabee is trying to squeeze the Evangelicals for all they are worth, but there is more to him than that. I really think this is the piece that too many are missing by focusing in on the fact that he is a Baptist minister, Christian Leader, etc.
The same reason we “fear” any liberal.
The GOP establishment fears that, should Huckabee actually win the nomination, they will lose the White House.
Legitimate concern, IMHO.
I don’t fear Huck...I just don’t trust him.
When did the headline writer stop beating his wife?
Imagine a democrat writing this about blacks. The author makes an assumption that evangelicals support Huckabee. To be honest I have formed an opinion yet, but I will not for any politician that talks out of both sides of his mouth. A liar is the very worst thing.
I hate headlines like this. I don’t like him. I dont know WHY, but, I don’t “fear” anyone.
The GOP will dump Slick Mickey
because he is a liberal triangulator
and the MSM will try to convince evangelicals that
Huckabee was dumped
because he is too religious.
Because Huck is the Second Coming of . . . . Jimmah Carter?!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Huck is a loser...at least 40 percent of the Republican traditional base of voters...won’t vote for the guy. I can just sit here and imagine November of next year...the screen has seven red states, and 43 blue states. Huck loses big-time...and we all sit there and wonder why we had to pick Huck, and the only answer comes from the Baptists in the Republican party telling us that we needed the “right” kind of leader. Its simply not fear...its what will happen in eleven months that we really dislike.
It should have the same fear about Giuliani and Romney. Giuliani splits the party and is unelectable. Romney has a Mormon problem, is a flip-flopper with a social liberal past and is also unelectable.
That means you definitely Romney and Giuliani as well?
This Baptist will not vote for Huck. I don’t carry the White Guilt he does.
Sadly, there isn’t a Republican candidate that doesn’t fit that label.
Good article. The only type of candidate that can unite the party is a fiscal AND a social conservative. Money and attention shouldn’t go to anyone that doesn’t meet that criteria because they are a loser.
I don't know about the GOP, but I fear Huck because he's about the only one running for the GOP nomination who Hillary can easily trounce in the Presidential Election of 2008.
Watch as the Main Stream Media tries to convince the Republican Party that Huckabee is their best choice for President, and remember that no one should ever take advice from their enemies.
Don’t fear anyone, just know a con job when I see it. And know a liberal when I see and hear then as well.
No ‘fear’ here. I just find him to be a typical Arkansas politician, and as such I can’t support him.
Personally, I don’t fear anything that walks.
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