I enjoy the Corner even though I have ranted against it before. Sometimes they are a tad too attack dog. Katheryn Lopez for instance in her zeal called Huckabee a Socialist the other day. This was also the same conservative person that was talking in zeal about the "Great Divorce" that conservatives were about to have with Bush after the immigration battles.
As I noted in various emails back then, I thought having a "great divorce" with the sitting Republican President was sort of shortsighted even though I suppose it would have made certain Manhatten Conservative bloggers all giddy writing about it. I love some of the people at the Corner Blog and National Review. Especially Jonah Goldberg who I find the most sensible over there. However I wish they would sometimes take a deep breath breath before hitting the enter button on the computer and think that perhaps there should be some moderation.
I will give them credit. Despite broadcasting the falsehoods that Huckabee is some big Government spender they noted lately that calling Huckabee a hick is sort of out of line and counter productive. They also have noted something that Bill Clinton hit on the other day. From the Corner Blog:
Two Men From Hope [David J. Sanders]
Apparently Bill Clinton is not surprised by Mike Huckabee’s surge.
He was in Little Rock this weekend where he addressed graduates of the Clinton School of Public Service. Here is what he had to say about the other man from Hope: "If you just listen to him, even though we disagree on a lot of the issues, he gives a good speech, tells a good joke and has a good sense of humor," Clinton said. "That takes you a long way in a place like Iowa.
It's sort of ready-made for him. It's the perfect place for him, so I'm not at all surprised he's doing well."We're from the same little town, and we grew up in a similar culture, although he's younger than I am. ... I grew up in an environment of story-telling, and so did he, and you have to learn to listen to one before you can tell one. I think it's an enormous advantage in modern American politics to be able to tell a story, because people can identify with you," he said.When asked about the possibility of Huckabee vs. Hillary in the general: "Well, it would be interesting," he said. "And the people wouldn't be bored."
12/18 12:51 PM.
Bill perhaps get something there. You have to listen. Perhaps the Huckabee bashers will take note that maybe just maybe Huckabee is hearing something we all should be listening too.
Now before people go all "Well Bill said it so he must want Huckabee" note that Huckabee has beat that Clinton machine several times in Arkansas. I am not sure Huckabee is at the top of their list of wanted opponents.
Yesterday I commented on how Pundits were being a Grinch over the Huckabee "Merry Christmas" ad. That ad prompted a very nice and honest appraisal of Huckabee from the people at the Corner. They are realizing that he is a tad different. Here are a few:
Re: The Christmas wedge ad [Mark Steyn]
Rich, I think you're right: This "Merry Christmas" thing is ingenious. In essence, it's playing the secular media off against his GOP rivals in order to solidify his base. I'm no Huckabee fan but, like Peter, I think he's been amazingly nimble and very sophisticated - as a campaigner, I hasten to add: the policy's another matter.
I wonder what the long-term consequences will be for the GOP. Huckabee turns the conventional wisdom on Republican outreach on its head: Instead of being fiscally conservative and socially "moderate", he's culturally conservative and fiscally populist. But right now he's making these big-money consultant-led rivals look very arthritic.
and finally(more in at the Corner and in the archives from yesterday)
Well there is more. Even these comments have "misunderstandings I feel about Huckabee positions and records. However I do take some comfort that the Corner seems to realize that there is something to these man from Hope. And I don't mean Bill Clinton.
Let me end with one most post that deals with the Club of Growth Ads and attacks on Huckabee. Briefly last week I thought Byron York with National Review was actually going in a productive direction. However sadly this post went unheeded. Let me post that in full in full blazing Code alert Red:
The Other Attack on Huckabee [Byron York]
Back from Iowa.Before criticism of Mike Huckabee ventured into what Ross Douthat calls "Go Back to Dogpatch, You Stupid Hillbilly!" territory, there was the critique, from the Club for Growth, of Huckabee's record in Arkansas on taxes and the economy. I've been meaning to make a note of the degree to which the prominence and the aggressiveness of that critique has come in some significant part from a single adversary of Huckabee's: Jackson "Steve" Stephens, Jr., of the famous Arkansas investment bank family.
Back from Iowa.Before criticism of Mike Huckabee ventured into what Ross Douthat calls "Go Back to Dogpatch, You Stupid Hillbilly!" territory, there was the critique, from the Club for Growth, of Huckabee's record in Arkansas on taxes and the economy. I've been meaning to make a note of the degree to which the prominence and the aggressiveness of that critique has come in some significant part from a single adversary of Huckabee's: Jackson "Steve" Stephens, Jr., of the famous Arkansas investment bank family.
It's not at all surprising that officials of the Club would object to parts of Huckabee's record; it would be surprising if they didn't. But the Club has seemed to go after Huckabee with particular relish. I first wondered what was going on in the late summer, a few days before the August 11 Ames, Iowa Straw Poll, when the Club spent about $100,000 to run anti-Huckabee ads in Iowa. At that time, the RealClearPolitics average of polls had Huckabee at three percent in Iowa – 24 points behind Mitt Romney. He was nowhere, with many observers speculating that he would be blown out of the race altogether if, as some expected, Sam Brownback finished ahead of him in the Straw Poll. Yet the Club launched a big, expensive attack on him.
Federal election records show that Stephens contributed $100,000 to Club for Growth.net – the organization that actually put out the ad – on August 1. Stephens is also on the governing board of Club for Growth.net. Stephens declined to comment, but I asked David Keating, who is executive director of the Club, whether Stephens' contribution was intended to finance the ad. He told me the Club "generally has a policy of not earmarking donations," but he also, in another conversation, told me that it would be "reasonable to conclude" that the Stephens donation was used for the Huckabee attack.Last winter, when the Club began to publish assessments of the candidates, the first one it released was on…Mike Huckabee.
At that point, Huckabee was truly nowhere in the polls, in Iowa or anywhere else. Given the relatively higher profiles of other candidates, it seemed odd that the Club would pick Huckabee right out of the box, yet that is what happened. Keating told me there was nothing unusual about it, that it was just the way the timing worked out. "We decided in the second half of January to even do these papers," he told me. "We had heard that Huckabee was going to announce at the end of the month…It was more trying to piggyback on a news event than anything else."Although Stephens would not comment, he did speak to the Arkansas columnist David Sanders, who published a piece Monday here on NRO.
Reading Sanders' account, Stephens appears to be unhappy with Huckabee's failure to implement a number of government-streamlining recommendations Stephens made in the late 1990s. Now, Stephens told Sanders, his "sole purpose is to educate people about Huckabee." And just this week, the Club is running another ad attacking Huckabee, which I saw in Iowa in the last couple of days.All of this is perfectly legitimate. But as I looked at the intensity of the Club's attacks on Huckabee, and contrasted it with the relative quiet of one of the Club's natural allies, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform – who has his problems with Huckabee's record but told me Huckabee is OK with him as long as he abides by the ATR pledge — I wondered what was going on. It's worth knowing.
Indeed it is worth knowing. When will the National Review start researching that question!!!!! I hope as one of the leading conservative voices in the nation it will occur sooner rather than later.
Does anyone else sense that the manifest anmosity that drives misrepresentation and over-interpretation, is really grounded in a cultural discomfort with Huckabee's unshaded confession and expression of faith?
ReplyDeleteThese people can't really think that Huckabee is a greater threat to fiscal probity than Romney, Giuliani, McCain, and even Thompson. Something smells like there is an unacknowledged factor at work.
For anyone saddened by the Catholic League President's response to Mike Huckabee's ad, please -kindly- let them know your opinion.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.catholicleague.org/feedback.php
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Larry I agree with to a large extent. This is just so silly. I even heard people say the Christmas balls in the background represent the Trinity
ReplyDeleteMichael thanks for bringing that Catholic League thing to my attention. Id di not realize they issued a statement till I saw your comment this morning. I am going to take a look at it now