Friday, January 18, 2008

Silly Attempts to link Huckabee with White Hate Groups

The Nation has a piece up now called Mike Huckabee's White Supremacist Links.

I think it a fairly well done hit piece that sadly does not point out the full story.

I know quite a bit about the Council of Conservative Citizens. I follow their exploits quite a bit. To think that Mike Huckabee is associated with them or agrees with them is beyond the pale.

First, let me say that often politicians do not know the full background to the Council of Conservative Citizens before they appear in front of these groups. It has a rather ordinary sounding name. In Louisiana a well know conservative politician made a similar mistake. This is partly because the organization gets more radical and in fact more numerous where you go. For instance in Mississippi and South Carolina they are far more known organization than in Louisiana or Arkansas. Often a politician will show up not knowing what or whom he is speaking too.

Further as the years have gone by the national organization has got more extreme and even more radical. This is showing up in the local chapters more and more. Especially since the dates in question.

Two things that are significant. Mike Huckabee has not just recently got away from the Council of Conservative Citizens. There is no doubt that he became aware that this was much more than a just a conservative organization and thus backed off them. The fact that he would not share the same stage with a racist and anti semite should be noted. Several other politicians that day decided not too do the same

They have been fighting him in a aggressive manner for years. The Nation Article does not go into that. The Nation Article does not go into how one their big members from Arkansas has been in Huckabee's face for years. Way before Mike Huckabee decided to run for President. It has not gone through the archives of the Political Cesspool show(The CofCC leading radio voice) and see how this same person was ranting against Huckabee. The article is indeed misleading. Mike Huckabee's political foes included the Council of Conservative Citizens. The fact that they can not link Mike Huckabee in anyway to Council of Conservative Citizens chapters in South Carolina where they are a force is significant. Why would Huckabee have to denounce the Council of Conservatives Cities. They are and have been mortal enemies for years!!!! It is obvious Mike hates them.

However they left something else out which they know of no doubt.
"Huckabee took the pulpit of a small but growing church in Pine Bluff, Ark., and started a Christian radio and TV station, which aired his Sunday sermons. One day a listener contacted him. He was a black teenager and was interested in attending services at Huckabee's church, but worried he wouldn't be welcome; Immanuel Baptist Church had been all white since its inception in the 1890s. 'Of course you can come, I told him,' Huckabee recalls."The minister prepared his flock. 'I hope that nobody has anything except warm feelings,' he recalls telling them. 'In fact, if he is not welcome, I don't want to be here either.' The speech didn't go over well among some church elders, who threatened to fire him. Several members quit in protest. But most of his parishioners stood with him, and in the years that followed, the church slowly integrated. 'I grew up with a lot of people who really resisted integration,' Huckabee tells NEWSWEEK. 'The more I listened to them, the more I became convinced that racism was an incredible evil.' Rex Nelson, who worked for Huckabee when he was governor, says his racial awareness 'comes from being raised poor...He knew what is was like to look up at other people who were looking down on him.'

That speaks volumes to me. A young pastor and with a wife and children to support took a stand that could have him his job. That was a mighty brave stand for Mike Huckabee and was not a easy one I would think. Many Many Many good ministers no doubt in the same situation compromised their morals in Huckabee's situation. I know I have seen it happen!!!

I am a adamant foe of the Council of Conservative Citizens and never would support anyone that was a knowing ally of theirs. I was fully aware of what the Nation reported before I signed on to support MIke. Huckabee has had these people as his enemy through much of his reign as Arkansas Governor. That should have been noted and examined by the Nation.

Update-
From a 1994 article not printed by the Nation
Huckabee won't appear with racist.Little Rock -- Lt. Gov. Mike Huckabee accepts numerous speaking engagements, but has withdrawn from a program sponsored by a group that also invited a purported white supremacist.Huckabee said he had cancelled his scheduled speech to the Council for Conservative Citizens luncheon seminar April 16 at the Camelot Hotel.

The program also includes a speech by Houston lawyer Kirk Lyons, described by the Nazi-hunting Simon Weisenthal Center as heading an organization that defends white supremacists in trouble with the law.The Los Angeles-based center also contends that Lyons has been a featured speaker before groups that deny the Holocaust occurred during World War II.Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the center's associate dean, asked Huckabee in a letter to "reconsider your sharing the platform with a person promoting racism and bigotry."Huckabee said he knew nothing of the sponsoring organization or about Lyons.

He said that if the Simon Weisenthal Center had contacted him before releasing a letter to the news media that he would have withdrawn from the program. He said the Weisenthal Center has since issued an apology to him."I will not have anything to do with a person tied to a supremacist organization," Huckabee said.When he was contacted about the center's request, he said he had never heard of Lyons."But if he is who they say he is and he's going to be on that program, I will not be,"

Huckabee said. "I will not participate in any program that has racist overtones. I've spent a lifetime fighting racism and anti-Semitism."The Council of Conservative Citizens' newsletter, The Council Reporter, bears a post office box number in St. Louis, but St. Louis-area directory assistance had no listing for the organization or its president, Samuel Turnipseed Jr.A woman who answered the telephone at Lyons' organization -- the CAUSE Foundation -- said Lyons was taking part in a re-enactment of a Confederate Civil War march in Louisiana and would not be available for comment until next week

. A message left on an answering machine at a telephone number where it was believed Lyons could be reached was not returned Wednesday.

Huckabee said the invitation to speak at the conservative forum entitled "The Message from Middle America" was one of dozens of speaking requests he receives each week, mostly from civic groups or Republican organizations."It's such a rare thing that we have such an organization like this and usually there are people on the program that we know," he said. "This is one we may not have known enough about."According to the Simon Weisenthal Center, Lyons' organization has defended Fred Leuchter, an engineer who was indicted by German authorities for denying that people were gassed at Auschwitz.

Lyons also has been a featured speaker at conventions sponsored by the Institute for Historical Review, a group that denies that the Nazi Holocaust ever occurred, the center said.Betty Tate, a spokeswoman for the CAUSE Foundation, described the organization as a civil rights group. She said the organization has defended such white supremacists as Richard Butler and Robert Miles Jr., who she denied were racists.Ms. Tate said the foundation also has filed a suit against the federal government, "the perpetrators of that holocaust at Waco," on behalf of surviving family members of David Koresh's followers.

It is a sas day in politics when even a liberal magazine like the Nation refuses to recognize that Huckabee has spoke out against these people and has been their enemy.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope you're feeling better ...

Tom's latest post on Huckabee: Win ONE for the Huckster

And did I leave this link yesterday?
On McCain

St. Michael the Archangel, pray for Mike Huckabee and his team!

Go, Huck, Go!

Anonymous said...

James ... great post ... Tom had told the same story you did in one of his posts:

Is Huckabee Holy? Romney Relevant?

And you've seen this video, have you?

40th Anniv. of the Central HS Integration Crisis, Little Rock, AR

and the transcript:

40th Anniv. of the Central HS Integration Crisis, Little Rock, AR

Net

SJ Reidhead said...

Hope you are feeling better.

I've been working on all this you know what all day. I just sent you the article. There's no way Huckabee links to any of these groups. Ron Wilson swore he was going to disrupt the GOP Primary and it seems as though he is doing a good job.

SJR
The Pink Flamingo

Unknown said...

Hi there. I came here, giving you the benefit of the doubt on your word that Huckabee was innocent of these charges, to check what evidence you had that the story was not true. Frankly, I see nothing that you have presented that convinces me that the story is not true. In fact, it actually supports it. Fully.

(1) What of the 1993 speech to the Council of Conservative Citizens that he wanted to give, and was going to give, but that he couldn't attend because of Arkansas legalities? There's a 1993 newsletter speaking of it, and the actual video will probably be dug out and on youtube soon. You fail to speak of that, at all.

(2) The article YOU quote speaks of Huckabee being SCHEDULED for the speech, but pulling out when he heard that Lyons was involved. To be scheduled for something, you have to agree to it in the first place. The guy Lyons is a separate issue. For Huckabee to pull out then was OBVIOUS. But the fact remains: Huckabee had already agreed to speak at the Council of Conservative Citizens, the white supremacist mob - for the SECOND YEAR RUNNING. This is also in contradiction to his now-apparent LIE that " HUCKABEE SAID HE KNEW NOTHING OF THE SPONSORING ORGANIZATION or about Lyons. "


You say in your comments that you are absolutely against that organization, and those that have anything to do with it. How then can you still stick by Huckabee, with any shade of intellectual integrity, and without appearing as a simple apologist?

James H said...

Nomen,

I think it is very clear to me why Huckabee would not know a ton about this organization.

I has always tried to mainstream itself and its early years it often did a good job of hiding the radicals in the closet.

I have no problem with my integrty.I researched all the folks running. It is diffiuclt to find a huge amount of SOuthern Politicans who have not crossed the paths of CofCC at some point without knowing that they were not truly a radical orgization.

Pastors that integrate their own congegations are not the type to agree with these folks.

THe fact is that Huckabee and the CofCC has have been foes for years. You might take notice of them because the Nation said something about them and then you shall most likely promptly forget about them. Huckabee has had to deal with some of their most vocal members for years in the political arean and brass knucles politics.

If he did not research them enough a the begining then I can you guess you can hold that against him. However to ignore the extreme animosity between Huckabee and the Cof CC for then well over a decade calls perhaps other people's "intellectual integrity" in question.

If there is one thing if you look on this blog I don't make cahrges of antoi Catholiciosm, racism, hate, etc lightly as to anyone. Be it Democrat, Republican,whatever. I find those serious charges so I feel fine with my position

James H said...

Nomen,

I think it is very clear to me why Huckabee would not know a ton about this organization.

I has always tried to mainstream itself and its early years it often did a good job of hiding the radicals in the closet.

I have no problem with my integrty.I researched all the folks running. It is diffiuclt to find a huge amount of SOuthern Politicans who have not crossed the paths of CofCC at some point without knowing that they were not truly a radical orgization.

Pastors that integrate their own congegations are not the type to agree with these folks.

THe fact is that Huckabee and the CofCC has have been foes for years. You might take notice of them because the Nation said something about them and then you shall most likely promptly forget about them. Huckabee has had to deal with some of their most vocal members for years in the political arean and brass knucles politics.

If he did not research them enough a the begining then I can you guess you can hold that against him. However to ignore the extreme animosity between Huckabee and the Cof CC for then well over a decade calls perhaps other people's "intellectual integrity" in question.

If there is one thing if you look on this blog I don't make cahrges of antoi Catholiciosm, racism, hate, etc lightly as to anyone. Be it Democrat, Republican,whatever. I find those serious charges so I feel fine with my position

Anonymous said...

I notified Raw Story readers where I saw the comment of jh of the opinionated catholic blog that jh is WAY OFF to support HuckaBOOB. That the Huckster opposes women's right to life and safe sex, and God's creation of intersexed gays is enough for all Americans to oppose this monumental pious BIGOT. Catholicism itself is the biggest genocider and abuser of children--I know this as an abused PROUDLY EX-Catholic and avid researcher.

Unknown said...

He was LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR when he was PRO- CoCC! He would have given the speech in 1994 had it not been for Lyons attending.

As YOU say, anybody involved in Southern politics KNOWS about them. Are you suggesting that Huckabee was ignorant of them, and their stands, right up to Lyons being put on the same speaking schedule as Huckabee?

James H said...

Nomen, as I have said before the Cof CC takes on different sahdes where it is at.

For instance in Mississippi there are chapters that even black polticans show up at to get votes or their functions.

THe more radical true purpose of the organization has become clearer as the years have gone by. THere isso much open association with things Stormfront and groups like that would have been unthinkable 10 or 12 years ago.

TO say Huckabee was pro CofCC is being a tad slanderous. If you are involved in politics you know people go speak to all sort of groups without them being vetted 100 percent.

I know that Huckabee intergrated his Church , I also know that Huckabee has fought these people tooth and nail as Governor. I know their various group have slandered the Governor.

IF you wish not to view Huckabee's total interaction with this group that is fine. HEy I understand being partisan and going for the jugular in back and forth of politcs. Being obejective and trying to get the truth is not what some are all about especially in this net war.

I guess you don't understand it unless you really have a knowledge of this group and the people connected to it.

However I would bever support a active supporter of the CofCC. Whatever mistakes he made in the past through ignorance he has surely made up for them since in his actions.

Unknown said...

I take your point about politicians doing things accidentally, on occasion. It happens. But Huckabee was to speak at this event TWO YEARS running. That means that he would have known of them for over twelve months prior to his second invite, and acceptance.

But, knowledge of them aside, what do you think Lieutenant-Governor Huckabee said in his 1993 video that was "extremely well received" by the CoCC audience?

That video is out there, and will surface. Don't get too emotionally attached to a candidate. I know you have a lot invested in him (in various forms), but that's no excuse to stick with a bad candidate.

Look what a quick google news turns up about Huckabee:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/018745.html

As Kenny Rogers said, "You got to know when to hold 'em. Know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away. Know when to run."

It's time to run from Mr Huckabee.