Huckabee New Book- Settling Scores?

I was a pretty big Huckabee fan toward the end and still am to a great degree. If I support him in 2012 is an open question. If Jindal runs it will be hard for me turn my back on him.

However I am really looking forward to reading his new book DO THE RIGHT THING. Mike will actually be in my area on the 25th and I intend to go ask him a few questions.

Time Magazine had a small review here. Also Race42008 had a small post on it here.

A few thoughts on who he is going after.

Yeah he does not Like Romney no surprise there.

He goes after the religious leaders that failed to support him. From Time Magazine:
Many conservative Christian leaders — who never backed Huckabee, despite their holding similar stances on social issues — are spared neither the rod nor the lash. Huckabee writes of Gary Bauer, the conservative Christian leader and former presidential candidate, as having an "ever-changing reason to deny me his support."

Of one private meeting with Bauer, Huckabee says, "It was like playing Whac-a-Mole at the arcade — whatever issue I addressed, another one surfaced as a 'problem' that made my candidacy unacceptable." He also accuses Bauer of putting national security before bedrock social issues like the sanctity of life and traditional marriage.

Huckabee describes other elders of the social-conservative movement, many of whom meet in private as part of an organization called the Arlington Group, as "more enamored with the process, the political strategies, and the party hierarchy than with the simple principles that had originally motivated the Founders." Later, Huckabee writes, "I lamented that so many people of faith had moved from being prophetic voices — like Naaman, confronting King David in his sin and saying, 'Thou art the man!' — to being voices of patronage, and saying to those in power, 'You da' man!' "

Huckabee might have some valid complaints here. However I am curious if Mike sees his own fault in this.

A very big politico wrote on where Huckabee went wrong as to this at Mike Huckabee big mistake.

I think this is required reading to give background to some tactical mistakes Huckabee made and how it sunk him in South Carolina. His handling of the Pentecostal/ Baptist Divide was not done well. Also if this person is correct Huckabee for some strange reason did not court many of this leaders early on. Add to that hurt feeling over what appears to be intra Southern Baptist Politics and a lack of money and we have a disaster.

Mike because he not courted religious leaders and Social Conservatives early on suddenly had to prime the Pump in South Carolina. His message , that was getting out, was very mush on the Social Conservative issues and very little on that economic populism and other things that got him noticed. He really had no choice he was out of money.

The part I am really interested in is the Club for Growth. If you are a backer of Jindal or Palin I suggest reading this chapter to prepare yourself. From Time again-

In a chapter titled "Faux-Cons: Worse than Liberalism," Huckabee identifies what he calls the "real threat" to the Republican Party: "libertarianism masked as conservatism." He is not so much concerned with the libertarian candidate Ron Paul's Republican supporters as he is with a strain of mainstream fiscal-conservative thought that demands ideological purity, seeing any tax increase as apostasy and leaving little room for government-driven solutions to people's problems. "I don't take issue with what they believe, but the smugness with which they believe it," writes Huckabee, who raised some taxes as governor and cut deals with his state's Democratic legislature. "Faux-Cons aren't interested in spirited or thoughtful debate, because such an endeavor requires accountability for the logical conclusion of their argument." Among his targets is the Club for Growth, a group that tarred Huckabee as insufficiently conservative in the primaries and ran television ads with funding from one of Huckabee's longtime Arkansas political foes, Jackson T. Stephens Jr.

This was the real problem. Bryon York in an observation that I wished got more national interest by reporters noted this.

Mr York examined this in The Other Attack on Huckabee. I think this worth reposting in full:
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.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.
12/14 03:20 PM

Damn right it was worth Knowing. But the Conservative press ( that might have been on the game) nor the mainstream press seemed to be curious at all in the most unfair sustained attack on a Republican Primary hopeful I have ever seen. A year of this killed Huck and thus before you knew it "Huckabee is a Christian Socialist" was all over the place.

Again if you plan on supporting Gov Palin or Gov Jindal in 2012 I would strongly suggest reading that chapter. There were early indications that the Club for Growth were not big fans of Palin and already starting a tad on Jindal. Why is this the case and who is the pulling the strings I do not know. But it is "worth knowing"

I am very convinced that the criticism of Palin we are seeing are coming from this crowd. Their problems with her have little to do over issues of social conservative concern but more Huckabee related matters that prompted them to start a unprecedented slash and burn campaign. I am convinced if it had been leaked that McCain was considering Palin weeks before that the Club for Growth and their allies would have attacked and tried to stop that choice.

Anyway when he comes to Shreveport I intend to ask a lot about that saga.