What Will Huckabee and Huckabee Supporters Do In Pennsylvania Senate Race?

Liberal Republican Arlen Specter (R) is up for re election which is always a bloodfest among Republicans.

I note this on the Corner

Three-Way Primary in Pennsylvania [David Freddoso]
Peg Luksik, the pro-life activist who jumped into the primary against Arlen Specter (R) before Pat Toomey (R) did, tells Pa2010.com that she isn't going anywhere.
“I understand Mr. Toomey and Mr. Specter have a long, contentious history,” she said. “I understand their desire to hit each other—I have five boys. But we need to look past that desire.”
04/23 02:42 PMShare


I am not big fan of Pat Toomey and have urged Huckabee supporters to recall how he did one of the most misleading and sustained attacks on Huckabee in the primaries. Whenever I hear Club for Growth which Toomey headed I get a sick feeling in my stomach. I get a sense not all things are what they seem.

A trip down memory lane. One of the few conservative reporters that thought this was all strange and worth looking at was Bryon York. I think it is worth posting it 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

Yes it would have been WORTH KNOWING. Sadly the main stream media was too busy with the Obama/Clinton war across the street to take notice.

Have no doubt these often misleading attacks were very damaging. I don't think Huckabee has forgotten either. In his recent book as recounted by Time:

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.

Huckabee is of course still popular with many people and now has a big ole SHOW on Fox News. This could get interesting.

What if he gets behind and works behind the scenes as to this Republican pro-lifer that is mentioned above. That might just be enough to save Spectre. Maybe it is time for a little Justice as to Toomey and the Club for Growth.

As to Spectre he is far more liberal than I am. However he has never gotten under my skin as he does other conservatives. Again one gets a sense that something more is going on here.

I note that in 2004 after the election after there came out of know where some organized attempt to remove him as Chairman of the Judiciary committee. Again what was behind that. Spectre has always been there when it counted on very conservative nominees to the Supreme Court. Who can forget his defense of Clarence Thomas. After 2004 he was up there doing battling Kennedy and Biden as to Roberts and Alitio. All this despite him being pro-choice. I have always got a sense that conservative anger toward Spectre is pushed for agendas we might notknow.

I mean why is Spectre so attacked yet people like Snowe of Maine are not? At least with the same relentless force.

I don't think Toomey has a chance in hell of winning the general election. The fact this is likely Spectre ,because of his age , his last term . One wonders what we gain by defeating him. Do we really need to lose another Republican that are critical on procedural matters. If Toomey is a lost cause (which I think he is) then why start up this Republican Civil war when for all practical purposes all sides can have a good chance their get their person in just 6 years later.

So I am not supporting Toomey and I will not be his rah rah section on the conservative side. I have already seen signs that the Club for Growth has its fangs out for Jindal and possibly Palin. No need to get their mailing list more packed.

My recommendation is for pro-life Catholics , Huckabee supporters,and others that have moral problems with Spectre's pro-choice views to vote for this Peg Luksik woman.