Huckabee reveals his ignorance again.

There is little doubt in the mind of this blogger that the absolute worst Republican, wanting to impose God's law on the rest of us, has to be Mike Huckabee, the fundamentalist moron from Arkansas. So, how uninformed and ignorant is Huckabee?

Consider his recent interview where he theorized as to why Obama allegedly has a very different foreign policy from George Bush. You may not have noticed that very different foreign policy. Don't worry, neither has anyone else.

When individual take up residence at the king's palace, I mean the White House, they frequently rearrange the furniture. Obama moved a bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office to his residence. Huckabee was sure this was a great insult to the British. I suspect no one in England actually noticed, and if they did, I highly doubt that they would think anything of it.

But Hillbilly Huck is a fundamentalist and used to exaggerating things in order to make them appear far worse than reality.

Huck's theory was that Obama doesn't like the British because of his "perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather. He probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather."

What is wrong with that theory?

For starters, Obama didn't grow up in Kenya. He did visit the country, when in his 20s. But he didn't grow up there.

As for the anti-British stories he would have heard from his father and grandfather, well that is so much BS as well.

Obama's father was Kenyan but Obama barely knew the man. His mother divorced him and remarried. Obama lived with his mother and step-father in Indonesia, which isn't even close to Kenya. Then at 10 he moved to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents.

Huckabee, when caught, said he misspoke. The problem is that he said the same thing several times. Huckabee was claiming that Obama has a very different view of the world, than the average American, because he was raised in Kenya. So what would be the correct thing he meant to say?

Later a spokesman for Hillbilly Huck claimed, "The Governor meant to say the President grew up in Indonesia." Wrong! He didn't mean that all, since that doesn't make sense either. Why would growing up in Indonesia subject him to fathers about Kenya from his father and grandfather. The whole context of Huck's statements were related to British colonialism in Kenya. None of it applies to Indonesia. Huckabee is just trying to cover up his own ignorance. Now, that has to be a full time job.

Napolatino Slaps Down the Moronic Huckabee

Notice that Huckabee's arguments have zilch to do with the case he is trying to make. Huckabee is a real fascist, and I mean a fascist. He is big government all around.

Huckabee's logic is circular. Marriage doesn't apply to gay people because gay people can't get married. And, by the way, we have a "dad deficit." Somehow the alleged instability of straight couples is the reason that gay couples should not marry.

Huckabee is absolutely the worst of the worst. Notice that he is arguing for centralized control of marriage, against even a federalist approach to the topic, and for state intrusion into the contractual nature of marriage.

Republicans reject Huckabee big time.

Rev. Huckabee claims that the Republican race is a two-man race and he’s one of the two men. Rev. Huck is used to believing the implausible and impossible -- after all, he is a theologian. But if anything is true about Rev. Huck’s showing, it is that the man has no support outside the Bible Belt. As the average IQ rises in the state the vote percentage for Hillbilly Huck drops.

Even in the South his support is weak. Only Arkansas, his home state, gave him a decisive win. Once he had to campaign outside Jesusland he floundered. In the rest of the wannabe Confederacy Huck couldn’t win by more than a four point spread. In Tennessee he only beat McCain by 2 points, ditto for the Theopublican Republica of Georgia. In Alabama, a state steeped in racist history, he won by just four points. Even in a fundamentalist territory like Missouri he was still defeated by McCain while Romney was only two points behind Huck.

Outside the South Huckabee had little support. In Massachusetts he only squeaked past Ron Paul by 1 point, leaving him 47 points behind the first place winner, Mitt Romney, and 37 points behind second place John McCain. In Illinois he came in third place, 30 points behind McCain. In Connecticut he came in third again, trailing winner McCain by 45 points. New Jersey Republicans ignored Huckabee, leaving him in third place, 47 points behind McCain. Delaware was another third place result and he trailed the winning McCain by 30 points. Similar results in New York for Huckabee with him 40 points behind. Those are not narrow defeats but major rejection notices and Huckabee is oblvious to the facts.

Republican rich Utah gave Huck 2% of the total vote. He was even beat by Ron Paul, who got 3%. Oklahoma is a border state which is somewhat western but infested with a bevy of Southern Baptists. One would expect a Baptist Mullah like Huck to do well there. He came in second losing by 4 points to McCain. In the western Goldwater state of Arizona Rev. Huck fell again to third trailing leader McCain by 39 points. In the North Dakota caucuses Huckabee came in last. In midwestern Minnesota he comes in third again but only trailed front runner Romney by 22 points. Colorado, a western mountain state, slapped Huck down leaving him trailing the winning Romney by 47 points. The giant western state of California knocked Huckabee to third leaving him 30 points behind the front running McCain.

The reality is that the theocratic, big government message of Huckabee has almost no appeal outside Bible-belt states. And, we must remember this lack of support is among Republicans. When you take into account the majority of the voting public Huckabee’s “support” is even more pathetic. The Democrats would love to have Huckabee as the Republican candidate. Even Hillary, who is widely disliked because she is seen as a bitchy, power-hungry and nasty, would be able to beat Huckabee with a landslide.

Huckabee is trying to out-Bush the president. But President Bush is one of the most pathetic failures to occupy the White House in the history of that building. And considering the competition that says a lot. Republicans know that the Bush mixture of the Bible with Big Government has destroyed the GOP. That lethal combination, of the absurd with the deadly, is a major reason that the House of Representatives and the Senate were handed on a golden plate to the Democrats.

In states where Republicans put their loyalty to the country ahead of their theology, Rev. Huck has been a dismal failure. That the man thinks these rusults make him one of the two top contenders is just one indication how much faith in the ridiculous Rev. Huck actually has.

The big loser in the Republican race has been a consistent big loser. That is Ron Paul. Paul tried to weld a non-interventionist foreign policy to a Right-wing, anti-immigrant bashing policy ala Pat Buchanan -- who endorsed Ron Paul. No surprises with the Buchanan endorsement since Paul basically ran a repeat of the Buchanan campaigns of 96 and 2000, not a repeat of his 1988 Libertarian campaign. The reality is that Paul moved substantially to the Right since 1988 and tried to appeal to the Religious Right. Paul may have converted from his mainstream Protestant faith to hard core fundamentalism but the born-againers didn’t care. They are heavily wedded to the authoritarian moral majority view of life and Paul’s antiwar stand doesn’t go over well with people who joyously sing “onward Christian soldiers” with some regularity.

Paul failed miserably in the Religious Right states. All the exit polls showed that he did far better with Republicans who were secular oriented or non-religious. Paul's main support came from people who basically ignored his pandering to the Religious Right and the anti-immigrant hysteria and supported him either because of his antiwar views or on the basis of his former, more libertarian positions. I personally believe Paul would have done better if he campaigned more like the old Ron Paul of 1988 than like Pat Buchanan.

In Tuesday’s election Paul pretty much fell to last place in every state. He even lost in California to Giuliani, who was no longer running. Paul’s decent showings were in Alaska, Montana and North Dakota. He only managed a second place in Montana and that sounds more impressive than it is. That second place showing came with the support of about 400 people in total. Once again the states where Paul did well were caucus states, not primary states. Where large numbers of people can vote Paul falls to the very bottom of the pack. Caucuses measure the level of support among the true believers, not the breadth of support among the public. And the Rondroids are a devoted bunch. So they will sit through caucuses.

If Ron Paul gathered all the Republican delegates together ,who are pledged to support him, he’d still be able to find enough room at the back of a local Denny’s to host them for lunch. Even the failing Huckabee has ten delegates for every one Paul has accumulated.

The real question for Paul’s supporters, but one they will no doubt ignore, is what is going to happen to the millions they showered on their candidate. He spent very frugally in his race -- almost as if he wasn’t intending to give it a serious run. His financial clout could have been put to good use in the early primary states, where a few big showings would have pushed up in the pack. Instead, he spent relatively little while his surplus keep growing -- it was almost as if Paul were campaigning for president in order to raise funds for something else.

Obviously the real race he was planning all along has been his race for the House in Texas. Paul may have had a presidential campaign treasure chest but the only office he seriously considered was the same one he has held for some time. All indications are that this will be Paul’s last term in office. But even if he were to spend generously in that race I suspect he’ll have a hefty amount left over.

Election finance law is a murky field. As best as I understand it, and I could be wrong, he can spend the presidential funds in his House race. And I’ve heard that he was already doing that anyway. But unless he had a big spending splurge in the presidential race, and that doesn’t look likely, or unless he really spends massively in his House race, which probably won’t be necessary, then he’ll end his political career with millions in the bank. There are then two possibilities.

One is that Paul was not telling the truth when he repeatedly stated he was not intending a third party run. He could pour that money into one last hurrah. Whether he would campaign as libertarian or an isolationist, social conservative would be the main question. Certainly the Libertarian Party is so desperate these day they would salivate at the idea -- but given some of the recent candidates they’ve run for office they are clearly scraping the bottom of the barrel. (The blue conspiracist, Stan Jones in Montana leaps out as one example. Kevin Gividen in Indiana is another and Kevin Craig in Missouri yet another.)

The other legal option is that Paul may donate his funds to a registered 501(c)3 foundation. What is interesting here is that Paul actually runs just such an outfit: the Foundation for Rational Economic Education. You may remember the Ron Paul Newsletter scandal where Paul refused to name the author of hate pieces that he published. Well, the person he was covering up for, Lew Rockwell, is still a close ally of Paul’s and also runs another 501(c)3 foundation. If Paul decides to donate his surplus funds to a 501(c)3 I hope people watch carefully where the money goes. I would like to see how much money is left and where Paul puts it. His donors expected it to go into the presidential campaign and I think there is a chance that a good amount of their money will end up elsewhere.

As for the Republican Party itself. It is clear to me that McCain will be the nominee. And I think Romney will be thrilled to get the V.P. nomination. The only good thing I can say about that ticket is that Huckabee wouldn’t be on it. The Republicans would have taken the first step toward ousting the lunatic Christianists from their party. But replacing theocons with neocons is not a major improvement. The party would still have a long way to go before it would be worthy of even luke warm support. And both McCain and Romney tried to placate the Christians as well.

I think the real story here isn’t obvious. It is the fact that Republicans seem to be waking up to the devastating impact that the Religious Right have had on their party. Neither McCain nor Romney, in spite of trying to pander to the fundamentalists, successfully remade themselves as moral majoritarians. The Republicans simply didn’t buy the make over. Yet these two are dominating the race. Huckabee is the last big campaign for the infestation of fundamentalist maggots that have been gnawing at the GOP carcass. There will be enough of them around, for awhile at least, to regularly humiliate more rational Republicans but I think the golden age of the Religious Right is over.

The mind of Hillbilly Huck

I’m no fan of Mitt Romney. I was far more sympathetic to his candidacy before he went whoring after the votes of the Christian Right by abandoning his previous support for individual liberty in regards to social issues. But he decided that the “base” for the Republican Party is a gaggle of socialists of the soul. He had a “revelation” (such things are popular to Mormons) and stabbed freedom in the back for his chance at the White House.

Here is the funny thing. While trying to pander to the fundamentalist fascists Romney is under attack by them. And the main reason for the attack is that he isn’t a fundamentalist.

Rev. Huckabee, the dumbest and most dangerous of the candidates, has been bitch-slapping Romney rather consistently. The Politico column at CBS found this interesting. That column noted that the Hillbilly Huck “continued to attack former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, while offering implicit support for his other rival.”

Rev. Huck, the former televangelist knows a thing or two about hypocrisy. Considering some of the shenanigans from fundamentalist ministers I suspect they have an entire course on hypocrisy in Bible college. Rev. Huck praised John McCain saying “we have a civil approach to presidential process. Neither of us has sought the office by cracking the kneecaps of the other.” He then attacked Romney for lying.

So immediately after saying he has a “civil approach” to seeking the presidency he acts totally contrary to that position. Rev. Huck is blatantly dishonest about his morality. Remember when he commissioned a hit television commercial on Romney and then pulled it. He calls a press conference to praise himself for his own vaunted morality citing the fact that he was refusing to run this hit piece on Romney. And then he immediately shows the commercial to a room full of reporters in order to guarantee that the contents of the commercial are widely disseminated.

This is like someone saying: “I never slap my wife like this,” and then hitting her across the chops in order to illustrate his point. Among Romney’s sins, outlined in the hit commercial, was Huckabee’s whine that Romney didn’t have people executed when he was governor. This is the “who would Jesus execute” theory of religion.

Now why all this animosity toward Romney? I think I know. If you want to understand you have to think like a fundamentalist. If you don’t want to go through the pain of a lobotomy then shut down your critical faculties and go tribal.

In fundamentalist circles there are Christians who believe exactly what you do. These are “real” Christians. Then there are Christians who believe most of what you do but differ on some small points. These people are like second-cousins that you acknowledge exist but with whom you prefer not to associate.

Then there are those believers who differ on issues you think important. That means you define them out of Christianity entirely. You call them apostates, heretics or whatever. You crack their kneecaps every chance you get. And among these “unbelievers” you have a gradation with some being more heretical than others.

Now the typical fundamentalist is convinced that everyone who isn’t involved with some backwater tent revivalist, or who isn’t trapped by black/white literalist thinking, is morally evil. This includes, of course, most people who think of themselves as Christians.

I remember a debate between a fundamentalist mullah and George Smith, author of the book Atheism: The Case Against God. In the audience was a friend of mine who is a Catholic. He, of course wanted to side with the fundie on the question of a deity. So he tried to offer some suggestions regarding how to debate George on the matter

But the fundamentalist was then asked, during the Q&A period, if he considered his Catholic supporter to be a Christian or not. He hemmed and hawed for a bit of time and said: “I’m trying to figure out how to answer that.” The questioner suggested he try doing it honestly. Rather reluctantly the minister confessed that anyone who was a good Catholic was not a Christian and was doomed to hell.

This is the fatal flaw of the Religious Right and one which has not been exploited by the opponents of these theocrats. The fundamentalists who are the core of the Religious Right hate their fellow campaigners and believe that conservative Catholics and Mormons are doomed to eternity in hell. They avoid the issue because their immediate goal is political power. After they get power they confess that they will be quick to strip away religious liberty from heretics and sinners. Merely demanding answers from them, regarding their hatred for other believers, will splinter their coalition.

The Mormons, for instance, are fine as long as they vote for the fundamentalists. And Mormons flocked out of their temples to put George Bush into office. It was a campaign of Mormons for Morons. But the fundamentalists aren’t too keen to return the favor. They don’t want to turn out on behalf of a Mormon no matter how conservative he becomes.

John McCain, however, is Episcopalian. That is suspiciously similar to Catholic to the fundie but sufficiently Protestant to be considered a Christian heresy. But Romney’s Mormonism is completely beyond the pale.

I suspect this is the reason that Huckabee is being sweet to McCain while cracking Romney’s kneecaps every chance he gets. The fundamentalist view is clear. Mormons are satanic -- more so than even Catholics. Huckabee’s position on Romney is not political. It is theological. And it is one indication as to why Huckabee isn’t fit to sit in the White House.

Theocracy on the installment plan.

If there is any question as to how dangerous Hillbilly Huckabee is he has put those questions to rest. He is dangerous -- Constitutionally lethal. Huckabee gave an interview on how he plans to impose his antiquated theology on the country. His goal is to impose theocracy.

He wants Constitutional amendments to bring the Constitution into line with his fundamentalist authoritarianism. In particular he wishes to ban abortion and to nationalize marriage. At the same time Huckabee is demanding that Biblical mandates be imposed on the entire country by force he shows he has little understanding of the Bible itself -- typical fundamentalist.

For instance, Huckabee claims that the Biblical definition of marriage shouldn´t be changed in any way. Really? He claimed: "Marriage has historically, as long as there´s been human history, meant a man and a woman in a relationship for life."

Apparently Rev. Huck hasn´t read his Old Testament for a while since he´s pretending there was no polygamy. Yet the number of polygamous marriages in the Old Testament are legion. So either Rev.Huckabee is ignorant about the Bible or he´s lying.

Rev. Huck says that, at this time, he isn´t pushing to amend the Constitution on other issues. Right now, he wants theocracy on these two issues because they "talked about in the political realm.¨ Apparently if other issues become political fodder later on then Rev. Huck would be open to resolving those issues using his theology.

He says that because some states have civil unions for gay couples then the federal government must nationalize marriage. But if the states obey the Bible then there is no need for federal intervention. In other words, if the states impose Huckabee´s Biblical views then ought to be free to control such matters. If they don´t do this then the Constitution ought to be amended to force all states into compliance with Scripture.

Hillbilly Huck and His Reading Skills

Here is our Hillbilly Huck watch for the day. Rev. Huckabee went pimping for votes in Iowa and pandering himself to the public doing a passable imitation of a modern day Buzz Windrip. He tried to be a bit of everything to everyone which lead to one embarrassing incident, as we shall see shortly.

Old “Buzz” Huckabee had on his dark suit to look presidential but he made sure he was wearing cowboy boots, which don’t really go with suits, to send the message that he’s a fascist of the people, by the people, for the people. Then he told the crowds of panting faithful Theopublicans that he was going to say something “very controversial” followed by “may I say to you, Merry Christmas.” Oh, yes, individuals saying Merry Christmas is so controversial.

Outside the bang up that Fox news and fundamentalists do every year pretending there is a “war on Christmas” there simply is no controversy. Proof of that could have been found if Buzz Huckabee had simply said “Merry Christmas” which would have gotten no publicity whatsoever as no one really cares. Calling it controversial was an attempt to create controversy and to pander to the paranoid delusions of the Theopublican mobs that worship at Huck’s clay feet.

Huck was just getting the god botherers warmed up. He then told them that, at this time of year, his “presidential campaign” doesn’t matter, just the “celebration of the birth of Christ.” Notice that if the campaign doesn’t matter that he was saying this in the middle of the campaign at campaign rally as part of a campaign speech. For something that isn’t as important he’s sure is spending a lot of time and money going at it -- especially at this time of year. We won’t even mention that there is not one smidgen of evidence that Jesus was born in December and plenty of evidence that he wasn’t.

Of course what mattered for Huck was not the birth of Jesus at all but shoring up support among the rabid fundamentalists who are his core support group. His invocation of Christmas was a way of winding up the faithful, to drag out of them a stray “hallelujah” or a robust “hosanna” and an “amen” here or there. If invoking Christmas wasn’t enough he then got down to the hard core.

“What’s wrong with our country, what is wrong with our culture, is that you can’t say the name Jesus Christ without people going completely berserk.” Well, praise the Lord and pass the campaign donation bucket I feel inspired.

Again Buzz Huckabee is being a tad bit dishonest -- he does that a lot especially when it comes to covering up for his dog murdering son and the killer/rapist he released from prison so he could kill and rape again. There is no controversy if someone says Jesus. The controversy is when theocrats like Mr. Huckabee try to merge their religion with the force of law and impose it on others.

It is the politicization of religion and the theologizing of politics that is the problem. The state is a coercive engine that imposes on others. That’s bad enough but when religious views or values are imposed by force of law it is bound to be controversial. Mr. Huckabee spent his entire life shouting about Jesus from the pulpit on a regular basis. No one paid the least attention. No controversy. Merging that theology with the presidency is going to create conflict by its very nature. Then, after intentionally creating that conflict, he pretends that others are picking on him.

And don’t think that the secularists created the conflict. For much of Western history worship of Jesus wasn’t only allowed but mandated. The Christian faith dominated and the controversies were even greater. Christians were slaughtering each other, not because they were mentioning Jesus, but because they couldn’t agree with one another over the finer points of theology. The reason that sane people eventually separate church and state was to prevent the churches from using the state to violate the rights of other churches. Mr. Huckabee wants to merge the two again and that eventually means that other churches, which don’t hold his theology, can be in trouble. We have already seen how the Theopublicans are trying to dismiss Mitt Romney for not believing in Jesus the same way they do. And it isn’t just the Mormons that fundamentalist dismiss as anti-Jesus. They say they same thing about Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Jews, most mainstream Christian denominations, etc.

The conflict starts when they use the Christian dominance to merge religion and politics. Once their view dominates politics then, and only then, do they start culling the flock. At the Air Force Academy fundamentalists took control and they started denigrating people for being practicing Jews or for belonging to Christian sects that were not fundamentalists. They support a “big tent” until they are running the tent then they start cutting out others. When the Huckabees of the world talk about putting God into politics they mean their specific God and their specific God alone.

One of Huck’s pandering moments did backfire on him. A young girl, Aleya Deatsch was introduced to Huck and got to ask him a question. She wanted to know his favorite author. Like the political prostitute who tries to please the customer Buzz thought for a second and decided on the best, most politically expedient answer: “Dr. Seuss.”

Little Aleya was not impressed. When the press asked her about the answer she said that she was surprised by it because she figured he would be reading at a higher level. As for herself, she preferred C.S. Lewis, she said.

Hillbilly Huck and his Theocratic friends.

This blog has argued that Hillbilly Huckabee is the most dangerous candidate running for president. Sure Giuliani has strong authoritarian tendencies but Huckabee is actually far worse. Giuliani isn’t the social authoritarian that he now pretends to be but Huckabee is. Huckabee is George Bush the Sequel: He’s Back, He Bigger and He’s Serious.

Amongst the fundamentalist community in the United States there is a lot of fringe groups. The fundamentalist mind is one attracted to an array of lunatic ideas. Often it is not merely theological delusions from which they suffer. They fall for a plethora of hoaxes, con jobs, urban legends and lies. Nonsense about conspiracies, the “North American Union”, the “Amero”, the “NAFTA Superhighway” and such intellectual bilge is quite popular with these people.

They are often attracted to “secret” knowledge of one form or another. That is they believe they have knowledge about the world that intellectuals, the educated and experts don’t have. They know how the “Illuminati” is running things and anyone who says otherwise is either part of the conspiracy or just stupid. Any straw that can be clutched to prove their delusionary fantasies is grabbed enthusiastically. And if the straws prove far too thin they announce that the lack of proof is itself proof showing how vast and powerful the conspiracy actually is. And the fundie types often link this directly to Old Nick himself. (Devils and spirits are another form of secret knowledge that they love to espouse.)

And among this circus of barbarity and raw superstitition there stands out one group, which to me, is the most dangerous and deadly of the patchwork of crazies that occupy the Bedlam of fundamentalism. That group is the Christian Reconstructionists. These are now just fundamentalist nutters but nutters with a thirst for power over others.

Born amongst the radical Calvinists these individuals hold to a very different theology than the normal fundie inmate. You’ve heard the story about how fundamentalists want the End Times so Jesus will return. A lot of people think that theology is dangerous -- and it can be. But the Reconstructionists hold a slightly different view.

They believe that Christians must take over the world and dominate it and impose a rigid Calvinist morality on everyone, by force of law. This “kingdom” must be created by the point of the gun on earth before Jesus will return. So one branch of fundamentalism does believe that chaos and destruction is necessary for the end of times to come about. But this other branch believes that they must take over the political structures and impose a theocracy on everyone before Jesus will return.

For them the return of Christ relies upon them taking control of the state and imposing theocracy.

Now if you read the Reconstructionists like Rousas Rushdoony, Gary North, Greg Bahnsen, Gary DeMar, and others you will discover the sort of hell they intend to impose in the name of heaven. They insist that Old Testament morality must be imposed. This includes executing sinners like adulterers, fornicators, homosexuals, disobedient children, followers of false gods (non Christians), worshippers of graven images (by which they mean Catholics) and so on. They may disagree among each other as to how many moral crimes deserve capital punishment but the numbers can run from just over a dozen to as many forty.

Some of these fanatics even go so far as to pretend they support libertarianism. Gary North is one of them. But as “Christian libertarian” David Chilton explained: “Laissez-faire, in the Christian sense, means that the state enforces God’s laws, and leaves men free to make choices.” Of course that first part about enforcing God’s law means that if you make the wrong choice they will execute you.

Gary North has tried to pretend this is libertarian by arguing that in a Reconstructionist theocracy it is the general public who executes you through stoning, like the Taliban did, and thus the government technically is still small and limited but the general population is now the excutioner of sinners. Hardly libertarian by any streatch of the imagination.

As Chilton writes: “The Christian goal for the world is the universal development of Biblical theocratic republics, in which EVERY area of life of redeemed and placed uner the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the rule of God’s law. Rushdoony, North’s father-in-law, was the modern founder of this doctrine which became popular in Christian Right-wing circles.

Reconstructionist Mark Rushdoony said: “Parents will be required to bring their incorrigible children before the judge and if convicted have them stoned to death.” He even argued that under theocracy “the divorce problem will be solved ... because any spouse guilty of capital crimes will be swiftly executed, thus freeing the other party to remarry.” This sounds like one of the fanatical Taliban mullahs.

North is quite upfront with his desire to strip non-Christian of liberty and rights. He says that Reconstructionists will use “religious liberty” for themselves until they are able to “get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.” He says this thing of “turning the other cheek” is temporary and should only be used while the Reconstructionists lack power. But “when Christians are given power in civil affairs, the situation is different and another rule is imposed.” North bragged that if secularists “fully understood the long-term threat to their civilization that our ideas pose, [they] would be wise to take steps to crush us.”

That’s just a surface view of the dangers that the Reconstructionists pose. So why is this important? Look at the following fund raiser for Mike Huckabee, the fundamentalist Baptist minister who many think will be the Theopublican nominee for the presidency. You will note that this fund raiser was paid for the Huckabee campaign and and that it was being held in the home of Dr. Steve Hotze, 5513 Russett Dr., Houston, Texas. Huckabee himself was there and Hotze was his host. Who is Steve Hotze? (Note: To enlarge the Huckabee invitation click on it.)

Other than being something of a medical con man, in my opinion, he is a Reconstructionist, and a prominent one at that. There certainly is some criticism of candidates over who donates to their campaigns. Certianly if someone donates to a candidate it is a valid question to ask what it is about the candidate that attracts certain kind of donors. Huckabee has gone much further than merely accept donations from some odious individuals. His campaign is paying to hold fund raisers in the homes of these people. That is more than an odious individual endorsing Huckabee that is Huckabee offering his own endorsement in return. If you want to hear Mr. Hotze preaching his Reconstructionist theories click here.

The Coalition on Revivial is one such outfit of Reconstructionists and Hotze is a supporter and signatory on their manifesto. They make it clear that they believe Biblical views apply to all “spheres of law, government, economics, business, education, arts and communition, medicine, psychology, and science.” Hotze is closely allied with Reconstructionist Gary DeMar and is on the board of DeMar’s “Worldview” magazine.

Another one of the sponsors of the Huckabee fundraiser, who is listed on the Huckabee invitation by name, is Rev. Rich Scarborough. Here is a film clip on Scarborough and his goals of imposing theocratic doctrines through politics.



What we are seeing is that the most fanatical, irrational, theocratically minded of the Far Right are flocking to Rev. Huckabee. And Hillybilly Huck is embracing them because he’s one of them. He is not merely an advocate of Big Government like King George has been. He is wants to go much further.

What is it about the Huckabees and dogs?

In the infamous Huckabee Christmas Card we witnessed more than just a god-awful sense of fashion, but the Mrs. seemed to be strangling the family dog in order to make it endure this assault upon good taste. Now we discover that the strangling dogs may run in the family.

The rather large Huckabee standing beyond the Reverend, his wife, and the unhappy pooch is David Huckabee. Please note that in fundamentalist circles the sin of gluttony gets almost no mention -- they are too concerned about gay couples getting married.

David was previously employed at Camp Pioneer, a camp for boy scouts, in Hatfield, Arkansas. But David was fired. The Boy Scouts of America said it was over an “unfortunate incident” where he, and others, acted in ways “not consistent with the Boy Scout mission.”

Apparently a dog strayed onto the camp ground and Mr. Huckabee and his friends formed a lynch mob. They grabbed the poor animal and hung it to death. Many people would be appalled by that. I consider it a sign of progress -- at least they stopped lynching black folk. However, I guess the new Religious Right doesn’t have need to harangue blacks -- after all they have gays and Mexicans providing them with all the fodder they need.

Lynching a dog is illegal and one group wrote the state police asking for a prosecution over the killing. But the state police refused. And the director at the time, John Bailey, said that Huckabee’s staff leaned on him big time to avoid prosecuting the governor’s son. Bailey’s reluctance on the matter lead to his dismissal from the job. According to Bailey then Governor Huckabee called him into his office and fired him saying: “I couldn’t get you to help me with my son when I had that problem.”

And the former FBI chief in Little Rock says that Huckabee “was making a conscious attempt to keep the state police from investigating his son.”

Huckabee and his loyalists say that Bailey was fired because he alienated the police. But Huckabee’s lawyer and chief of staff do admit that they called Bailey and discussed the incident.

Of course Huckabee’s personal intervention to spare his son charges for lynching a dog is nothing compared to another Huckabee intervention. In that case, which we hope to discuss later, Mr. Huckabee personally intervened to win a parole for a convicted rapist. The rapists was a popular cause among fundamentalists at the time who entertained the notion he was innocent. Huckabee went personally to the Parole Board and had an illegal meeting with them where no records were kept. Several board members said that Huckabee personally demanded that rapist be released and the board, which previously had denied parole, granted it on Huckabee’s demand. The rapist was released and in short order raped again and murdered his victim.

I guess if that didn’t bother Mr. Huckabee the lynching of some stray dog by his own son is of little concern.

Hoedown Huckabee: The style and the class.

Oh vey! Here was the Christmas card sent out by Mike "I love big government" Huckabee when he was the governor in Arkansas. Apparently Mr. Huckabee's fashion sense is as finely tuned as his understanding of personal liberty. I'm almost tempted to vote for the man just for the pure entertainment value of having him and his in the White House.

What is horrifyingly funny is that Huckabee thought this was presenting his family at their best -- after all this was the Christmas card he sent out as governor. You have the wife who appears to be chocking the family dog while the governor is holding the dog's paw. I guess the dog had the sense to want to flee this photo and had to be physically restrained. Would be the Huckabees were as smart as the dog. Even by Arkansas standards this has to be pretty bad.

But what family dresses the same? This looks like the uniforms at some cut rate Arkansas department store. And those stripes! Really, if you have more girth than mirth you don't go with stripes. And if the stripes aren't bad enough how about the elbow patches!

I don't think we've had this much fun since Jimmy Carter. The old peanut farmer brought us his loony brother with his "Billy Beer". Of course we had his mother, Miss Lillian who is famed for saying: "Sometimes when I look at my four children, I say to myself, Lillian, you should have stayed a virgin." And who can forget the wacky sister faith-healing evangelist, Ruth Carter Stapleton, who suggested that she could turn gays straight by getting them to imagine playing baseball with Jesus.

Huckabee would be amusing. But he's about as close to fascism as one can get in American politics these days. He's pro-war, anti-civil liberties, and thinks the federal government is best at planning the economy. Add into this wacky fundamentalist outlook and his prejudicial attitudes and you have a man who actually (and I never thought I'd say this) has the potential of being far worse than Bush. And by all indications he may actually be more brain dead as well.

Hillbilly huckster Huckabee wants to finish the job.

Voters beware. The real dark horse in the Republican nomination is one of the worst Republicans running -- not quite the worst, that honor belongs to Tom Tancredo -- is Mike Huckabee. And Huckabee is about as far as you can get from the classical liberal values of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.

He loves the idea of government being able to legally execute people for crimes. Now, I’m no fan of criminals, especially serious criminals. But I’m a realist when it comes to government -- Huckabee isn’t. Government’s screw up constantly. In fact that they manage to get anything right is probably more pure luck than anything else. But Huckabee has faith, lots of faith, in the power of of the omnipotent, omnipresent State. And he sees no issue about government executing innocent people by accident. I guess it’s collateral damage.

Killing innocent people doesn’t worry Huckabee and he’s very pro-war. He loves the U.S. involvement in Iraq and wants to stay the course. Actually staying the course, at this point may not be much worse, the ship of State has already hit the iceberg and is taking on water and listing heavily to Left because of the pathetic ship’s captain of late.

Huckabee is fan of energetic, meddling, all-intrusive government. He is anti-civil liberties, pro-war (which is ultimately anti-civil liberties and anti-economic freedom), and a theocrat to boot. He’s George Bush on steroids. And the fundamentalists, who have brought such disaster to the Republican Party, are starting to woo Huckabee. These morons aren’t finished destroying the Republican Party and exorcising the ghosts of Reagan and Goldwater. They are looking to inflict this hillbilly huckster on the party to finish the job.