Is the Huckaboom Over?

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has certainly had a rough couple of weeks. Heck - you could say a rough year - as short as this year has been. In the weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses, his populist message (much to the consternation of principles first conservatives) seemed to be catching hold. Now that he has come back down to earth (with back to back disappointing 3rd place finishes in New Hampshire and Michigan), the campaign (and his adorers in the press) are wondering what happened. As an Evangelical, pro-life, pro man/woman marriage conservative, maybe I can help. It is really quite simple.....

It is principles! Governor Huckabee said (in an August 2007 forum on Cancer) that if he were President in 2009 and Congress sent him a Federal Smoking Ban that he would gladly sign it. He even took credit for the legislation...

"As a governor, I led our state to become the first state in the South to have a statewide ban on smoking anywhere indoors and I’m proud of that and it wasn’t the easiest thing in the world to get done,” Huckabee said. “It was hard. And I’ll tell you something, Chris, it takes the personal involvement of the chief executive to make that happen,” he said.

Now that it the stance is hurting him with conservatives he is backtracking.

In its statement to The Hill, the campaign stated, “At a Lance Armstrong cancer
forum last August, Governor Huckabee said that if Congress presented him with
legislation banning smoking in public places, he would sign it, because he would
not oppose the overwhelming public support that such a congressional vote would
reflect. However, since such sentiment for federal legislation doesn’t exist at
this time, and since he has said that the responsibility for regulating smoking
initially lies with the states, the governor believes that this issue is best
addressed at the local and state levels.”

Here's a radical thought....WHY DIDN'T HE SAY THAT THE FIRST TIME? Sorry for yelling...hot button and all that...

Gary Gross has a series of posts that I think adequately deal with some of the other issues that conservatives have with Governor Huckabee like his NEA endorsement, his raising taxes, his troubling illegal immigration stand, his anti-business rhetoric, his Baptist background (as a Baptist I found this to be disheartening to say the least)...the list goes on. However, now I want to discuss his latest gaffe - one that already has members of the left up in arms....

"[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards," Huckabee said, referring to the need for a constitutional human life amendment and an amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

Video of the speech is below.




Governor Huckabee and his defenders love to tell you that his stand is the only "conservative" one on the issue of abortion but they are wrong. It may be the "only" pro-life stand, but it is far from conservative. The conservative view on this issue is more of a constructionist/Constitutionalist view. Principled conservatives uphold the tenants of the Constitution, we don't want to change it easily. The principled conservative stand on DOMA and abortion is to let the state decide. That is what the Constitution is all about.

Kevin Ecker put it best when he said this to Governor Huckabee and his apologists (like Chuck Norris).

Yeah Chuck, it’s called federalism, it’s a basic conservative principle, and the basis of our form of government (but you knew that right?). You are arguing issues. Issues come and issues go, even ones as important as abortion and marriage. And issue positions only apply to that particular issue.
Principles last forever and they apply across many issues and can define one’s whole outlook on life, the world and issues. That’s why they are so important. That’s why people are willing to die over them in some cases.

Emphasis mine. As the Junior Logician reminded me (his History class is studying the Constitution this trimester) - federalism is important...the Founding Fathers were willing to DIE for it. He's right - it is something they staked their lives on and a "real" Conservative should be willing to conserve that which so many have laid their lives down for.....a Federalist form of government that has served us oh so well for almost 232 years!