Social Conservatives are Mad as £$%^&*

Social Conservatives are “Mad as Hell”
By Paul Edwards
Tuesday, December 25, 2007

(This article sums up the Y-in-the-road-division between Republicans who choose to conserve money or people)

Since about the time the Moral Majority coalesced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Republican establishment has welcomed social conservatives to help get their candidates elected so long as they let their concern for moral issues take a back seat to fiscal policies. The leaders of the pro-family movement have always been more than willing to comply with the demands of the Wall Street insiders just to keep their place at the table. If the unity of this social-fiscal conservative coalition ever fractured, social conservatives bore the brunt of the blame.

And so it goes in the present race for the Republican presidential nomination. The Republican establishment has once again told social conservatives to suck it up and accept Giuliani as the de facto nominee in spite of their reservations about his record on abortion and the homosexual agenda to redefine marriage. Why? Because Rudy has the fiscal credentials. And, right on cue, a number of leaders of the pro-family movement complied, vis-à-vis Pat Robertson.

But just as their leaders were turning left, the rank and file of family values voters turned right, falling in behind Mike Huckabee, much to the chagrin of fiscal conservatives.

Cue Romney—the fiscal conservatives’ alternative to Giuliani. The idea seemed to be to convince the social conservatives that Romney was one of them, only much more refined than that “country bumpkin” Huckabee. The plan went something like this: have Romney deliver a major speech about his faith under the guise of being persecuted because of his faith (even though 80 percent of potential Republican primary voters polled said Romney’s faith was not an issue for them), and then if anyone questioned his faith, accuse them of being a bigot.

Further, have Romney stretch the truth about seeing his father “marching with Martin Luther King,” as an appeal to the African-American values voter, and then when the record indicates George Romney never marched with MLK, explain it all away by saying the candidate was speaking “figuratively.” This strategy was supposed to lure the drifting rank and file back into lock-step.

There was just one problem with this plan. Social conservatives looked at Romney’s record on social issues and discovered he was “effectively pro-choice” throughout his political career just as he told Tim Russert on a recent edition of Meet the Press. Romney, it turns out, looks like a Giuliani in sheep’s clothing.

“But wait! Romney is a changed man,” you say. We’re all for death-bed repentance, but social conservatives rightly question whether a man who has exerted all of his political energies his entire political life for socially liberal causes can be trusted to appoint justices who will be strict constructionists.

Thus, the Huckasurge. Having been told for 30 years to sit quietly, ”take one for the team,” and let the fiscal issues take precedent, social conservatives are mad as hell and aren’t taking it anymore. There is a grassroots revolt taking place among the rank and file of social conservatives that has found its voice in Mike Huckabee, leaving the leadership of the pro-family movement wondering where their influence has gone.

Huckabee is not the fiscal conservative the Republican establishment would like. Horror of horrors, he has actually advocated using tax dollars to help the poor. Huckabee, it seems, actually applied what the Gospels say about our responsibility to the poor and suffering to tax policy in Arkansas. On issues like HIV/AIDS, the plight of the inner city poor, and education, Huckabee’s positions are admittedly more center left than center right. And while he believes in securing the border, Huckabee reminds us that there is lady standing in New York Harbor with a torch raised high beckoning ”your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” to come here, to the land of the free. Can we fault them when they actually do?

The Republican establishment has looked down its nose at social conservatives far too long, tolerating us because they need our votes. But now the tables are turned. The grass roots are looking up at the establishment with the will of a Lech Walesa, demanding that fiscal issues take a back seat to moral issues for a change. It’s long past time for the moral and social issues of our times to be given more than just lip service. It’s now time for our fiscal policies to be informed by our social policies rather than sacrificing our morality to our economic standing in the world.

Don’t expect the Republican establishment to take this lying down. The New Media tanks are already rolling in to suppress the revolt.

Paul Edwards is the host of The Paul Edward Program and a pastor. His program is heard daily on WLQV in Detroit and on godandculture.com

Mike Huckabee - Christmas

Mike Huckabee on The Today Show - 12/19/2007

CNN Interview with Mike Huckabee

Port and Cigar Club Scared.

December 19, 2007

Limbaugh, Hannity Irk Base on Huckabee, Highlight Top-Down Clash

By Dean Powers


The corporate secularist policy makers for the Republican Party are in the midst of an all-out "Anybody but Huckabee" war chant.

The New York Times, in their "Caucus" blog, points click here to leading conservatives Richard Lowry and Stephen Hayes, both attacking Huckabee in the National Review, as examples of this clash.

Well, what's the problem? Mike Huckabee is actually an authentic Evangelical Christian, who may even have a conscience.

As governor of Arkansas, his second act to signing a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in 2004 was a campaign to promote stronger and more binding marriages. These "convenant marriages" are augmented by a contract that makes it harder for heterosexual couples to divorce.

The lack of enthusiasm for covenant marriages, in even the reddest of red states, is one sign that Huckabee (unlike Mitt Romney) adopts his political views as an authentic expression of his faith rather than to exploit the Christian base.

Only Arkansas, Arizona and Louisiana offer couples the option to upgrade their marriage. Legislation was introduced but not passed in, get this: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.

What? How could Republican leaders so obsessed with Jesus fail to pass legislation that would strengthen the family? Because it does not effectively mobilize and exploit the Evangelical base.

In fact the only reason that Republicans like Larry Craig, Mark Foley, and Ted Haggard oppose gay marriage is because it makes them look more religious than a year's worth of perfect attendance at the local church. They can have sex men because they oppose same-sex marriage.

Huckabee is different, and the Republicans who represent the values of Larry Craig, Mark Foley and Ted Haggard simply can't stand the fact that there is finally an authentic Christian in the presidential running.

Rush Limbaugh, who likes to use "bending over and grabbing its ankles" in tandem with a invocation of the Congress of the United States of America (on a national broadcast that reaches children), attacked Huckabee today hiding behind the commentary of William Gheen to do the hit job. Gheen is the vitriolic president of Americans for Legal Immigration..

Limbaugh quoted Gheen and by extension warned his listeners that with regard to Huckabee, "A major deception is underway here."

"This is one of the attacks on Huckabee, one of the many one of the complaints is that he is disingenuous, and sort of Clintonesque. Will say whatever he has to say to whatever audience he is speaking to."

Of course Limbaugh could say he is simply reporting what is already out there for public consumption, but attacking Huckabee fits a pattern. Just the day before, Limbaugh fielded a caller who liked Huckabee--many do.

Limbaugh, working as a Republican Company spokesman, tried to subtly dissuade the man by pointing out that Huckabee wrote Bush has a "bunker like mentality" on foreign policy.

He then compared Huckabee and his "cult-like" following to the 1996 presidential campaign of Ross Perot. This time, Limbaugh hopes his listeners will heed his warnings: things are not always what they seem.

Rush and his allies are wrong. Huckabee is the man for the Republican Party ticket, and as Iowa draws near, more and more people are realizing this.

That so many Republican Company spokespeople are so out of touch with their base is a compelling reminder that the Republican Party is in a full-out tail spin going into 2008. These people are getting sloppy and its beginning to show.

Also on Monday, Sean Hannity pulled a "phony soldiers" hit job on one of his callers who was trying to support Mike Huckabee's opinion of President Bush's foreign policy. The caller was clearly a Republican who supported Huckabee's opinion, but all Hannity heard was "If you're pro-life from the womb, why aren't you pro-life in foreign policy."

His caller rebuffed that she simply opposed a bull-headed foreign policy that creates more enemies than it eliminates. Right then and there, Hannity cut her out of the Republican fold by panning to the audience and saying something like, "This is how a liberal thinks."

The message was clear: all Republicans must bow at the altar of Sean Hannity.

I know this is confusing. Some of you are thinking, "How could these Republicans claim that their party embodies the Christian mantle and turn their back on Huckabee? After all, they supported President Bush."

They could support Bush whole-heartedly, because he, through his father, had secularist corporate connections up the tail pipe. All Bush had to do was plug in some key Christian phrases and the populace would elect him and give him free reign to give Halliburton our tax dollars by the billion; to let oil companies evade taxes and get tax breaks while we're paying for it at the pump.

Meanwhile, Evangelicals got left behind. They were used and exploited for their beliefs and all they got was a bumper sticker. In fact, Christians should make a conscious decision to avoid any candidate upon whom the Republican Company spokespeople pin their endorsement.

Evangelicals around the nation must take notice. We are finally seeing a clash between secularist-corporate-interest Republicans who exploit the Evangelical Christian vote and actual Evangelicals who see in Mike Huckabee an authentic spokesperson for their beliefs.

Will Evangelicals allow themselves to be fooled again by the Republican Company media and instead endorse a secularist corporate Republican like Mitt Romney who decided he opposed gay marriage at about the same time he set his eyes on the White House?

Or will they abandon the wolves that are trying to shepherd their flock and vote for Mike Huckabee?

Paula Opinion - Time to Fess-Up

I think it would be wise for big money Republicans to fess-up and admit that the word 'Liberal' now means something very different than once thought.

I have scrutinized Huckabee's so called "Liberalisms" and the only thing conclusive is that Huckabee doesn't think like the rest of the snooty, upscale politicians. Instead, his "Liberal" crime is that he thinks like a man with hope.

Huckabee is not a member of the Big-Business-Boy's-club and doesn't feel the need to support/design laws that keep him and his well-to-do friends in the Luxury-Zone. His compassion for the everyday man has caused an uproar among the now common, old-money, self-indulgent Republicans, and we can now see - in full view - these power hungry men punching, kicking and scratching up anything - even a lie- to shut Huckabee down. I believe a Huckabee win is so scary for all the uni-brow, port swigging and cigar smoking gents who are known to pay themselves $5million bonus' and in the same breathe lay off 300 workers.  So their plan.... attack, attack and then re-attack on the same issues - even if the evidence is weak hoping that the majority of voters will not check out the real story.  Isn't power and money mixed with fear an incredible motivator?

As Dean Powers wrote today...

"We are finally seeing a clash between secularist-corporate-interest Republicans who exploit the Evangelical Christian vote and actual Evangelicals who see in Mike Huckabee an authentic spokesperson for their beliefs."

Yes, we Christians are looking for a candidate with a responsible heart and vision to take our country forward for ALL people, not just the wealthy. I personally prefer to call Huckabee "The Generous Republican."

Oh and by the way...Many people can see right through Romney's repetitive accusations. Not only are they all just a can of unsubstantiated and opinionated rubbish, but they continue to highlight just how whiny, boring and desperate Romney's campaign must be. There. That was my sling for the day!

Democrats Vote to Undermine Security

News Release: Mike Huckabee Charges Speaker Pelosi with Sending “Lump of Coal to Troops in Iraq”

December 18, 2007

LITTLE ROCK, AR – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her Democrat leadership failed to support American troops fighting the Global War on Terrorism yesterday by passing a $515 billion omnibus spending bill that included funding for all Cabinet agencies, except the Department of Defense, and specifically did not include funding for the Iraq war. The bill, passed in a hurry so Congress can go home for Christmas, allows spending to support our troops in Afghanistan, but not in Iraq.

“Last night, Speaker Pelosi and her fellow Democrats passed a spending bill that concealed a lump of coal for our troops serving overseas in Iraq,” former Arkansas Governor and Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said. “Democrats are signaling that they are unhappy with the fact that our surge in Iraq is working. Violence is down. Order is being restored. And terrorists are learning they are not welcomed by the people of Iraq.”

The Senate is expected to add funding for the troops in Iraq in debate today. “But why is the House leadership playing politics with funding for the war?” asked Huckabee.

Additionally, the spending bill, written by Democrats and passed 253-154 with mostly Democrat votes, undermines the 2006 Secure Fence Act. That act specifically required a two-tier barrier, like the one that has worked in California; the new version downgrades the provision to require only a single-tier barrier. The Pelosi spending bill also eliminated the list of locations where the fence would be built.

“This serious reduction in security along our southern border was buried in a massive, 3,500-page bill. Nancy Pelosi hoped it would go unnoticed by the American people. Republican are serious about making our borders secure,” Huckabee said. “This effort to sneak one by the people is just another move in a continuing pattern Democrats have established to prevent resolving our illegal immigration crisis.”

What really matters.

Ask the People From His Past - The Arkansas Residents.

Huckabee's sudden rise mirrors his past success
Mike Madden
Republic Washington Bureau
Dec. 18, 2007 12:00 AM

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Until a few weeks ago, Mike Huckabee was an unknown commodity to most of the country.

Not in Arkansas, though. As governor for more than 10 years, Huckabee kept a high profile in the state, whether he was pushing for highway improvements or exhorting his fellow citizens to lose weight.

In many ways, the Republican's lingering image here reflects how he is coming off nationally as he tries to maintain leads in the GOP presidential races in Iowa and South Carolina: He is well-liked by social conservatives and detested by fiscal ones, yet appreciated by both sides for his wit and charisma.

As lieutenant governor, he moved up to governor in July 1996 when Democratic Gov. Jim Guy Tucker resigned after a fraud conviction. Huckabee then won two terms of his own.

He left the statehouse in January and started what looked like a long-shot presidential campaign. Now, propelled by support from evangelical Christians in Iowa, Huckabee leads polls there and is second to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in most national surveys.

For those here who know Huckabee, his sudden rise in the GOP presidential campaign mirrors his career in Arkansas politics, where he blended social conservatism with economic populism and used his quick wit and roots as a Southern Baptist preacher to win over voters.

In the complicated logic of a wide-open GOP primary contest, Huckabee could help Arizona Sen. John McCain's attempt to revive his own presidential campaign.

If Huckabee beats former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in Iowa, McCain's aides believe, it would slow Romney's momentum enough to help McCain win the next primary in New Hampshire.

"Anything but a comfortable victory for Mitt Romney in Iowa throws big question marks," said Dave Roederer, McCain's campaign chairman in Iowa.

After months leading the polls in Iowa, Romney now is calling himself the underdog, trailing Huckabee even though he has poured millions of dollars into building an organization in Iowa.

Huckabee's views resonate in his home state, as well.

"The fact is that he placed himself squarely where most Arkansans are," said Janine Parry, a political-science professor at the University of Arkansas who runs the school's Arkansas Poll.

Parry noted that 55 percent of Arkansas voters last year said they still liked Huckabee, 10 years after he took office.

"(That's) pretty respectable, especially for anyone who's served more than six to eight years in public life," Parry said. "It's ample time for everyone to be disappointed in you at least once."

On the campaign trail, Huckabee, 52, talks frequently and proudly about his accomplishments here:

How he pushed for badly needed improvements to the state's highway and road infrastructure; how he expanded ArKids First, the state's health-insurance program for children in poor and working-class families; how he championed school reforms that consolidated several rural districts, although he disagreed with the Democratic Legislature about the final shape of that plan.

He occasionally was more liberal than his current campaign positions. On immigration, he pushed to allow in-state tuition for some illegal-immigrant kids who graduated from Arkansas high schools, although he lost that fight. He recruited the Mexican government to open a consulate in the state, and he opposed a Republican bill in the Legislature that would have denied health care for undocumented immigrants.

Still, throughout his tenure, Huckabee was a Republican governor in a Democratic state, with a constitution that limited the power he could wield on his own. That left him with a narrow margin in which to operate.

"He was a pragmatic conservative, not an ideologue, and I saw that as his strong point," said Rex Nelson, a former Arkansas political journalist and Huckabee's spokesman for most of his gubernatorial term. "He didn't just run for office; he was able to govern once he got into office."

Some of Huckabee's pragmatic politicking infuriated the Republican base in Arkansas, especially his support for various tax increases that helped fund some of the improvements he advocated.

Huckabee campaigned aggressively to raise taxes on diesel fuel and gasoline to pay for road projects, a sales-tax increase to improve state parks and a tax on nursing homes to cover Medicaid shortfalls. Although his campaign touts the 90 taxes he cut overall, the state's tax revenues increased during his tenure by almost $500 million.

"He thinks about government as running a business, and he needs more revenue to run his programs, and he doesn't think twice about increasing those taxes," said Patrick Briney, head of the Arkansas Republican Assembly, a conservative group that has been loudly critical of Huckabee's tax record.

The Club for Growth, a national anti-tax organization, also has blasted his policy, buying hundreds of thousands of dollars of anti-Huckabee advertising in New Hampshire and other key primary states.

In debates and in stump speeches, Huckabee's jokes and one-liners have helped him attract attention on the presidential trail. He also employed wit during his days as governor.

Critics say, though, that he frequently took disagreements personally and that he could flash a temper that so far hasn't appeared much in his national campaign.

He once ordered his press office to take the Arkansas Times, a Little Rock alternative weekly paper, off the list for press releases. He called conservative Republicans who differed with him about financial issues "Shiites," implying they were radicals.

"If you did not agree with him on a policy issue, he took it personally," said Randy Minton of Ward, Ark., a former GOP lawmaker who was one of Huckabee's critics. Minton campaigned for Huckabee during elections in the 1990s but split with him about taxes.

Huckabee mostly shrugs off such attacks, saying the taxes were necessary to pay for popular programs. His allies point out that Minton and other critics are so conservative that they are marginalized in Arkansas politics, something on which analysts agree.

"This is the scrutiny that I've been going through since I first put my name on the ballot in 1992. And for me, it's sort of like, 'Gosh, do they not have anything new?' " Huckabee said last week while campaigning in Iowa.

Among Arkansans, the affable nature Huckabee displays on the campaign trail mostly helped keep him popular.

"He's like a common guy," said Ron Platzer, 65, a salesman from Hot Springs, Ark.



Reach the reporter at mike .madden@arizonarepublic.com.

How did this Happen?

(National Review Online)
This column was written by Michael J. Petrilli.

Mike Huckabee made news - and history - Tuesday when the New Hampshire affiliate of the National Education Association endorsed him for president in the upcoming primary - the first time it ever recommended a GOP candidate. (It picked Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side - no surprise there.) His support from teachers stems partly from his policy views (opposition to vouchers and support for art and music education, which he calls “weapons of mass instruction”) and partly from his outreach efforts (this summer he addressed the NEA convention - the first Republican presidential candidate ever to do so - plus he met personally with the New Hampshire union).

But that doesn’t fully explain Huckabee’s appeal to teachers. After all, he also supports policies that they oppose, such as teacher testing and abolishing tenure. While he’s expressed reservations with No Child Left Behind, he hasn’t proposed scrapping it, as the unions would prefer. And while “reaching out” to strange bedfellows can make headlines, it rarely yields endorsements.

The Huckabee-teacher connection reveals something about politics that is likely to transcend New Hampshire: Teachers, like Huckabee, tend to be culturally conservative and economically populist. And they like these views packaged in an optimistic, positive message. To the degree that people like to support candidates whom they can relate to, Huckabee is a natural fit for the teacher vote.

First, consider teachers’ values. The conventional wisdom says that most teachers are die-hard liberals, trying to foist a secular worldview on their hapless students. But research doesn’t show that. Consider their views on homosexuality. According to an article by scholar Robert Slater which appeared in a recent issue of Education Next, teachers aren’t terribly tolerant. Only thirty percent of teachers believe that homosexual relations “is not wrong at all,” compared to over 40 percent of the general college-educated population. Furthermore, greater numbers of teachers attend church regularly than other Americans: 37 percent go at least once a week, compared to 26 percent of the general population. Many teachers are cultural conservatives - just like Huckabee.

At the same time, teachers earn a modest income compared to other college graduates. (This is where the conventional wisdom is right.) Their average income of about $49,000 is roughly $10,000 more than the national average for all workers but about $10,000 less than nurses and accountants earn and less than half the pay of lawyers. Huckabee’s class warfare, anti-big business language resonates with many teachers. His focus on kitchen-table issues, his personal history of coming from meager means, and his “I feel your pain” rhetoric is thus tailor-made for this group.

Finally, teachers are positive - about their work, and about life. According to April’s job satisfaction survey published by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center, educators express a high degree of job satisfaction and happiness. Only clergy, physical therapists, firefighters, and artists express more satisfaction on the job. And remarkably, special education teachers are happier than everyone but clergy, firefighters, travel agents, and architects. (Elementary teachers and education administrators aren’t far behind.) Thus, the stereotype of a smiling, caring kindergarten teacher seems closer to the mark than a caricature of an angry NEA delegate at the Democratic National Convention. And there’s a good chance that happy, satisfied people will respond well to a positive, upbeat message - Huckabee’s stock in trade. His line at the CNN/YouTube debate (defending his support for in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants) that “we are a better country than to punish children for what their parents did” no doubt resonated with these legions of smiling teachers.

It also has not hurt that, as governor of Arkansas, he increased spending on education (something most teachers love). Huckabee is a self-styled “paradoxical conservative” - fiscally liberal, economically populist, and culturally conservative. He will say that he is both pro-life and pro-poor. Outside of the Christian Right, this may not sell well with rank-and-file GOP activists. But it does strike a chord with teachers, many of whom are also “paradoxical conservatives.”

Will any of this matter in 2008? Perhaps not; most teachers are registered Democrats, so their support may not do Huckabee a lot of good in the primaries. But if he makes it through to the general election, it’s conceivable that he could steal a lot of their votes from the Democratic candidate. And that could make a big difference to the outcome; there are three million teachers, after all. In a close election, a major swing to the GOP could be a deciding factor. Teachers like Mike - and if Huckabee is to make a truly serious run at the White House, he will need them more than ever.

By Michael J. Petrilli
Reprinted with permission from National Review Online.

Hucks History

Huckabee: Another Overachiever From Hope
By NANCY BENAC – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Huckabee's first day as Arkansas governor is remembered most for the Four Hour Crisis.
Five minutes before Huckabee was to be sworn in, the disgraced outgoing governor, Jim Guy Tucker, tried to wriggle out of his promise to resign.
For the next few hours, the state flirted with a constitutional crisis as Lt. Gov. Huckabee and Tucker, the governor who had been convicted of two felonies in the Whitewater investigation, jockeyed for control, and the people of Arkansas watched in horror.
Huckabee, a Republican, stood tough; he went on statewide television and threatened to call a special legislative session to have the Democratic governor impeached. Behind the scenes, he worked with Democratic legislators to coax Tucker to quit. An anxious afternoon ended when Tucker scribbled a note of resignation, salve for what Huckabee had described as an "open, oozing sore."
Democrats and Republicans alike praised Huckabee for handling the 1996 standoff with grace and grit. And thus did he begin an improbable path that has taken him from accidental governor to Flavor of the Month on the presidential campaign trail.
Huckabee, a fireman's son from tiny Hope, Ark., is hoping to follow the footsteps of his hometown's most famous overachiever, former President Clinton.
Smart, funny and articulate, he is the happy candidate whose campaign has vaulted out of obscurity after being largely ignored for the first year of this drawn-out presidential contest. His rise in the polls has been accompanied by new scrutiny of both his policies and personality, and by predictions that he will fade under the klieg lights.
The rap from his critics: He's too flip, too weak on foreign policy. Quick to turn on someone he thinks has crossed him. Some think there's still too much of the preacher in the politician, and get queasy about a candidate who raised his hand when GOP debaters were asked who didn't believe in evolution.
But Huckabee, 52, has made a habit of confounding skeptics.
When Huckabee, a Southern Baptist, felt the call in high school to pursue the ministry, his older sister, Pat Harris, remembers that local folks sadly shook their heads and said, "Gosh, what a loss. He could've really been something."
Two decades later, when he decided to give up his hugely popular ministry for a life in politics — as a Republican in Democratic Arkansas, no less — the reaction was the same.
"Talk about some upset folks," says Harris, "when you resign your church and tell them you're going into politics, that just didn't sit well at all." And, she adds, "nobody whines any better than a bunch of church people."
As governor, Huckabee surpassed expectations again on an altogether different matter when he put himself on a diet and managed to drop 110 pounds.
Now, the self-described one-time "sofa spud" is a 6-foot, 180-pound marathon runner, and he sees parallels in politics.
"Running marathons trained me for more than running 26.2 miles," he told The AP last week as a new poll put him atop the Republican field in Iowa. "It also gave me a real good understanding that just because somebody runs out in the early miles and does real well does not necessarily mean they're going to finish."
"I would watch as many people half my age would run by me with a smirk at mile 6 because they were so fast and just whizzing past. About mile 18, they were on the ground and holding their cramped muscles and screaming and not finishing. I tried not to smirk — but I did go by and think about them as I passed."
___
Huckabee is 9 years younger than Bill Clinton. So by the time he followed the future president's tiny footsteps into Miss Mary's kindergarten in Hope, Clinton had long since moved on to Hot Springs, Ark.
However, both men have drawn heavily on their early years in their campaigns. Huckabee styles himself as something of a political hybrid, a conservative populist.
He often tells people that his family was only "a few pocketsful of change" away from poverty. His stump speech reminds voters that he is the first male in his bloodline to finish high school, let alone college. His mother, he says, was a generation away from dirt floors and outdoor toilets.
But the kids didn't feel poor. Mike and sister Pat had plenty of battered-and-fried Southern cooking to eat, got their share of toys at Christmas and had their birthday parties right on schedule.
The Huckabees weren't really a churchgoing family, but sometime in grade school their mother, Mae, started taking Mike and Pat to services. Their father, Dorsey, "was the kind of daddy that got us off to church and stayed home," Harris remembers — that is, until Mike began doing some of the preaching.
Huckabee stood out early. At 14, he was an announcer for a local radio station; at 15, he felt a spiritual "awakening;" by 16, he was preaching Sunday sermons; at 17, he was president of the student council and governor of Arkansas Boys State, a civic program for outstanding students; by 18, he was an ordained minister.
As a high school senior, even his sideburns were outsized — stretching all the way to his jawline. This was the '70s, after all.
But Huckabee was no radical.
Tomye Power, who taught Western civilization to college-bound seniors at Hope High, even now remembers Huckabee as having "a generally conservative view of what the government should and shouldn't do," even if he didn't necessarily yet label himself a Republican.
He was already a showman, too, playing the lead in "Flowers for Algernon" his senior year, playing guitar in a rock band on the weekends.
___
Huckabee married Janet McCain, his high school girlfriend, at 18, and finished Ouachita Baptist University in two and a half years, rushing through to hold down tuition costs. In 1977, he dropped out of a Baptist seminary to work for Texas televangelist James Robison, helping to coordinate his Billy Graham-style crusades and television program. One of the first things Robinson did was buy the young man some better suits.
In 1980, 25-year-old Huckabee helped with logistics for a rollicking appearance in Dallas by Ronald Reagan before more than 15,000 cheering evangelicals, and came away with a powerful impression of the evangelical movement's potential.
"I don't think he ever forgot that," said Robinson. "He's told me that that impacted him as much as anything in his life."
Huckabee soon had adoring parishioners of his own. After filling in as a guest preacher in Pine Bluff, Ark., Huckabee was recruited to stay on.
"We all fell in love with Mike," says 83-year-old Martha Bobo. "Our church was in dire need of some good preaching." Bobo and her husband used their feed truck to help move the Huckabees to Pine Bluff. There, and later in Texarkana, Huckabee drew on both his preaching and media skills to revitalize the church and establish a community TV station.
It made the young guitar-playing preacher something of a local celebrity.
Even people who'd never set foot in the church, Harris recalls, would call Huckabee when they were in trouble; they'd seen him on TV.
Huckabee says his time as a minister is what sets him apart from other presidential candidates, giving him "cradle to grave" perspective on the struggles of ordinary Americans. He had dreamed about going into politics as a boy, and now, after 20 years in the ministry, he was feeling the tug again.
In 1992, at age 37, with three kids and a mortgage, he left the ministry to run for the Senate against Democratic incumbent Dale Bumpers.
"I don't think there were many people who understood," says Harris. In their view, she said, "Politics tend be nasty, ugly and dirty; you couldn't be a born-again Christian and want to wallow in that."
Huckabee's answer: "Everybody wants to eat off a clean plate, but nobody wants to do the dishes."
___
Huckabee lost that race badly, receiving 40 percent of the vote. But an unusual domino effect nonetheless put him on the political fast track to become governor within four years:
_Tucker, the lieutenant governor, moved up to complete Clinton's gubernatorial term when Clinton became president.
_Huckabee won a special election to complete Tucker's term, and later was re-elected lieutenant governor.
_Huckabee moved up when Tucker resigned the governorship after his conviction in the Whitewater investigation.
Huckabee was only the third Republican governor in Arkansas since Reconstruction, and Democratic legislators didn't make it easy for him. Nor, they complain, did he make it easy for them.
Despite partisan tensions, Huckabee was elected to two full terms and compiled a solid record of achievements: expanding health insurance coverage for poor children, implementing education reforms, reducing welfare rolls. He served as chairman of the National Governors Association and led the Education Commission of the States.
All this while still displaying a refreshing sense of humor and claiming the distinction of being the only sitting governor with his own rock band, Capital Offense, which he describes as "a bunch of middle-aged people playing classic rock 'n' roll and living the dream of musicians." He showed his down-to-earth credentials by living in a mobile home — albeit a triplewide — on the lawn while the governor's mansion was under renovation.
And he did himself no end of good — physically and politically — with his dramatic weight loss, which he recounted in an exclamation point-filled 2005 book titled, "Stop Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork." It's got the classic before-and-after photos on the cover, and plenty of brutally honest fat stories inside.
Including the time an antique chair collapsed beneath Huckabee's weight during a Cabinet meeting, "like a scene from a Three Stooges film."
Huckabee's good at working without a net, with easy ad libs and campaign oratory that does the preacher in him proud.
"People take themselves too seriously," he says.
But sometimes his freewheeling style gets him in trouble. He's joked about being on a concentration camp diet, called Arkansas a "banana republic," dismissed "wacko environmentalists." When hit with a string of ethics complaints, he shrugged off questions about some of the presents he'd accepted by promising not to accept nuclear devices as gifts.
Democratic Arkansas legislators, meanwhile, complain that Huckabee expected them to bring about his "accomplishments" but was loath to share credit, quick to nurse grudges, and didn't hesitate to back out of deals that didn't suit him. Even some Republicans would talk about who'd been "thrown under the bus" lately.
"He can sure make lots of folks believe in him — until they really get to know him," said former state Rep. Dennis Young, a Republican-turned-Democrat who says he gave Huckabee his first campaign contribution but later tangled with him over how to revamp the state's vehicle tax system.
The sentiment is echoed by Democratic state Sen. Percy Malone, who says Huckabee is "very charming, very engaging, very good, but don't cross him. ... If somebody disagrees with him, he'll attack them."
Republican state Sen. Gilbert Baker counters that Huckabee did remarkably well in a difficult political environment. "You can't look at the accomplishments without saying Huckabee was very engaged," he said.
Baker allows that the governor was not one to wade deep into details with opposition Democrats, but he adds: "You govern the way that your personality dictates and your unique circumstances require. I could see where they would say he was detached because he wasn't down there all the time."
Huckabee himself acknowledges he can be wary. He once told an interviewer, "It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you."
Which is exactly what his Republican opponents are intent on right now.

A Whole New Race - Switch to Huckabee (ad)

The Strong Can Help the Weak!

Mike Huckabee 2008 Ad- With Chuck Norris

Mike Surges for 12 Point Lead in Iowa!

According to a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll, Mike Huckabee has surged to a 12 percentage point lead over Mitt Romney among Republicans in Iowa!! Read more....

http://www.kansascity.com/445/story/396249.html

Huckabee Stands Strong on Religious Questions.

Huckabee Stands Strong on Religious Questions
When asked recently on MSNBC's "Hardball", why he and other GOP candidates keep expounding their views on religion, his answer was simple: Because journalists keep asking about them. (Read More Below)



Huckabee Won’t Be Baited on Religion
FROM NEWSMAX
Dec 9, 07

When Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee was asked why he and other GOP candidates keep expounding their views on religion, his answer was simple: Because journalists keep asking about them.

During a Huckabee appearance on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” host Chris Matthews asked the ordained Baptist minister: “Why are you Republican candidates submitting to religious vetting about your belief in the literal nature of the Bible? Why put up with those … questions?”

Huckabee responded: “Well, Chris, when guys like you quit asking it, we’ll quit answering it. But the fact is, we get asked these questions in the debates, and if we evade them, if we act like we’re not going to answer them, then we’re going to get hammered for being unwilling to address the questions that are put to us.”

Matthews pressed on: “But these are religious test questions. They’re not about public policy.”

Referring to the most recent GOP debate, Huckabee shot back: “I would love for us to be asked questions about education and healthcare and energy independence. Unfortunately, those were the questions that nobody did ask us…

“I didn’t get to pick the questions. If I did, I promise I’d have picked some different questions for me and for the other candidates as well.”

Huckabee also told Matthews there should be no “religious test” for public office or even a requirement that a person has to be religious at all.

“I’d rather have a person serving in Congress who’s an avowed atheist, who’s honest about it,” he said, “than a person who tries to pretend he’s a Christian when he doesn’t live like it and he’s filled with hate and venom and anger toward people.”

A Different Breed of Candidate

Gingrich Says Huckabee Can Win the Nomination

Thursday, December 6, 2007 10:51 AM
Can Huckabee Win the Nomination? Gingrich says....
By: Newsmax Staff Article Font Size


Mike Huckabee may be soaring in the polls, but is it for real, and can he win the Republican presidential nomination?  “Absolutely,” Newt Gingrich told Alan Colmes.


Interviewed last night on Fox News’ “Hannity and Colmes,” Gingrich said Huckabee “is doing an amazing job. The more people watch him, the more they believe in him. ‘He’s very comfortable with himself’ is the phrase I hear most often.”

“People tend to underestimate him. This is a man who got over 40 percent of the African-American vote in Arkansas, getting re-elected as Governor. He has a very attractive personality. He’s a small-state person running in Iowa where I think the style of small-state Arkansas goes over pretty well in small-town Iowa.”

Gingrich notes a unique characteristic of those participating in the Iowa caucuses.

“There’s a kind of pride among Iowans that they can’t be bought. They kind of like watching this underdog come from behind. Whether he can carry it out 29 days from now…we’ll have to wait and see.”

No stranger to personal attacks himself, Gingrich indicates that the road ahead for Huckabee could be bumpy.

“He has go to go through what everybody else goes through. People are going top attack him, people are going to question him, he clearly has less knowledge about foreign policy, but his experience in health-care where he is diabetic and he lost 100 pounds and began exercising is personally a great story. He did great things in health care in Arkansas, his story in education reform.”

On another matter, Sean Hannity questioned Gingrich regarding scathing comments he made about Bill Clinton recently on C-Span. Hannity quoted Gingrich as saying “He is fundamentally dishonest on a routine, regular basis; it’s just his personality. He tells you the version that he needs to, to get through the week and he just did it in Iowa over whether he used to be against the war.”

“Explain,” implored Hannity.

“What is there to explain?” Gingrich responded. “How could any serious person look at his routine pattern of changing the facts to fit the current conversation and not recognize that this is a person of limited connection to factual accuracy?”

Hannity asked if Hillary has the same characteristics. Gingrich said no, she is very different from Bill Clinton.

About the Iowa caucuses, Gingrich noted that people voting for a candidate who doesn’t get at least 15 percent of the vote have a chance to vote a second time. In that scenario, he says he thinks John Edwards could come in first, Barack Obama second and Hillary Clinton third. He says that would be “a stunning evening.”

What do the Republicans need to do to beat Hillary, assuming she’s the nominee? What do they need to focus on?” asked Hannity.

“Three things,” said the former Speaker of the House. “Be for very real change, represent clearly the values of the American people…and force Senator Clinton or the Democratic nominee, whoever it is, to choose between the values of the left and the values of the vast majority of Americans … If they do that in a positive, issue-oriented way, I think that they have a very real chance of turning 2008 into a historic referendum.”



© 2007 Newsmax. All rights reserved.

Paula's Opinion - Believe Whatever You Want - I Still Don't Have to Vote for You.

IMPORTANT FOR ALL BELIEVERS.

"You can Believe Anything You Want,

But That Doesn't Mean I Have To Vote for You!"

It's Not Discrimination. It's Discernment.
I'm not at all concerned about Romney becoming President based solely on his religion. I believe, just like the Puritans that Religious Freedom is essential. But please remember, that doesn't mean as a voter, I can't discern and choose the candidate I believe would be best, not just for our country, but also for the Kingdom. I thankfully have that right.

I believe the problem is much bigger then who will fill the role as President. Right now, with all these discussions surrounding religion, a new seed has already been planted. This seed is growing, but it's main purpose is to distort the true nature and character of Jesus Christ.

Inside the past few speeches, Romney has labels himself a Bible believing Christian (and by the way, Mormons don't read the Bible, they read the book of Mormon). It's the word "Christian" that's being challenged. That's it. Nothing More Than That Point Right There.

What could very possibly happen is that if believers don't take a stand on the true Jesus Christ, He will be misrepresented and this will lead to future generations not being able to recognize Him. This is what I fear most!

While in college a friend and I went skiing in Salt Lake City. I took a day off and went to the Mormon Visitors Center. I have never-ever been greeted - by any church - like I was that day. Everyone was so friendly and very family oriented. The multi-media show was nothing that I'd seen before. I was fascinated.

One year later I met a fellow in his early 30's who was trying to rebuild his life. He had been brought up as a Mormon, but one day, while still in his young 20's, he met a man who lovingly challenged him on his faith. All this man did was ask some really hard questions. The questions lead the young man to doubt the evidence of the Mormon church.

This is the sad part. Because he could not longer believe in Mormonism (remember we are all given the freedom to choose our religion), this man's family cast him out. Since then, I have met more people who were removed from their families because they didn't believe in the Mormon faith.

Does this sound like Christ to you? We followers of Christ can hold beautifully onto the Promise of God. For our Jesus will ALWAYS Love Us!

I'm going to list some points here for you to think about. Don't just take my word for it. Research these and find out who the real Jesus is.

With Love for you all,
PLJ

1) As we know, Christ's life is never a secret - He's a shining light. Are there ANY secrets or special places in the Mormon church that can't be accessed by you or me?

2) When people die, what happens to them? Where do they go? What's waiting for them in Heaven?

3) What year did Mormonism start?

4) Who started it? And what did this person receive from God?

5) Who conceived Elohim? and Who is Elohim?

6) Who do the Mormons really believe the American Indians are?

7) As a Mormon, Who are the 3 people you will stand in front of at the final judgement?

8) Who do the Mormon's thank God for more than Jesus Christ?

Are these Christian Answers? Are we still able to call Mormon's Christians?

Whatever You Choose, I'm So Ever Thankful

That My Wonderful God Still Allows Me to Love You

- No Matter What You Believe!!

Quick Facts on the Humble Huckabee

Dec 6 (Reuters) - Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has made a quick rise in the opinion polls in the early voting state of Iowa, in part due to growing support among the state's sizable bloc of religious conservatives. Following are some facts about Huckabee.

* He became governor of Arkansas in July 1996 when his predecessor resigned. In 1998, he won a full four-year term and was re-elected in 2002. He left office earlier this year. Huckabee was elected lieutenant governor in 1993 during a special election, and re-elected in 1994.

* Before entering politics he was a Baptist minister, leading congregations in Pine Bluff and Texarkana, Arkansas.

* Diagnosed in 2003 with Type II diabetes, he began an intensive health regimen that helped him lose 110 pounds (50 kg). He later completed four marathons and wrote a book on how to live a healthier life, "Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork."


* Known for his quick wit and sense of humor, he recently said of his campaign: "It's better to be called a dark horse than a dead horse," and, "There's three tickets out of Iowa -- first class, business class and coach. We hope to have one of those because otherwise you go home freight."

* Huckabee plays in a rock band called "Capitol Offense," and has opened for country singer Willie Nelson.

* He's married and has three grown children. The 52-year-old Republican was born in Hope, Arkansas, also the birthplace of former President Bill Clinton. (Writing by Jeremy Pelofsky and Paul Grant, editing by Jackie Frank)

Paula's Opinion - Huck Won't Give Views on Mitt's Faith- But Why Should He Have to?

A Team Player Standing Firm Against Unfair Journalism (Previously Huckabee wont give views on Mitt's faith)

I'm starting to go a bit loopy. The overwhelming number of irrelevant, manipulated and negative commentaries on Mike Huckabee's character could get the average churchgoer wondering about their own salvation; If Mike Huckabee is this bad of a guy, then how in the world can any of us make it to Heaven? To the faint-hearted, these literary battles turn the "Sticks and Stone" rhyme on it's head. The words might not break bones, but they can break and wear-down a heart.

Examinations.
Four years ago I too was scrutinise by the media when a few people, here in the UK stood firmly on a 'new,' century-old-idea: Teenage Purity and Abstinence. The new exhilarating media attention soon grew exasperatingly old. Once in a while my phone still rings for an opinion, but I now am wiser, knowing that when courting the media, you will be examined and studied by man's imperfect standards and agendas.

Journalistic Standards Are all Different?
The many moral codes, standards and agendas of these kinetically charged journalists differ. We're all aware that some want fame, others money and power. But one thing in common, they all love the hunt. Many bash their way to create an interesting angle, others wait patiently for that perfect trip-up moment when the newsworthy is sent sky-high in adoration, only to come crashing back down, victoriously break into a million little fatality stories. Watching a good death sells - and here we thought feeding people to lions was a thing in the past.

The Shallow Siege
The siege is now pointed to Huckabee's character for withholding his view on Mormonism and also whether women should take pastoral leadership rolls in the church. I hope the public is smart enough to realise that these questions are only asked of one candidate. Ummm. Why not the other? Wait a minute here. Is this another candidate's supporter posing as a writer or does this writer have an agenda to create a personal train wreck? Sadly, journalists have layered so many lies on top of their true aspiring purpose(s) that they have convinced themselves that it's all in the name of truth. If one wants to know and report truth, (or secrets), they need to dig down further than what their shallow and inconsistent agendas allow?

Choose with No Regrets
Unfair Journalism is old news but today, I believe we have a different kind of problem. The biggest problem with today's journalist is that so many are uneducated and unprepared to 1) Ask meaningful questions on pertinent issues, 2) Objectively look at a person's past actions or deeds (the best indicator) before writing their stories. If we voters continue to be side-tracked and caught up in the insignificant news article, then we could be walking down a regretful road come election time. Could that be what the media wants?

Huckabee is Unfairly Asked About Evolution. His Answer is Timeless!

Paula Opinion - Encourage. In the Spirit....

I encourage every supporter to follow the leader of this campaign - Mike Huckabee.

In the spirit of this honourable campaign, let's all cease in bashing the other candidates and continue to build on the foundation to which we know is worthy and true.

Let's continue to work our way forward!

Gentle Tones Speak Loudly.

Quiet tone speaks to many Iowans
GOP's Huckabee uses humor, faith in echo of Bush style

By Rick Pearson and Tim Jones Tribune staff reporters
December 3, 2007
VINTON, Iowa


Mike Huckabee's pitch to be the next president is a curious mix of stand-up comic and down-home preacher.

"Chances are, if you picked 100 issues and found out where I was on 100 of them, you may not agree with me on all of them," Huckabee congenially told his audience at a small community college. "There'd be a few on which you would be wrong."

The lines and laughter flowed freely on this cold and windy night in the northeastern community of 5,100, as more than 150 people came out to see the former Arkansas governor deliver his version of compassionate conservatism.

As the room quickly warmed to Huckabee, so, too, have Iowa Republicans. With one month to go before the state's leadoff presidential caucuses, a new Des Moines Register poll of likely GOP caucus attendees shows he has surged ahead of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who has been the longtime, big-spending front-runner in Iowa.

Quiet tone, quick wit

What people are finding is a strong echo of the speeches and style of George W. Bush's 2000 GOP caucus campaign as Huckabee uses a smile instead of a hammer to portray himself as a non-confrontational conservative.

Most notably, Huckabee adopts a softer line on immigration, saying the children of undocumented immigrants shouldn't be punished for the crimes of their parents.

A Baptist minister, Huckabee says his faith defines him. A TV ad shows him walking down a farm road as the words "CHRISTIAN LEADER" flash on the screen in a large-type appeal to religious conservatives who are a major factor in Iowa's GOP caucuses.

Yet Huckabee also uses a quick wit to defuse issues that may be at odds with his religion-inspired conservatism.

At the recent CNN-YouTube debate, Huckabee said he would accept support from the gay Log Cabin Republicans because "I need the support of anybody and everybody I can get." But, he said, he would not alter his position on gay marriage.

Huckabee is unwavering in his faith-based opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage and contrasts the conservative consistency of his message with Romney's, saying he "didn't just come to those views in time to run for president."

But Huckabee goes beyond such litmus-test conservative points to delve into traditionally liberal concerns such as the environment, education and poverty, which he notes are "not something Republicans often talk about" -- even though he knows there is a growing interest in the environment and poverty among conservatives who drive the Republican nominating process.

Once no more than a "who's he?" long shot, Huckabee is now being taken seriously by his opponents after vaulting ahead of far better-known candidates like Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain and Fred Thompson in some early-voting states.

With success comes scrutiny, though. Critics contend Huckabee's jovial campaign style contrasts sharply with a thin skin for criticism during his days as governor. His opponents say his conservative social ideology belies a decade-plus of liberal-style tax-and-spending as Arkansas' chief executive.

Huckabee's responses have only clouded his fiscal record. While he frequently touts cutting taxes 94 times as governor, the non-partisan political watchdog FactCheck.org notes that 21 tax increases occurred during his tenure, with revenues outstripping taxes he cut.

Fiscal conservatives who chafed as President Bush escalated spending have put a bull's-eye on Huckabee.

The conservative Club for Growth dubbed him the "John Edwards of the Republican Party." Huckabee labeled the group "The Club for Greed" and says people with a vendetta against him are funding its attacks.

Huckabee also has called Republicans, long the political party of business, a "wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street and the corporations." In a populist-themed attack, he said it was "not acceptable" to have an economy in which CEOs earn 500 times that of their workers, and he has backed a higher minimum wage.

More than just selling a new form of compassionate conservatism, Huckabee represents a complicated conservatism in which poverty and global warming are "spiritual" matters, not political ones.

As governor, Huckabee supported college tuition breaks for children of undocumented immigrants who attended Arkansas schools. He has said there is an element of prejudice in the immigration debate, fueled by anger against immigrants.

But Romney has used immigration to go on the attack, including a mail piece that accused Huckabee and others of supporting "amnesty." Romney also has attacked Huckabee's fiscal record and recently called his rival a "lifelong politician."

In an appearance Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Huckabee laughed off Romney's criticism and offered a slamming comparison of his rival's business background against his own pastoral background of counseling families.

Huckabee said he has been "involved in the human work of touching people's lives from the cradle to the grave, understanding social pathology to a level that nobody running in a sterile business environment has ever faced."

Former White House adviser Dan Bartlett, a longtime Bush confidant, has called Huckabee the "best candidate" in the GOP field and the one who seems closest to selling the Bush brand of conservatism. But Bartlett still questioned whether anyone would take seriously a candidate with the name Huckabee who hails from Hope, Ark.

Personable style

Stylistically, Huckabee benefits from a relaxed give-and-take more common among governors who are more used to face-to-face dealings with constituents.

Noting Iowa's early caucus date, he told the audience in Vinton that on the Jan. 3 caucus night the "Orange Bowl is going to be dull and boring." He also jokingly told those not supporting him that "your caucus has been moved to Feb. 3."

His personable style has allowed him to use camp to promote his campaign. To gain endorsements from the political establishment, Huckabee is milking the backing of action star Chuck Norris, who has a following of evangelical conservatives, with fundraising solicitations and a TV ad.

"Chuck Norris doesn't endorse," Huckabee says in the ad, sitting next to Norris. "He tells America how it's gonna be."

But beyond the everyman shtick, Huckabee also knows how to play an experienced audience.

At a fundraiser for Iowa Republicans, Huckabee spoke just before the event's keynoter -- and presidential rival -- Fred Thompson took the stage.

When Huckabee concluded a strong speech on the need to fight terrorism, he received a standing ovation from the 600 people in attendance. When Thompson, the former Tennessee senator, finished his speech, the only people standing were looking for the exits.

Though Huckabee has moved to expand his support beyond Christian conservatives, he also knows he must try to solidify his base in a fluid contest that finds many Republicans dissatisfied with the field and holding lingering questions about Romney's Mormon background.

In the early-voting state of South Carolina, where he won the Palmetto Family Council's straw poll in September, Huckabee has been "very aggressive" in pursuit of Christian conservatives, said Oran Smith, the council's president.

"Every other person he sees here is a Southern Baptist pastor," Smith said, noting that the state is heavily influenced by results in other early states.

On the stump, Huckabee readily references the Bible to discuss his humble upbringing and borrows from the Bush campaign refrain of promoting the Golden Rule. And at the Values Voter debate in Florida in September, where he won the event's straw poll, Huckabee warned the religious-minded crowd of his rivals' pedigrees.

"Many of them will come to you," Huckabee said. "I come from you."

----------

rap30@aol.com

tmjones@tribune.com

more articles in /services/newspaper/printedition/monday

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

A Different Kind of Jesus Juice LA Times

Paula: Even though this LA Times article slashes Huckabee a bit, it still has appeal. It's interesting to watch people in this election - especially the journalists. Many want to know 'why' he's so nice, funny, calm and compassionate. They struggle to label the Mighty Force behind his campaign.

Huckabee: 'a different kind of Jesus juice'

The Republican's idiosyncratic agenda in Arkansas -- a health plan, taxes for parks -- was always driven by faith, he says.
By Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 2, 2007
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. -- In 2005, a Republican state senator named Jim Holt introduced a bill to deny public benefits to Arkansas' soaring population of illegal immigrants. Holt, a Southern Baptist minister, figured it was a rock-solid conservative idea -- a matter, he said, "of right and wrong."

Arkansas' governor at the time was also a professed conservative, and also a Southern Baptist minister. But Mike Huckabee had only scorn for his fellow Republican's proposal.

Huckabee called the bill "race-baiting" and "demagoguery," and argued that the denial of health services could harm innocent children. The bill, Huckabee said, did not conform with his take on Christian values.

"I drink a different kind of Jesus juice," Huckabee said.

Today, Huckabee is seeking the Republican nomination for president, and voters nationwide are getting to know a different kind of candidate: He is the Southern preacher who favors droll wit over brimstone sermonizing, a rock 'n' roll bass player who believes in creationism, with an Oprah-ready story about a 110-pound weight loss that probably saved his life.

Here in Arkansas, where Huckabee ruled as governor for 10 1/2 years, voters grew accustomed to a different brand of Republican -- a governor with an idiosyncratic agenda that was sometimes difficult to categorize, but always driven, Huckabee insists, by his Southern Baptist faith. That faith influenced major policy decisions that could be deemed moderate, if not liberal, including a significant environmental initiative and a vastly expanded healthcare plan for low-income children.

Though Huckabee took strong stands against abortion and same-sex marriage, his record on taxes -- a key pillar of Republican orthodoxy -- was distinctly heterodox. He supported tax hikes on cigarettes, gasoline, groceries, sales and income. A video circulating on YouTube -- and played, in part, on the CNN-YouTube Republican debate Wednesday -- shows Huckabee addressing the Arkansas Legislature in 2003 and suggesting that he would be open to raising a broad range of taxes.

Initiatives like the children's health plan tapped a deep vein of populism, helping Huckabee win two gubernatorial elections. But his record on taxes and immigration alienated some Arkansas Republicans, who are watching with trepidation as Huckabee's prospects soar in the GOP primary race for president.

The most recent Des Moines Register poll, published today, showed Huckabee overtaking former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. (Huckabee's 29%-to-24% lead in the Register's poll is within the margin of error, but it's a huge advance from his tie for sixth place in the same poll in the spring.) Other surveys showed him gaining ground against former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in Florida.

Holt, the former state senator, has a warning for conservatives around the country who think they have found their candidate.

"I think if they knew [his record] it would totally de-energize them," he said. " . . . His policies are just wrong."

In a phone interview, Huckabee, 52, asserted that he left Arkansas a stronger state when term limits forced him out of office in January -- with improved highways, more accountable schools, low unemployment, and an $800-million budget surplus. He also stood by his conservative credentials.

"I'd put mine against anybody's on that Republican stage," he said.

His achievements were won in the face of an often-vigorous Democratic opposition that controlled the Legislature throughout his governorship. At times it seemed he was "getting it from both sides," said Ann Clemmer, a Republican and Huckabee supporter who teaches political science at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. "I think he did a lot just on his own -- really on his own counsel. And in that regard I think you have to say he was a leader."

Huckabee hails from President Clinton's hometown of Hope, and his political career has played out in Clinton's shadow. In 1993, voters narrowly elected Huckabee to replace Democratic Lt. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, who succeeded to the governorship when Clinton was elected president. Huckabee became governor three years later, when Tucker resigned after being found guilty of two felonies as part of the Whitewater investigation involving the business dealings of Bill and Hillary Clinton and others.

To observers like Rex Nelson, a former political editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Huckabee represented a welcome change.

"I think everybody wanted some calm, some stability," said Nelson, who signed on as Huckabee's press secretary in 1996 and served for nine years.

Arkansans eventually turned their attention away from Whitewater and the Clintons, and toward the teetotaling preacher who had once led Baptist congregations in Pine Bluff and Texarkana. Then, as now, Huckabee put his religious convictions front and center. Early on, he developed a mode of governing that seemed to be both expedient and from the heart.

Political consultant Dick Morris, who also worked for Bill Clinton, advised Huckabee in his first race for lieutenant governor. He told Huckabee that to succeed in Arkansas, he should avoid acting like a "country club" Republican who only represented the rich.

Morris also recalled saying to Huckabee: "I assume you're against parole for violent criminals, because you're a conservative." Huckabee told Morris that he would hold open the possibility of parole because he believed, in some cases, in the power of forgiveness, Morris said.

Huckabee's Money Managing Strategy.

NewYorkTimes.com

December 2, 2007
Huckabee’s Stature Rises, Mobilizing Tax Critics

By LESLIE WAYNE
As Mike Huckabee rises in the Republican presidential polls, fiscal conservatives have been raising alarms about a series of tax increases he oversaw while governor of Arkansas — new taxes on gasoline, nursing home beds and even pet groomers.

The Club for Growth, a politically influential antitax group, has dubbed Mr. Huckabee Tax Hike Mike and poured money into anti-Huckabee advertisements that were broadcast in early nominating states, with more on the way. Mr. Huckabee “spends money like a drunken sailor,” according to the group’s news releases, and it has sprinkled YouTube and the airways with videos that mock him and his policies.

But the record offers a more complex and nuanced picture. While taxes did rise in the 10 years that Mr. Huckabee was governor, the portrayal of him as a wild-eyed spendthrift is hardly apt. For the most part, Mr. Huckabee’s tax initiatives had wide bipartisan support, with the small number of Republicans in the overwhelmingly Democratic state legislature voting for the tax increases and many maintaining that the state was better for them.

In addition, when Mr. Huckabee left office last January, he had turned a $200 million budget shortfall into an $844 million surplus. Still, as the attacks on his fiscal policies have stepped up, the Huckabee campaign has also cited examples of some 90 taxes that went down under his tenure.

But over all, on balance, tax increases outweighed the tax cuts by some $500 million, and many of the cuts that Mr. Huckabee heralds owe little to his efforts.

“He got bipartisan support on all the tax increases,” said State Senator Kim Hendren, a veteran Republican and member of the legislative budget committee. “Huckabee didn’t say ‘I just want to raise taxes to start programs.’ He has a liberal heart for young people, for the disabled and for improving Arkansas’ lot in education, and he is pretty good at working across party lines.”

Mr. Huckabee’s record on the tax front is emerging as a pivotal issue as he seeks to win the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses and other early nominating states. In Iowa, he has built his following around Christian conservatives, but the tax issue could resonate in states like New Hampshire, which holds its primary five days later and where Mr. Huckabee has been devoting more time.

The attacks on him over taxes come as he faces criticism on other aspects of his record as governor, including fighting for tuition breaks for the children of illegal immigrants.

The biggest increase under Mr. Huckabee was mandated by the Arkansas Supreme Court, which in 2002 ruled that the state’s school financing procedure was unconstitutional and ordered a more equitable plan — which led to $400 million in new taxes.

Some other taxes came about directly because of Mr. Huckabee’s efforts. After becoming governor in 1996, he traveled the length of the Arkansas River within the state to win support for an additional one-eighth-cent sales tax to improve the state parks system.

Early in his tenure, he pushed through a three-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase and a four-cent increase on diesel fuel, along with a bond issue, to improve a road system that was considered one of the worst in the country.

And when the state lacked enough of the necessary matching money for federal Medicaid payments to its nursing homes, Mr. Huckabee and the legislature enacted a $5.25-a-day “bed tax” on nursing homes, which won the grudging approval of the state’s nursing home industry.

All of this has become fodder for the Club for Growth and other antitax groups. At the Republican YouTube debate on Wednesday, an advertisement shown by a rival candidate, Fred D. Thompson, directly attacked Mr. Huckabee’s tax policies.

“We’ve been making noise about Huckabee since Day 1 of his candidacy,” said Nachama Soloveichik, a spokeswoman for the Club for Growth, which analyzes the tax policies of Republican candidates. “There is a groundswell among conservatives that this cannot be our guy.”

Both Democratic and Republican politicians and political observers say the legislature had little choice but to raise taxes from 2002 to 2004 given the fiscal challenges facing Arkansas.

The biggest tax increases came in 2003 and 2004. A sagging economy had cut into revenues and the state faced a 2002 court order to equalize financing among school districts.

“We had our backs against the wall; we had no choice,” said State Senator Bobby Glover, a Democrat who has been in the legislature off and on since 1973. “Our only other choice was to take more from prisons and heath care and other agencies.”

In the end, the $400 million tax increase package was passed by an overwhelming majority, with Republican legislators taking the lead in pushing for it along with Democrats. The items included a sales tax increase of seven-eighths of a cent, the imposition of sales tax levies on several previously exempt services and some lesser taxes.

“Republicans were fighting for the tax increase,” said State Senator Denny Altes, the Republican minority leader of the State Senate who did not support the package. “There were few votes against it. Some of the most conservative people, both Democrats and Republicans, supported it. It passed by 90 percent.”

In general, Mr. Huckabee supported tax increases when he had a defined goal in mind, whether it was schools, roads or parks.

“He tended to raise taxes for specific government programs,” said Jay Barth, an associate political science professor at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark. “He does believe in a robust government as an active force in the lives of its citizens, especially in helping the little guy.”

The Club for Growth is circulating a video of Mr. Huckabee speaking to the legislature and going through a litany of all the taxes he could support, leaving the impression that there is no tax he would not embrace.

But the purpose of Mr. Huckabee’s address was specific: Arkansas was facing a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall and Mr. Huckabee was pleading for a tax increase to cover it — any tax, and listing all the possibilities.

The other big tax increase, which also received bipartisan support, was the one on gasoline to pay for road improvements.

“Our roads were in terrible condition,” said Dennis Milligan, chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party. “We knew that in order to attract jobs and companies we needed better roads. Huckabee made a wise choice and now we have companies locating here and wonderful roads. He did a lot to improve roads, and you can’t do it for free.”

In the face of criticism from fiscally conservative Republicans, Mr. Huckabee has been spending more time talking about the taxes he cut than the ones he raised. For instance, at the Republican debate last week, he said that he had cut 90 taxes and that the sales tax was only a penny higher under his stewardship.

Of the 90 tax cuts cited by Mr. Huckabee, one was large: an increase in the standard deduction for income taxes. But most were very small, with some reducing state tax revenues by as little as $15,000 to $20,000, according to an Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration study that was reported in The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Still, the Huckabee campaign has set up a “Truth Squad” specifically intended to rebut the Club for Growth.

“Antitax radicals will never be convinced that tax monies can be legitimately spent on highways, bridges, schools and Medicare,” the campaign said in a response to the Club for Growth.

Back to the Basics - Hard Work!!

Lonely No More, Huckabee Faces Hurdles

Cheryl Senter/Associated Press

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: December 3, 2007
DES MOINES, Dec. 2 — Mike Huckabee spent the weekend in New Hampshire, where he saw something he had rarely seen in his two years as a Republican candidate for president: People. Lots of them. Living rooms and halls packed with voters, campaign aides, reporters and jostling television crews.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this to happen,” Mr. Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, said by telephone Sunday as he prepared to board an airplane here. “It’s everything we’ve been working for.”

Mr. Huckabee’s ascendance here — a Des Moines Register poll published Sunday showed his support had surged since early October — has sent rumbles across a field already in flux and raised concerns in the camp of rival Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts.

Mr. Romney stepped up his attacks on Mr. Huckabee over the weekend. And on Sunday, advisers to Mr. Romney, who would be the nation’s first Mormon president, announced that he would give a speech on Thursday intended to address any concerns about his faith.

Mr. Huckabee’s gains are powered by support he has among Christian conservatives, who have had friction with Mormons. They appear to be responding to his message that he is the true social conservative in the race despite criticism that as governor he raised taxes and was not tough enough on illegal immigrants.

Still, if Mr. Huckabee has emerged as a powerful force in the Republican political calculation, he still faces substantial hurdles as he heads toward the Iowa caucuses and, should he do well there, the nearly 25 contests that follow in the month ahead.

He confronts, in Mr. Romney, a wealthy opponent who has vastly outspent him and can continue doing so. He has a significantly smaller presence than Mr. Romney, Rudolph W. Giuliani and Senator John McCain of Arizona in the crush of states that follow Iowa.

The Des Moines Register’s poll found that support for Mr. Huckabee had gone from 12 percent in October to 29 percent now. That and other recent polls suggest that Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Romney are in an extremely tight contest. That showing came despite the fact that Mr. Huckabee has been hugely outspent by Mr. Romney on television and has not campaigned in Iowa since Nov. 8.

Given the nature of the Iowa contest — a caucus, in which a campaign’s effectiveness at motivating voters is hard to measure in a poll — it is difficult to assess how the Jan. 3 results will be affected by poll results suggesting that a new contender is emerging from the pack.

While Mr. Romney has built up an extensive field operation, run methodically from his campaign headquarters outside Des Moines, Mr. Huckabee’s approach is more ad-hoc as he has sought to take advantage of religious and church networks to press his message.“Romney has a turn-out machine: no one is going to dispute that,” said Chuck Laudner, the executive director of the Iowa Republican Party. “What Huckabee has to rely on is that faith community, which is a ready-made machine: churches, home schoolers. Huckabee is getting in volunteers what Romney has to pay for. But there’s just no telling what it means until the results come in.”

Chip Saltzman, Mr. Huckabee’s national campaign manager, argued that loyal volunteers rather than paid workers would prove far more valuable. “The caucus activity is driven by volunteers and people who are passionate about their candidate who are willing to go out on a freezing night,” Mr. Saltzman said.

Mr. Huckabee and his aides said they had spent the past month, when not in Iowa, trying to position themselves should he have a strong Iowa showing: He has been raising money — $2 million last month, Mr. Saltzman said — and visiting South Carolina, New Hampshire and Florida, seeding the clouds there. He has hired about 25 new people and is about to open an office in Florida. He will soon begin advertising, though very modestly, in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Mr. Huckabee has yet to send a mailing, broadcast a television advertisement or buy significant radio time in New Hampshire, South Carolina or any of the major states that will vote soon after Iowa does. In New Hampshire, the state chairman, Fergus Cullen, said Sunday that Mr. Huckabee’s organization trails those of Mr. Romney, Mr. Giuliani and Mr. McCain.

Past campaigns have shown that winning the Iowa caucus is not always a harbinger of winning the nomination. And Iowa, given its heavy Christian conservative base, is a particularly amenable state for Mr. Huckabee, a Baptist minister with ties to the religious community.

Mr. Huckabee’s strategy is hardly a new one: he is relying on the assumption that a win in Iowa would be rewarded with a burst of contributions and publicity, and would rally conservatives who have declined to support him because they thought he could not win.

Yet there are big differences between this election and past ones that clearly cut against the kind of underdog campaign Mr. Huckabee is embracing. There are only five days between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, leaving little time for Mr. Huckabee to capitalize on an Iowa victory in terms of collecting money or publicity, And after that, Mr. Huckabee would face an onslaught of contests in expensive states.

Asked if a strong Iowa showing could do in 2008 what it has done in other years, Mr. Huckabee responded: “We’ll sure find out.”

Should he not succeed, Mr. Huckabee could well be remembered as the victim of an accelerated nominating calendar that rewards candidates with money or fame, neither of which Mr. Huckabee can claim, and does not allow the time for a little-known candidacy to catch fire.

Mr. Cullen, the New Hampshire chairman, said he was impressed by Mr. Huckabee’s spirit and by the intensity of the crowds he saw with the candidate this weekend.

But asked if he thought that Mr. Huckabee could win in New Hampshire simply by virtue of winning Iowa, he said: “I don’t. Romney has a very strong organization here.”

In South Carolina, the Republican state chairman, Katon Dawson, said Mr. Huckabee had a powerful natural appeal in his state as a Southerner and a Baptist minister. But he said it would be hard for him to win there or elsewhere without money.

“George Bush spent a lot of money in South Carolina to get the nomination,” he said, referring to the 2000 campaign. “I don’t think it’s possible to win without a major television buy.”

That is a view that was not disputed even by Mr. Huckabee’s supporters. “Can he win without money?” said David M. Beasley, the former governor of South Carolina and one of Mr. Huckabee’s most prominent supporters there. “Yeah, he can. Is it hard? Yeah.”

Beyond that, many of Mr. Huckabee’s supporters said they believed they were entering treacherous waters, concerned that they would not have the money to finance television advertisements to respond to attacks that have already begun — particularly on his record on tax cuts and immigration.

Mr. Huckabee professed not to be concerned, saying he had endured much worse in Arkansas. “It’s not something I’m sitting around panicking about,” he said.

“I’ve been through worse,” he said, recalling elections in Arkansas when he took on Democrats from the Clinton camp. “This is patty-cake compared to what that’s like.”

Paula Opinion - The Evidence for Outstanding Leadership is Obvious!

It just doesn't make sense. Why would a traditionally democratic, hand-out State like Arkansas re-elect - and more than once may I add - a conservative Republican like Huckabee? Shazammm, It just ain't natural!!!

While listening to a few state employees reminisce about their work-years with Huckabee, it became all too obvious; When Huckabee entered into the political arena - many residents saw (possibly for the first time) a positive shift that voters stood by come next election time.

So ask yourself...

• How many Governors do YOU know can say they balanced the budget every year while in office?
  
• How many Republican Candidates do YOU know can say that 48% of the African American community voted them back into office not just once, but twice?
  

Since this just ain't a natural way for people to be-haven....Maybe it's supernatural.

The Big Fat Bumblebee

30 Nov 2007

THE BIG FAT BUMBLEBEE Huckabee Riding the Bounce Friday, Nov. 30, 2007 By JAY NEWTON-SMALL/WASHINGTON Republican Presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee CHARLES DHARAPAK / AP Mike Huckabee likes to think of his campaign as the fat bumblebee whose ability to fly has baffled generations of scientists. "The bumblebee, being unaware of these scientific facts, goes ahead and flies anyway and makes honey and pollinates the other plants," Huckabee told a group of reporters over lunch in Washington Thursday. "In many ways our campaign is somewhat like this. Conventional wisdom says that you cannot run a campaign with the amount of money that we've had up to date. You can't do it without the staff, the consultants, the budget — all those things that are considered absolutely critical. But we were unaware of those things so we continued to go on and have seen ourselves grow." Huckabee has raised just $2.3 million in total, and had $650,000 cash on hand as of Sept. 30, but he is surging in Iowa polls. In the latest Rasmussen poll he even overtook by a couple of percentage points Iowa front-runner Mitt Romney — who by comparison has raised $62.8 million so far this cycle and had $9.2 million cash on hand as of Sept. 30. And Romney has taken notice — sharpening his criticism of Huckabee as a liberal on taxes and immigration, as was evident during Wednesday night's Republican YouTube debate. But while Huckabee may like to compare himself to a bumblebee, one thing he says he won't do is sting his opponents. "I do think the 11th commandment is being violated in a lot of ways, but I don't think I've violated it yet and I'll try not to," Huckabee said, referring to Ronald Reagan's so-called 11th commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican." Huckabee knows that the attacks are only helping his candidacy, helping him stand out with undecided voters looking for a sunny alternative to all the doom and gloom coming from Romney and Rudy Giuliani. In fact, the former Arkansas governor is clearly relishing the fray, as he did in the YouTube debate. "You notice I didn't jump in the middle of it, I was more than willing to stand back and enjoy the show," said Huckabee, who then added a NASCAR analogy. "When you've got several cars on the track and to get to bumping each other, there's a good chance that one or both of them are going to run or bump each other off the track or disable their vehicles. What you want to do is to make sure you're not in the path of the wreck when it happens because your chance to get around that wreck happens when you're just close enough to the draft but not close enough to get caught up in it." That's not to say Huckabee doesn't make his own sly digs at his rivals, particularly when he's defending his own policies. "I think there are a few people who support me who don't agree with everything I think, but at least I'm giving them a straight answer and I'm telling them what I truly believe and think, and I'm not changing my message to look to see where I'm speaking today," Huckabee said, referring to numerous accusations of flip-flopping against Romney, and to a lesser extent Giuliani. Ultimately, Huckabee said he takes any criticism lightly. "People appreciate that I'm not running this campaign like somebody's pulling my teeth without getting my shots beforehand," Huckabee said. "You see some of the candidates and you almost feel sorry for them that they have to be there because it sure don't look like they're having much fun." Here's a poem by one Huckabee Supporter The Hucka-humble-bumble-bee A bumble bee should really stall,Its body's fat. It's wings too small.But this bee is flying high,'Cuz no one told him, "You can't fly." The pundits and the pollsters said,"This bee's nothing - nearly dead."But yet he flew - plant to clover,While other things flew high up over. All the others, way up highAll thought bumble bee's can't fly.But that condor, dove, and hawk,Didn't know he walked the talk. The candidates were in a fit,Rudy, Ron - especially Mitt,He flew quite different to the doors,And now the polling proves he soars! Because he holds no arrogance,Humility holds this final chance.On a wing and a prayer - just wait, you'll see,It's Michael Dale Huckabee!! ~louis gander

Who's the ONLY Fiscally Responsible Candidate?

28 Nov 2007

What Does Dick Morris Say...? Current mood: cheerful November 28, 2007 Huckabee is a Fiscal Conservative By Dick Morris As Mike Huckabee rises in the polls, an inevitable process of vetting him for conservative credentials is under way in which people who know nothing of Arkansas or of the circumstances of his governorship weigh in knowingly about his record. As his political consultant in the early '90s and one who has been following Arkansas politics for 30 years, let me clue you in: Mike Huckabee is a fiscal conservative. A recent column by Bob Novak excoriated Huckabee for a "47 percent increase in state tax burden." But during Huckabee's years in office, total state tax burden -- all 50 states combined -- rose by twice as much: 98 percent, increasing from $743 billion in 1993 to $1.47 trillion in 2005. In Arkansas, the income tax when he took office was 1 percent for the poorest taxpayers and 7 percent for the richest, exactly where it stood when he left the statehouse 11 years later. But, in the interim, he doubled the standard deduction and the child care credit, repealed capital gains taxes for home sales, lowered the capital gains rate, expanded the homestead exemption and set up tax-free savings accounts for medical care and college tuition. ..Most impressively, when he had to pass an income tax surcharge amid the drop in revenues after Sept. 11, 2001, he repealed it three years later when he didn't need it any longer. He raised the sales tax one cent in 11 years and did that only after the courts ordered him to do so. (He also got voter approval for a one-eighth-of-one-cent hike for parks and recreation.) He wants to repeal the income tax, abolish the IRS and institute a "fair tax" based on consumption, and opposes any tax increase for Social Security. And he can win in Iowa. When voters who have decided not to back Rudy Giuliani because of his social positions consider the contest between Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, they will have no difficulty choosing between a real social conservative and an ersatz one. Romney, who began as a pro-lifer and switched in order to win in Massachusetts, and then flipped back again, cannot compete with a lifelong pro-lifer, Huckabee. But Huckabee's strength is not just his orthodoxy on gay marriage, abortion, gun control and the usual litany. It is his opening of the religious right to a host of new issues. He speaks firmly for the right to life, but then notes that our responsibility for children does not end with childbirth. His answer to the rise of medical costs is novel and exciting. "Eighty percent of all medical spending," he says, "is for chronic diseases." So he urges an all-out attack on teen smoking and overeating and a push for exercise not as the policies of a big-government liberal but as the requisites of a fiscal conservative anxious to save tax money. So what happens if Huckabee wins in Iowa? With New Hampshire only five days later, his momentum will be formidable. The key may boil down to how Hillary does in Iowa. Hillary? Yes. If she loses in Iowa, most of the independents in New Hampshire will flock to the Democratic primary to vote for her or against her. That will move the Republican electorate to the right in New Hampshire -- bad news for Rudy, good news for Huckabee. But if she wins in Iowa, there will be no point in voting in the Democratic primary and a goodly number will enter the GOP contest, giving Rudy a big boost. And afterward? If Romney wins Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina, sweeping the early primaries, Giuliani will have a very tough task to bring him down in Florida or on Super Tuesday. It can be done, but it's tough. But if Romney loses in Iowa (likely to Huckabee) then Rudy can survive the loss of Iowa and even New Hampshire without surrendering irresistible momentum to Romney. In any event, neither Hillary nor Giuliani will be knocked out by defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire. Their 50-state organizations, their national base and their massive war chests will permit them to fight it out all over the United States. Even if they lose the first two contests, they will remain in the race and could well come back to win. Morris, a former political adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Bill Clinton, is the author of "Outrage." To get all of Dick Morris's and Eileen McGann's columns for free by email, go to www.dickmorris.com.