The Pink Flamingo :: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up

From the Politico we hear that Mike Huckabee has asked Rush Limbaugh to call him for a little chat.
It is a bit sad that Huckabee can’t pass Limbaugh’s test for what makes a true conservative, but the conservative movement as it exists today but the answers would be like that old folk song, blowing in the wind. They change their parameters when necessary in order to either cater to or exclude the riff-raff. Evidently this week Huckabee is white trash trailer park upstart Jimmy Carter religious freak of the week. Evidently the thing Pastor Huckabee has done, the think that is causing such irrational anger amongst the archaic antidotes of the right is the fact that he is practicing what he preaches. He’s an unapologetic SOUTHERN BAPTIST MINISTER who is neither slick (as in Mitty) nor urban and sophisticated (as in Mitty). God help us all, he’s just another humble man from Hope, Arkansas and that one fact alone should torpedo any White House ambition.

My entire argument against Mike Huckabee, aside from his abjectly deplorable attempts at foreign policy is the fact that he is from Hope, Arkansas. I must though,

Huckabee is thumbing his nose at conservatives as he courts one “conservative” Baptist stronghold after another. Wizbang tells us he’s going to speak at John Haggee's church in Texas.

Rick Moran (Right Wing NutHouse)
who was one of the loudest clarion voices demanding CHRISTIAN conservative, suddenly finds Mike Huckabee way too CHRISTIAN. I want to ask something, and I am going to put it as gently as possible. HOW THE HELL CAN A BAPTIST PREACHER BE TOO CHRISTIAN?
Moran had the nerve to write,

“…Buttressing the idea that the cross is deliberately placed is the fact that Huckabee not so subtly also mentions “Christ” in the ad. Now before people go ballistic on me, allow me to point out that by mentioning the savior, Huckabee deliberately excludes anyone but Christians from his Christmas message. This is extraordinarily unusual for a man running for president in a multi-faith country. And for Huckabee to deny that the ad was not targeted at the Christian right is ludicrous.

This has been my beef with Huckabee – his willingness to inject his religion and religious beliefs – subtly or not – into the campaign. It is done to pander to the Christian right and it is working. But Huckabee’s efforts to obscure his left leaning record on a variety of issues as well as blatant flip flops on some others and now this blatantly exclusionary commercial all add up to a slick, untrustworthy, dissembling man and unworthy to be considered for the presidency….”

CHRISTIAN VOTERS
John Hagee is one of the leading mega church preachers today. He’s also a wee bit anti-Catholic. The far right, who once courted his church members as voters, now holds their nose around him. (Oh, please donate to the cause and vote, but just don’t show up near us.) Robert Parry has a fascinating, but liberal anti-Bush commentary today. Pandering to other far right leaders. Southern Baptist infighting. Liz Mair is a voice of reason about Huckabee and his religious views.

THE RIGHT CRACKS
Media Transparency has a fascinating piece filed before the you know what hit the you know what.

“…Over the past several weeks, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani received the endorsement of Pat Robertson, while other candidates have received significant support from other evangelical leaders. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, seen by some as the one fundamentalist Christian in the field that also has a streak of economic populism, has received endorsements from such evangelical leaders as Janet Folger, president of Faith2Action (website), Rick Scarborough, founder and president of Vision America (website), the Rev. Don Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, and Tim and Beverly LaHaye, longtime influential conservative activists: He is the co-author of the wildly popular "Left Behind" series of apocalyptic novels, and she is the founder of Concerned Women of America. At the same time Huckabee was stitching together support from Christian leaders, a Robert Novak column entitled "The False Conservative," maintained that while "Huckabee is campaigning as a conservative ... serious Republicans know that he is a high-tax, protectionist, big-government advocate of a strong hand in the Oval Office directing the lives of Americans."…”

Several months ago Huckabee won the Values Voter Straw Poll – and they all cheered.
The Values Voters created a Contract With Congress.

Signers included:
Steve Baldwin - ¹Council for National Policy Action
Gary Bauer - ¹American Values
Richard P. Bott, Sr. - ¹Bott Radio Network, President and CEO
Rich Bott, Jr. - ¹Bott Radio Network
Phil Burress - ¹President, Citizens For Community Values
Gary Cass - ¹Center For Reclaiming America
Larry Cirignano   - ¹Catholic Vote
Tim   Echols - ¹TeenPact
Joseph Farah - ¹World Net Daily
Don   Feder
Ray   Flynn - ¹Catholic Citizenship
Janet Folger - ¹Faith 2 Action
Gary Glenn - ¹AFA Michigan
Jody Hice - ¹Let Freedom Ring
Dr. Rich Hobson - ¹Foundation For Moral Law
Ken Hutcherson - ¹Antioch Bible Church
Bishop Earl W. Jackson, Sr.
Phillip   Jauregui - ¹Judeo-Christian Council
Dr. D. James Kennedy - ¹Coral Ridge Ministries
Alan Keyes - ¹Declaration Foundation
Andrea Lafferty - ¹Traditional Values Coalition
Rabbi Daniel Lapin - ¹Toward Tradition
Bill Lewis - ¹Sons of Issachar
Herb London - ¹Hudson Institute
Michael   Long
Connie Mackey - ¹Family Research Council
David Miller - ¹Citizens For Community Values
Manny Miranda - ¹Third Branch Conference
Janet Parshall - ¹Janet Parshall's America
Pastor Rod Parsley
Tony Perkins - ¹Family Research Council
Dr. Rick Scarborough - ¹Vision America
Phyllis   Schlafly - ¹Eagle Forum
Rev. Lou Sheldon - ¹Tradtional Values Coalition
Dutch Sheets - ¹Dutch Sheets Ministries
Ron   Shuping - ¹The Inspiration Network, EVP of Programming
Rabbi Aryeh Spero - ¹Caucus for America
Mat   Staver - ¹Liberty Counsel
Stephen   Stone - ¹Renew America
Mike Valerio
John Kie Vining   - ¹Church of God Family Ministries
Paul Weyrich - ¹Free Congress Foundation
Dr. Frank Wright - ¹National Religious Broadcasters

HUCKABEE THE VALUES VOTER DARLING
From Right Wing Watch

“…Janet Folger, who endorsed Huckabee soon after he won the straw poll at her Values Voter Debate, accused Romney of “ballot-box stuffing”:Efforts to try and skew the results of the Internet poll, such as the e-mail sent by Mark DeMoss (now on the Romney campaign), complete with a link and instructions to stack it, gained Romney a .5 percent edge for his prominently announced "win." By the way, when that announcement was made following fanfare, including a drum roll, the audience (who were 5-to-1 Huckabee supporters) sat stunned. Had they announced the results of the real grass-roots activists who actually attended the event, we would have heard explosive applause instead of the sound of crickets and the clapping of a few Romney shills. A harsh allegation, to be sure, but hardly out of character: Romney managed to win the CPAC straw poll last spring solely on the basis of students he sponsored, and he similarly paid for votes at the straw poll in South Carolina. After announcing that he was scaling back his efforts at the Ames, Iowa straw poll, Romney’s campaign spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the best tent and the most buses to ferry Republicans to the event, presumably with their tickets paid in exchange for a vote commitment (as is common at Ames). Considering that membership to FRC Action and the code to vote in that straw poll could be purchased for a $1 donation, this latest effort was a steal. Then there’s money Romney pays to prominent right-wing figures, such as $25,000 to a company owned by Jay Sekulow, who endorsed Romney. Alabama activist Randy Brinson, head of the state’s reconstituted Christian Coalition chapter as well as a voter mobilization effort and an ally of Huckabee, thinks it’s that kind of cash that keeps people like Tony Perkins pooh-poohing Huckabee’s prospects. From U.S. News: Brinson] says he believes that "gatekeepers" like Bauer, Perkins, and Dobson are more interested in Romney or Thompson because their campaigns have money to pay for consultants from the big conservative evangelical organizations, ensuring them access to the White House if either of them wins….”

NY Times

THE BEAUTY OF IT ALL
The magnificent beauty of this all was back in October, when the whole values voter thing, “Christians” were starting to get on the Huckabee bandwagon and Mitt’s people were furious. Janet Folger complained about this all in WND.

“…Among summit attendees, who paid the registration, airfare and accommodations, and actually heard the candidates' speeches, Gov. Huckabee won more votes than all the other candidates combined – including Mitt Romney. Huckabee earned 51 percent of the vote compared to Romney's 10 percent, Fred Thompson's 8 percent and Tom Tancredo's 7 percent.

Efforts to try and skew the results of the Internet poll, such as the e-mail sent by Mark DeMoss (now on the Romney campaign), complete with a link and instructions to stack it, gained Romney a .5 percent edge for his prominently announced "win." By the way, when that announcement was made following fanfare, including a drum roll, the audience (who were 5-to-1 Huckabee supporters) sat stunned. Had they announced the results of the real grass-roots activists who actually attended the event, we would have heard explosive applause instead of the sound of crickets and the clapping of a few Romney shills…”

A RANT
I’ve thrown in a number of links and a list of the conservative crazies. Much to my delight the conservative movement as we know it today is in the process of imploding. You can’t keep a movement going when it is built on a house of sand. When the rains came down and the floods came up, the house on the sand when flat. But, the wise man built his house on rock. The rains came down the floods came up but the house on the rock stood firm.

Something like a nasty little sociable disease began creeping into the ‘conservative movement’ a few years ago. I’ve been watching it now for about six years. Part of it is defined by the Ron Paulites and the fact that they have been assimilated by the agents of hate and the foolishness of conspiracy.

BUILDING ON HATE

One of the serious problems with today’s conservative movement is the fact that there are roots in crazy conspiracies and hate. It has been hijacked by both Sun Myung Moon and John Tanton. Neither man particularly cares for individuals of the Mexican persuasion. They have been cultivating a climate of xenophobia and distrust for nearly two decades, slowly spoon-feeding their despicable pabulum to an unwitting and trustful American public yearning for a liberal takedown. While this was going on, they were infiltrating what were once good and honorable conservative institutions with their own people and so much funding that those who could were bought and paid for and the rest were left behind.

Along with Rush Limbaugh these forces created a yearning and a need for a “John Doe” as in Gary Cooper’s remarkable Frank Capra movie, Meet John Doe. And like the puppet-masters of that remarkable Christmas film, they decided once their “John Doe” got a little too popular, they had to take him down and destroy him.

I’m no Mike Huckabee fan. If pushed, I will vote for him. I’d rather vote for a McCain-Giuliani ticket and 8 years later Giuliani-Palin. If pushed, I will hold my nose and vote for Huckabee. I think as POTUS he would be an abject failure, but I seem to remember hearing even conservative pundits making fun of a man they considered a spoiled, dumb, cowboy governor from Texas. One of life’s little ironies is the fact that the same elite conservatives who so disliked that man (and still do) are the ones who are terrified of Mike Huckabee.

THE BIGGEST LOSER
I want to pose a little scenario for you. Mike Huckabee is a populist, appealing to a ‘salt of the earth’ back bone of America, Bible Belt constituency. These are the same people who have made Rush Limbaugh a multi-millionaire, many many times over and over again. They are the Rush Limbaugh listener base.

Like I wrote yesterday, there is nothing funnier than a Rush Limbaugh parody making fun of some well-deserving liberal. But when he starts making fun of a friend or someone you respect, it’s different. That’s how you lose listeners. It may be that all Rush’s little conservative syncopates and colleagues are making one very big mistake denigrating Mike Huckabee.

What if those people turned off the radio?

Trackposted to Stop the ACLU, The Midnight Sun, Rosemary's Thoughts, guerrilla radio, 123beta, Right Truth, Stix Blog, Cao's Blog, The Amboy Times, Big Dog's Weblog, Chuck Adkins, Conservative Cat, Nuke's, third world county, Faultline USA, Allie is Wired, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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