East TN Conservative

Huckabee’s “living, breathing” statement hits at just under 4 minutes in. then on his website "I firmly believe that the Constitution must be interpreted according to its original meaning, and flatly reject the notion of a “living Constitution.”

He has made his religion a part of this campaign, so I'm attacking it. A leader shows the type of person he is by his followers. The LIES and pure garbage that spews from his mouth and those involved direct or indirect its no wonder there are so many atheist. The push polling done it for me. He keeps his sermons from the public. I thought you cant stop the word of God? Unless it really isn't, unless they are the words of a man pretending. I come from a long line of baptist and methodist preachers they would never try and hide the sermons they had. They where inspired by the Holy Spirit and where not meant to be kept from man hearing this word. Nothing but pure sleaze and filth, telling someone they need to take medimucil. The only person I see turning a cheek is Fred and Mitt. Huck is a man of himself not a man of God, sorry. Huck welcome to my club of Jimmy Swaggert, Jim Bakker, Benny Hinn or a number of other disgraceful pastors.

Huckabee donor gives to company behind attack calls By BILL THEOBALD • Tennessean Washington Bureau • January 17, 2008 COLUMBIA, S.C. - An organizer for Mike Huckabee supporters in southern Tennessee and northern Georgia made a large donation to the group that has been sending out hundreds of thousands of automated telephone calls to voters in South Carolina attacking Huckabee's opponents for the Republican nomination for president. Common Sense Issues Inc. portrays itself as an independent political organization and Huckabee's campaign denied any involvement with the group and disavowed its tactics, which have included millions of phone calls in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and Nevada. Advertisement Mark West of Ooltewah, Tenn., near Chattanooga, gave a total of $48,500 to Common Sense Issues Inc., according to Federal Election Commission records. West and his wife, Lori, also gave the maximum of $2,300 each to Huckabee's presidential primary campaign. And West is the organizer of the Chattanooga Mike Huckabee supporters meet-up group and the northern Georgia meet-up group as well. Huckabee has no formal state organizations in either state, according to his campaign Web site, but supporters are encouraged to click on a link that takes them to the online meet-up groups in their community, including West’s two groups. Two telephone messages left at West's home Thursday were not immediately returned. The Huckabee campaign had no immediate response either. Attempts to talk with Alice Stewart, a spokeswoman for Huckabee, were unsuccessful. Supporters of former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have all reported to their campaigns the contents of the attack calls, many of which have been recorded. When the recipient of such a call says they support one of those candidates they are told several negative things, often misstatements, about their candidate, while supportive statements are made about Huckabee. Thompson backers report that the recording says he supported a late-term abortion procedure opponents refer to as “partial-birth” abortion. Thompson voted against the practice numerous times while in the Senate. And he won the endorsement of the National Right to Life Committee. One person reported to the Thompson campaign that the Romney response states that he wanted to "give babies to homosexuals." Thompson, speaking to a crowd at a restaurant in Prosperity on Thursday, ripped Huckabee for the calls after many people at the event raised their hands when asked if they had received them. "I confronted him man to man, person to person at the debate (on the issues and), this is his response," Thompson said. He called on Huckabee to do more than offer "lip service" condemning the calls. "I think the governor knows now what his duty is." Under federal election law, these independent groups are allowed to conduct campaign activities as long as they are not connected to or directed by a candidate. Henry McMaster, attorney general of South Carolina and a McCain supporter, said he was investigating the group. Common Sense Issues is run by Patrick Davis of Colorado Springs, Colo., a former national Republican Party operative. He has been open in describing the group's efforts and says they are legal. On campaign records, West is listed as the chief operating officer of the Wellington Group. The company's Web site states he co-founded it in 1996 to develop assisted living facilities throughout the country "based on Christian values." West has given money recently to the National Republican Party, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and the leadership campaign committee of former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee. West organized the Chattanooga Mike Huckabee Meet-Up Group on Oct. 19 and donated $40,000 to Common Sense Issues Inc. on Oct. 24. An additional $8,500 on Jan. 2

Political Play of the Day: Huckabee says crying toddler must be for Romney The Associated PressPublished: January 15, 2008 WARREN, Mich.: Confronted by crying toddler on Tuesday, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee quipped the child must be for his rival Mitt Romney. "He's not the happiest boy today," Huckabee said, smiling for a picture with the boy and his brother and sister. "I think he must be a Romney voter. Look at him. He's so sad." Huckabee greeted their mother and other supporters outside a polling place Tuesday in Michigan, where he was hoping for a decent showing but where GOP rivals Mitt Romney and John McCain were vying for first place. Huckabee's wife, Janet, pelted him with snowballs as he shook hands, taking advantage of her last chance to play in the snow before heading to South Carolina Tuesday afternoon. Her husband scooped up a couple of handfuls and returned fire as she darted toward the campaign bus.

People this scares me. I am a die hard Catholic Christian. I NEVER want to hear this from someone from any side of the isle. This is not only scary but stupid. GO AWAY HUCK LEAVE MY FREEDOM BE AND MY PARTY ALONE. I'm sure he dont believe in the HOLY EUCHARIST. Is he going to take that away from us out by changing the Constitution? The end of Transubstantiation cause ol huck don't believe in it. WAKE UP

Another Man From Hope Who is Mike Huckabee? Friday, October 26, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT Republicans have won five of the last seven presidential elections by running candidates who broadly fit the Ronald Reagan model--fiscally conservative, and firmly but not harshly conservative on social issues. The wide-open race for the 2008 GOP nomination has generated two new approaches. Rudy Giuliani, for example, isn't running away from his socially liberal views, although he has modified them. But he is campaigning as a staunch, even acerbic economic conservative. Should he win the nomination, conventional wisdom has it he may balance the ticket by picking former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as a running mate. Mr. Huckabee, on the other hand, is running hard right on social issues but liberal-populist on some economic issues. This may help explain why the affable, golden-tongued Baptist minister was the clear favorite at the pro-life Family Research Council's national forum last Saturday. And why Mr. Huckabee's praises have been sung by liberal columnists such as Gail Collins of the New York Times and Jonathan Alter of Newsweek. Mr. Huckabee attributes his support to the fact he is a "hardworking, consistent conservative with some authenticity about those convictions." He is certainly qualified for national office, having served nearly 11 years as a chief executive. I have known and liked him for years; on the stump he often tells the story of how we first met outside his boarded-up office in the state Capitol, which had been sealed by Arkansas Democrats who refused to accept he had won an upset election for lieutenant governor in 1993. But I also know he is not the "consistent conservative" he now claims to be. Nor am I alone. Betsy Hagan, Arkansas director of the conservative Eagle Forum and a key backer of his early runs for office, was once "his No. 1 fan." She was bitterly disappointed with his record. "He was pro-life and pro-gun, but otherwise a liberal," she says. "Just like Bill Clinton he will charm you, but don't be surprised if he takes a completely different turn in office." Phyllis Schlafly, president of the national Eagle Forum, is even more blunt. "He destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles," she says. "Yet some of the same evangelicals who sold us on George W. Bush as a 'compassionate conservative' are now trying to sell us on Mike Huckabee." The business community in Arkansas is split. Some praise Mr. Huckabee's efforts to raise taxes to repair roads and work with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. Free-market advocates are skeptical. "He has zero intellectual underpinnings in the conservative movement," says Blant Hurt, a former part owner of, and columnist for, Arkansas Business magazine. "He's hostile to free trade, hiked sales and grocery taxes, backed sales taxes on Internet purchases, and presided over state spending going up more than twice the inflation rate." Mr. Huckabee told me yesterday he also cut some taxes, and has taken the Americans for Tax Reform no-tax pledge. Former GOP state Rep. Randy Minton is not impressed. In 1999, he was urged by the governor to back a gas-tax increase. "I'd taken a pledge against higher taxes, but he sniffed that my constituents didn't understand what we have to do in state government to make it work," Mr. Minton says. "His support for taxes split the Republican Party, and damaged our name brand." The Club for Growth notes that only a handful of the 33 current GOP state legislators back their former governor. Governors who served with him praise Mr. Huckabee for his ability to work with others, but say he was clearly a moderate. "He fought my efforts to reform the National Governors Association and always took fiscal positions to my left," former Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a supporter of Mitt Romney, told me. Rick Scarborough, a pastor who heads Vision America, attended seminary with Mr. Huckabee and is a strong backer. But, he acknowledges, "Mike has always sought the validation of elites." When conservatives took over the Southern Baptist Convention after a bitter fight in the 1980s, Mr. Huckabee sided with the ruling moderates. Paul Pressler, a former Texas judge who led the conservative Southern Baptist revolt, told me, "I know of no conservative he appointed while he headed the Arkansas Baptist Convention." Mr. Huckabee's reluctance to surround himself with conservatives was evident as governor, when he kept many agency heads appointed by Bill Clinton. Zac Wright, a spokesman for incoming Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, was asked this year why 15 Huckabee agency heads had been retained. Most of them were "Clinton people," he replied, not "Huckabee people." Mr. Huckabee told me many of his agency heads had "apolitical" responsibilities. Many Huckabee supporters have told me their man should be judged by what he's saying on the campaign trail today. Fair enough. Mr. Huckabee was the only GOP candidate to refuse to endorse President Bush's veto of the Democrats' bill to vastly expand the Schip health-care program. Only he and John McCain have endorsed the discredited cap-and-trade system to limit global-warming emissions that has proved a fiasco in Europe. "It goes to the moral issue," he told an admiring group of environmentalists this month. Alan Greenspan blasts cap-and-trade in his new book as not feasible, noting that "jobs will be lost and real incomes of workers constrained." Mr. Huckabee defends his plan as an "innovative" way to attain complete energy independence from foreign oil by 2013. During a visit to the Journal last spring, Mr. Huckabee joked that one of his biggest challenges is that "like Bill Clinton I hail from Hope, Arkansas, and not every Republican wants to take a chance like that again." But it's Mr. Huckabee who is creating the doubts. "He's just like Bill Clinton in that he practices management by news cycle," a former top Huckabee aide told me. "As with Clinton there was no long-term planning, just putting out fires on a daily basis. One thing I'll guarantee is that won't lead to competent conservative governance."

Bogus Claims: Now with Extra Bogus! Huckabee repeated some dubious claims about his tax-cutting record in Arkansas, but this time he added even more embellishments: Huckabee: I did something that had not been done in my state in 160 years. I cut taxes, with the legislature working with me, and we continued to do that 94 times. The former governor previously has claimed to have passed the first broad-based tax cut in Arkansas' 160-year history. We found that claim to be somewhat exaggerated, as former Gov. Bill Clinton signed an income tax cut that was similar to the one Huckabee championed. But the suggestion that Huckabee was the first in 160 years to cut taxes, period, goes beyond exaggeration into the realm of outright falsehood. And we've said this so many times that we're considering programming a special key to automatically insert the text: While Huckabee did in fact cut taxes 94 times, many of those cuts were trivial, and overall, Huckabee presided over a more than $500 million net tax increase. Still on the defensive about his tax record, Huckabee pledged not to raise taxes as president. Huckabee: I don't think the federal government needs any more money. That's why I have signed a pledge that I would not raise taxes as president. It’s true that on March 2, 2007, Huckabee signed the tax pledge promoted by Americans for Tax Reform. He did so despite earlier reservations about tax pledges. Shortly after announcing his bid for the presidency, Huckabee told NBC's Tim Russert that he was wary of making such pledges: Huckabee: I think you got to be very careful. I, I wouldn’t propose any new taxes. I wouldn’t support any. But if we’re in a situation where we are in a different level of war, where there is no other option, I think that it’s a very dangerous position to make pledges that are outside the most important pledge you make, and that is the oath you take to uphold the Constitution and protect the people of the United States. We don’t begrudge any candidate the right to change his or her mind about an issue. But we do think it’s worth noting that the Russert interview aired on Jan. 28, 2007 – just 33 days before Huckabee signed the tax pledge. Huckabee claimed that highways in Arkansas had gone from the "worst road system in the country" to the "most improved" in the ratings of a trucking magazine. He failed to mention that despite the improvement they remained fourth from the bottom on the "worst" list.