Below The Beltway

It’s not just libertarian Republicans that have Mike Huckabee upset, he’s also not too pleased with the evangelicals who dared to support someone other than himself for the Republican nomination:

Many conservative Christian leaders — who never backed Huckabee, despite their holding similar stances on social issues — are spared neither the rod nor the lash. Huckabee writes of Gary Bauer, the conservative Christian leader and former presidential candidate, as having an “ever-changing reason to deny me his support.” Of one private meeting with Bauer, Huckabee says, “It was like playing Whac-a-Mole at the arcade — whatever issue I addressed, another one surfaced as a ‘problem’ that made my candidacy unacceptable.” He also accuses Bauer of putting national security before bedrock social issues like the sanctity of life and traditional marriage.

Huckabee describes other elders of the social-conservative movement, many of whom meet in private as part of an organization called the Arlington Group, as “more enamored with the process, the political strategies, and the party hierarchy than with the simple principles that had originally motivated the Founders.” Later, Huckabee writes, “I lamented that so many people of faith had moved from being prophetic voices — like Naaman, confronting King David in his sin and saying, ‘Though art the man!’ — to being voices of patronage, and saying to those in power, ‘You da’ man!’ ”

He calls out Pat Robertson, the Virginia-based televangelist, and Dr. Bob Jones III, chancellor of Bob Jones University in South Carolina, for endorsing Rudy Giuliani and Romney, respectively. He also has words for the Texas-based Rev. John Hagee, who endorsed the more moderate John McCain in the primaries, as someone who was drawn to the eventual Republican nominee because of the lure of power. Huckabee says he spoke to Hagee by phone before the McCain endorsement while preparing for a spot on Saturday Night Live. “I asked if he had prayed about this and believed this was what the Lord wanted him to do,” Huckabee writes of the conversation. “I didn’t get a straight answer.” Months later, McCain rejected Hagee’s endorsement because of controversial remarks the pastor had made about biblical interpretations.

Controversial remarks about biblical interpretation ? Hagee is an anti-Catholic bigot, that’s why McCain rejected his endorsement.

Anyway, what’s really amusing about this particular passage is that Huckabee was clearly trying to shame the evangelical leaders who didn’t support him on theological grounds, a fact which lends credence to the idea that he is far too theocratic to be seriously considered as a candidate for President.

And as far as his comments about libertarians, The American Spectator unearths this golden oldie:

If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism… The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.

Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say… But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are travelling the same path.

The writer ?

Ronald Wilson Reagan, who correctly notes that libertarians have a better claim to the conservative banner than religious authoritarians like Huckabee.

So, as Jason Pye says, Mike Huckabee should just, you know, go away.

Since he won’t, I guess that means it’s time for Huck ? No !

Because it’s never too early to oppose The Huckster.