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When it comes to far-right personalities, Mike Huckabee doesn't necessarily come across as a bad guy. He tells charming stories; he frequently jokes around with Jon Stewart; and he even plays bass. As right-wing preachers-turned-politicians go, Huckabee seems non-threatening, and to some, even likable.
What often goes overlooked is the uglier side of Huckabee's political persona. Zeke Miller reports today on a fundraising letter the former Arkansas governor sent to supporters of Citizens United. From the letter (odd comma usage in the original):
"Look, you're a conservative and so am I. We can agree, the day that the day Barack Obama was sworn into office as out 44th President, was the day the country started going to pot.
"Listen, you're a person of faith and so am I. In his administration and now on his re-election campaign, President Obama has surrounded himself with morally repugnant political whores with misshapen values and gutter-level ethics."
I realize that it's not uncommon for political figures to have ghost writers draw up needlessly-hyperbolic fundraising appeals, but it appears to be Huckabee's letter on Huckabee's letterhead. The moment a letter like this goes out, Huckabee owns phrases like "morally repugnant political whores."
What's more, it's part of a pattern of Huckabee taking a cheap, needlessly low road. A few months ago, he said he wanted to see President Obama's college transcripts "to show whether he got any loans as a foreign student."
Last year, Huckabee falsely claimed President Obama “grew up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather.” Soon after, he endorsed “death panel” garbage. By the early summer, Huckabee was equating the national debt with the Nazi Holocaust.
For a guy with a jovial reputation, there’s something rather twisted about Mike Huckabee’s worldview.
In August 2009, Huckabee argued on his own radio show that President Obama’s health care reform package would have forced Ted Kennedy to commit suicide. Ed Kilgore argued at the time, “This despicable rant should disqualify Mike Huckabee from any further liberal sympathy, no matter how much he tries to joke or rock-n-roll his way back into mainstream acceptability.”
That’s as true now as it was then.
Update: Huckabee now says he didn't approve the rhetoric that went out over his signature, and he's asked for the letter to be "pulled."
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Nice to see false witnessing done by a Christian leader. I guess that commandment doesn't apply to him?
I predict the "false witnessing" will be that someone else sent this correspondence, not Mike Huckabee. The words and phrases, not to mention the grammar and punctuation, are not representative of Mr. Huckabee. This should be an easy call and one that news agency are overly cautious with.
I may be proven wrong, but that's my prediction.
Where did he bare false witness? Was is on his opinion?
Citizens United, the organizational mailing list to whom the letter supposedly went, has denied sending it. It should be fairly easy for a report to see if such letters have ever been sent by Huckabee before and if this letter and the strange writings are typical of a Huckabee letter.
I wonder if that type of reporting was done?
see RobDon, no facts from you and your friends.........nope......just PREDICTIONS! "it should be fairly easy" Truth? NOPE! "I wonder if that type of reporting was done?" Knowledge? Truth? NOPE!!! Go back to your nap.
Peter, I did have facts in my post:
I went back and read some of Huckabee's fundraising letters from his campaign. Comparing these to the letter link above, it is easy to see the difference.
Also, my prediction was true. I also note, Buzzfeed included Citizens United denial but this posting did not. In addition, other news agencies did not pick this up. Here is Huckabee's response (again, looking at his other writings it easy to see this was not his):
RobDon .. I don't know about the correspondence, but I received a fund raising robo call (I'm on some conservative lists because of my views on economic development, property rights, etc.) voiced by Huckabee a couple of months ago with a message very similar to this. It went on at some length, and contained all of the first paragraph of the message. The rest of the message, which contained some fairly bizarre statements, was along the same vein, though not in the same words, as the second paragraph.
mpguy, that's interesting and I take you at his word. I definitely do not doubt Mr. Huckabee's commitment to defeating President Obama. I have not found that he generally calls people or groups of peoples names nor does he issue broad general condemnations. He is generally pretty careful with his words. He's a preacher, he's had lots of practice.
I do acknowledge as Mr. Benen pointed out he has had some slip-ups, but the tone and grammar of this letter gives enough evidence to me it was not his writing.
But thanks for the additional info.
It's also kind of weird to tell someone to "listen" in an email (right up there with Aykroyd's line in Ghostbusters: "Listen! ...do you smell something?")
Those "morally repugnant political whores" surrounding POB are the Republicans in Congress. It is not the president's fault that these alleged legislators are willing to sell the country to the highest bidder.
That's pretty quick...:)
Thank you, that's exactly what I was thinking nomoremagicalthinking.....
I just deleted a couple of paragraphs - how can I add to the above statement except by holding up a mirror.
Adam_Selene
If there's one thing a Southern Baptist con artist, er, I mean preacher, would know about, it's "morally repugnant political whores with misshapen values and gutter-level ethics."
And shi**y grammar, too.
He's the classic "Face in the Crowd" fascist.
Responsible journalists should insist that former Governor Huckabee name names. Who are these "whores" of whom you speak?
It would be every GOP'er in Congress, state legislatures, even that guy pandering for the Presidency.....
Responsible journalist should be skeptical of the authenticity of this letter. So far it only has 3 listings under a Goggle News search, Buzzfeed, Mediate, and MSNBC blog.
Huckabee didn't write that letter. It is not that he is so virtuous. It is that he is not so stupid.
The hits just keep on coming. An increasingly desperate and unhinged Republican Party is losing their mind over this election and prepared to do and say anything to defeat Obama. Mike Huckabee is just as much a racist, bigoted, anti-American idiot as any other far-right wacko. He just straps on a banjo, uses some homey language., and the mainstream media gives him a pass. This is disgusted dog whistle code being used against the president for finally coming out and supporting the basic right of marriage equality for all Americans. Huckabee is no better than Limbaugh, Allen West, etc. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
In America, we are all entitled to our opinions. But they usually say more about us than the people we are talking about.
Huckabee - and everyone else out there with him on the evangelical fringe - seem to have completely forgotten the question "WWJD?" Of course, Jesus would never have been a part of that crowd anyway.
"Responsible journalists "
An oxymoron, or were you making a joke?
Besides, you know that Republicans don't take questions from the press.
More of that rubber/glue strategy from the right. Is anyone surprised?
As a dyed-in-the-wool Mormon Liberal (I know, you thought there wasn't such a thing), I recognize why Huckabee hastens to call others such a thing as a "morally repugnant political whore:" He IS one himself and always has been. That "Christmas message" he broadcast four or so years ago where he was dressed in the cute red sweater with a beam of light forming a cross over his shoulder was a classic example of "political whoredom." Preacher, heal thyself!
I was just thinking 'I KNOW a whore when I hear one' and it's NOT the people surrounding the President....Mike...
If anyone ever needed evidence that the passions control the reason, they should read your message. All noise, no light.
Lord Foul from The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson had a simple philosophy. If you can't hurt someone directly, take something that they care about and give it back to them broken. The GOP are doing that to an entire country, state by state.
Just remember that when repuknicans talk about government being broken, they are not complaining; they are bragging about what they have accomplished.
"(M)orally repugnant political whores with misshapen values and gutter-level ethics." When did Mike go to work for the Obama adminstration? I thought he worked for Fox.
There are lots of jokes about fundamental, evangelical Christian preachers in that line. In fact, I can't think of a better description of Pat Robinson.
I think you meant Pat Robertson. But I don't worry too much about Mike Huckabee. They CRUCIFIED Jesus Christ.
That settles it - If indeed Huckabee sent out such a letter, he is going to hell under the tenets of his own faith for no one who calls himself Christian can bear false witness and expect to fit that camel through the eye of that there needle! -Kevo
IF!
When asked a few years ago if everyone not a Southern Baptist was going to hell, his reply was yes and quite a few Southern Baptists as well.
Any f*ckhead preacher who tells me I am going to hell because I am a Methodist can k!ss my @ss.
I am really sick of these so-called Christians not acting like Christians.
I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians, they are so unlike your Christ. Gandi
SadOldVeteran, I have no idea of the quote you are referring to but my guess is that Mr. Huckabee may have said, quite a few Southern Baptist was going to hell (Matthew 7:21) but the Southern Baptist faith does NOT believe you have to be a Baptist to go to heaven.
I would encourage you to find the quote and see this is correct.
RobDon: You are truly a good man. Too bad many of those commenting on this site are ignorant, inadequate people filled with hatred for anything they cannot understand.
Nice, this moral maggot is insulting many Southern Baptists, that voted for and support President Obama.
Nice and tasteless, just what I've come to expect from a man of faith.
Jesus said by their fruit you shall know them. Huckabee does not produce fruit, he produces Jimson Weed.
So quick to judge, so slow to comprehend.
Those are the ones you have to watch out for most. An old song Smiling Faces (Sometimes) tells it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wKyXA_nMVQ
Smile in your face "Backstabbers" http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=hzTeLePbB08 more about romance, but same principle.
When I saw a video clip of Huckabee playing bass with Ted Nugent, I realized he was not an upstanding person. That he claims to be a messenger of God's word means nothing to me and obviously, nothing to him.
Thou shalt not bear false witness doesn't appear in the repub Bible.
> morally repugnant political whores with misshapen values and gutter-level ethics...
Here's my totally mature and adult response: Takes one to know one!!! Neener neener.
Mike Huckabee confuses those surrounding him with those surrounding the President of the United States. Any looney toon ex governor with a lousy voice and lousier ideas can be a talk show host in this day and age, and get well compensated for it in the Obama Hate Machine.
We can't stop the Supreme Courts ruling. But we can do this!
http://www.change.org/petitions/major-media-companies-stop-accepting-money-from-superpacs
I thought of Huckabee as a halfway decent guy, but this is the language used by
so many in politics today: “barracks language” was the term JFK was not
reluctant to use in noting language used by Harry Truman. It is gutter jargon.
It is language used by politicians deemed as appropriate in addressing the
American public and deserving of having our children see and hear from their
very disrespectful mouths. This tenor of speech is disgusting and loathsome, at
best, and instantly makes those who utter these words completely lose face with
many of us voters who [had looked] to political leaders as our best
representatives in a democracy.
America needs a change: the “potty-mouths” must go. I hear America singing from the mountains to the plains from Laguna beach to Martha's Vinyards: "...the potty-mouths must go."