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DEL.ICIO.USChaos in the GOP presidential ranks: Maybe it’s religion, but maybe it’s region
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s something to kick around.
This week, the Republican presidential race officially devolved into chaos. The well-funded Mitt Romney of Massachusetts found himself sinking in Iowa. Rudy Giuliani of New York has hit a wall in national polls — or at minimum, he’s struck a hefty speed-bump.
Mike Huckabee of Arkansas is surging. This prompted Romney to give his Thursday speech that addressed his Mormon faith.
Many have cited the episode as a proper comeuppance to a Republican party that for nearly 30 years has catered to Christian conservatives.
Perhaps the U.S. Constitution forbids a religious test, they say, but the GOP platform has come to require it. Not all critics are Democrats. Charles Krauthammer is particularly rough on Huckabee today for subtly driving the issue.
But maybe this isn’t just about religion. Suppose that this week fits into the larger theme of the 2008 Republican race — a fight over regional control of the national GOP. Suppose that this has become a tug-of-war between Republicans in the South, plus their like-minded allies, and Republicans everywhere else.
Consider first the geographic bases of the two spoilers in this race — Huckabee, a seminary graduate whose name is always followed somewhere by the phrase “Southern Baptist,” and Fred Thompson, the drawling former senator from Tennessee.
No, Thompson hasn’t done much. But for six months this year, he served as the symbol of restiveness in the GOP base. Huckabee has now usurped him in that role. We’ll see how long he’ll last.
Romney and Giuliani, who could be said to represent the party’s establishment, are both from the Northeast, a place where Republican influence has declined, even while GOP clout in the South has grown. Giuliani supporters in particular cite the structure of the primary calendar next year as a unique situation that allows their candidate to leap-frog past the barrier posed by Southern Republicans.
A candidate who makes Republicans in the South too comfortable, the theory goes, won’t appeal to a national electorate tired of the Southerner now occupying the White House.
So Iowa becomes the place where the base pushes back on that kind of thinking.
No, Iowa is not Southern. But racially, the Republican electorate in Iowa isn’t much different from that in a Georgia primary. And some 40 percent of Iowa Republicans identify themselves as evangelical conservatives.
Until the race gets to South Carolina, Iowa is the most Southern-like ground available for the confrontation.
Comments
By George Chell
December 7, 2007 6:22 PM | Link to this
You have forgotten two other states similar to the south: Indiana and Ohio. However, the North will push back in New Hampshire.
By Bot
December 7, 2007 9:57 PM | Link to this
Huckabee is NO conservative: Mike Huckabee was regarded by fellow Republican governors as a compulsive tax increaser and spender. He increased the Arkansas tax burden by 47 percent, boosting the levies on gasoline and cigarettes. The Arkansas Leader.com editorialized that Mike Huckabee raised more taxes in 10 years in office than Bill Clinton did in his 12 years.
The Arkansas Ethics Commission held proceedings 20 times on the former governor. During his tenure, Huckabee accepted 314 gifts valued overall at more than $150,000, according to documents filed with the Arkansas secretary of state’s office. (He accepted 187 gifts in his first three years as governor but was not required to report their value.)
Two months after taking office, Huckabee stunned the state by saying he questioned rapist Wayne DuMond’s guilt and that it was his intention to free the rapist, DuMond murdered a women in Illinois after Huckabee set him free
Huckabee battled conservatives within his own party who were pushing for stricter state-level immigration measures, such as:. - proof of legal status when applying for state services that aren’t federally mandated - proof of citizenship when registering to vote - Huckabee failed in his effort to make children of illegal immigrants eligible for state-funded scholarships and in-state tuition to Arkansas colleges.
Does Huckabee subscribe to his spiritual advisor Timothy LaHay’s views of the Rapture, United Nations, and a Palestinian state?” Huck’s use of the “Christian Leader” title is a thinly-veiled attempt to impose a religious test in violation of Article Six of the Constitution.
Mike fails on so many levels as a true conservative
By not4me
December 7, 2007 11:50 PM | Link to this
I certainly don’t want a repeat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpkkbqydKow&feature=related
By Debbie
December 8, 2007 9:49 AM | Link to this
Under fire from conservatives, the former Arkansas governor misrepresents his tax hikes, and cuts.
Read the entire article as I only posted excerpts;
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/huckabeesfiscalrecord.html
Huckabee’s Fiscal Record November 21, 2007
Summary Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been hit with criticism over his record on taxes as governor of Arkansas. The faultfinders have been members of his own party, who take issue with tax increases he enacted. In recent interviews on Fox News, Huckabee responded to some of these questions, but we found him to be misleading and incorrect on several points:
Huckabee claimed that a speech in which he implored the state Legislature to raise taxes was in response to a state Supreme Court order to increase education funding. But he specifically said in that speech that he would address the education matter at a later date. He said a tax on beds filled in nursing homes was a “fee” not a tax, despite the fact that he himself has called it the “bed tax.” Huckabee claimed a gasoline tax was only passed after 80 percent of voters approved it. Not true. The tax was enacted before a referendum vote on highway repairs. He frequently says he cut taxes “almost 94 times” but leaves out the 21 taxes raised during his tenure. In the end, he presided over a net tax increase.
By Phil
December 8, 2007 6:08 PM | Link to this
So far, Ron Paul is the only republican that has a chance at my vote - at any level of government.
By Churchill
December 8, 2007 8:56 PM | Link to this
Here we go. I’m sorry Phil, but any level of gov’t? What. Ru Paul is the only fit Republican? You Ru Paul supporters crack me up. The man is a boob, for crying out loud.
By eb
December 9, 2007 1:07 AM | Link to this
Churchill: The fact that you won’t use peoples’ proper names and that you attempt to further insult them with names like “boob” says more about you than about them. Would you be willing to add some intelligent content to your posts?
By Churchill
December 9, 2007 1:50 AM | Link to this
I have gone over this time and time and time again. He is a protectionist, an isolationist, he is to the left of Hillary on the war. But all the time, Ru Paul nut job activists go around pretending he is a conservative. He’s not. He a libertarian. That is fine but he is no conservative. Plus, Ru Paul supporters are fun to mess with. Peace.
By eb
December 9, 2007 3:22 AM | Link to this
Churchill: You use a lot of labels but fail to provide any evidence for your assertions. It’s fairly obvious through your complete lack of explanation that you have not done any research about Ron Paul and clearly don’t know what you are saying. Your penchant for messing with others and then wishing them “peace” points to you as an individual who is not interested in serious discussion of the the terrible problems of our country and our world. This type of person is called a internet troll. Trolls seek to inflame others with ad hominem attacks but do not add any value to discussions. It is too bad that you do not realize what serious trouble we are in here in the U.S. so that you can advance the discussion instead of contributing to the problem. You might actually be quite brilliant if you did a little reading and thinking and I invite you to do just that. Be a little more reflective; read and think, instead of just saying the first thing that comes into your head.
By Churchill
December 9, 2007 4:31 AM | Link to this
Really, well let me tell you something. Ru Paul is weak on Terrorism. He seeks to retreat. Tell me his plan to combat terrorism? What’s he gonna do? Retreat? While we are winning? When the enemy is on the run? Ru Paul is bad on my number one issue. That issue, the protection of this country from the threat of Islamic Terrorism. It is a big deal and you guys either do not care or do not understand. Makes no difference to me. Ru Paul is a boob. He will not win the nomination. He should be ashamed for throwing in with the libs on the war. The man is a boob.
By Phil
December 9, 2007 7:35 AM | Link to this
Churchill,
I voted a Republican ticket in the last two presidential campaigns. Did I vote for Republicans? By label only. Do you really think that Bush is a fiscal conservative. For that matter, should Zell Miller have ever been called a liberal or even a Democrat?
By the way, I’ll get out in the streets and fight side by side with you against the first terrorists that come our way. So, rally the troops and let’s go.
I picked the candidate that I thought represented the “lesser of the evils” before and I’ll do it again regardless of the label they choose.
By Louis Nardozi
December 9, 2007 10:52 AM | Link to this
Take a GOOD look at Huckabee and the FairTax - why is the FairTax studies only evaluate incomes up to $200,000? Because the effective tax rate for millionaires and billionaires under the FairTax is less than 1%. You can buy things of great value all day long without ever buying a new one. Think mansions, land, yachts, valuable coins, stamps, bullion, stocks and bonds - all of which increase his wealth and none of which is taxed. The things that are NEW that the super rich require will be provided them as perquisites by the businesses they control. Think company car, company house, company jet - all of which use our infrastructure and none of which is paid for by the entity using them. Why should Walmart pay for roads and bridges when they can get you to pay for free? This is another attempt by the liberal media to help hand the nomination to ANYONE but Dr. Ron Paul. Much as we’d like politics to be positive, it is in fact ruled almost entirely by negatives. For instance, what’s the biggest negative the Republican Party is facing in 2008? Iraq - a staggering 70% of people favor IMMEDIATE withdrawl from Iraq. Who is the only candidate that doesn’t have that negative? Dr. Paul, who advocates using those trillions of dollars to secure our border (perhaps against Saudis who were 20 of the 24 terrorists in 9/11) and rebuild our crumbling infrastructure which is far more worrying than the loss of Social Security. Hm, full employment, withdrawl from Iraq and a huge boost to our economy from rebuilding our infrastructure - what Democrat wants to run against that. Hence the behavior of known liberal biased network CNN, who wants us to nominate either Guiliani or Romney - both of whose negatives are so high the copy practically writes itself!
By Marge
December 9, 2007 11:37 AM | Link to this
Huckabee is a loser because of his illegal alien loving stance. His new “hard-line” reaction can’t fool me when we see how he fought for illegal aliens to have in-State tuition. Talk about a flip flop! He is just like Bush…pretending to be a conservative, but acting like a bleeding heart liberal. He needs to know that illegal alien children have stolen their education from American taxpayers and denied needy Americans access to these resources. The governments of these foreign nationals should be billed as they are deported back to let someone else take care of them. If they are good enough for college, they can apply and pay for colleges in their own countries. There is nothing cruel about returning criminals to their own country. By rights, they should be in jail. Lets stop the sympathy train by saying all of these teenagers came over as tots and are victims. It is our children that are the victims. Wake up and smell the coffee. So far, Romney is my man.
By debbie
December 10, 2007 6:57 AM | Link to this
Huckabee granted 1,033 pardons and commutations in his 10 1/2 years as governor of Arkansas.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071210/appo/huckabeeclemencies
By Anonymous
December 10, 2007 10:23 AM | Link to this
“Huckabee’s no conservative,” eh? Let’s see…
A compulsive big-government spender. Multiple ethics violations. Tough-talking about crime, but soft on specific criminals. In favor of relaxed immigration restrictions. Contemptuous of church-state separation.
You’re right, Bot: Huckabee’s no conservative. Instead, he’s a Republican.