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Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Drunk sailors, beauty-shop Edwards’ spending
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Arikansas Gov. Mike Huckabee had the line of the night during Tuesday’s second Republican presidential candidate debate. On taxes and spending, Huckabee said that “we’ve had a Congress that’s spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop.” Funny stuff and the South Carolina audience roared. John McCain compared its spending to that of drunken sailors, which offended drunken sailors, he said. The line was funnier the first time.
A single debate involving 10 candidates would have been unwieldy and not particulary productive. But the field and the format are growing on me. Not love-ins, but not nasty either. And occasional good humor. Little by little, individuals are breaking through and, most usefully, there’s no joker in the deck.
Huckabee had a good evening, embracing the flat tax and vowing to post an “out of business” sign at the Internal Revenue Service. Other candidates, too, had comforting messages for fiscal conservatives. “I am not going to raise taxes,” declared Mitt Romney without equivocation. Even McCain, who opposed the Bush tax cuts because, he said, there was no concomitant agreement to cut spending, vowed to make them permanent.
All of the candidates, even Ron Paul, who narrowed his appeal in the GOP primaries with the allegation that America brought 9/11 on itself by its aggression in Iraq and elsewhere, contribute to making the debates interesting and productive for potential voters.
That particular assertion by Paul offered Rudy Giuliani his best moment. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before and I have heard some pretty absurd explanations.” Surely Giuliani meant he’d never heard it before from Paul. That “it’s our fault” line has been pretty standard fare on the left.
A bit of a Fred Thompson boomlet is developing in Georgia with two of the State Senate’s most substantial conservatives, President Pro Tem Eric Johnson of Savannah, and State Sen. Chip Rogers of Woodstock, lining up for him. He’s not in the race yet. Nor is Newt Gingrich, who plans to wait until September. Neither better wait too much longer. Some of these guys, like Romney and Giuliani, are beginning to hit their stride.
