WHY I'M VOTING FOR MITT ROMNEY ON SUPER TUESDAY

Let’s face it, none of the candidates are perfect. They never are. But McCain is the least perfect of the viable candidates. The only one left standing who can honestly be said to share most of our conservative principles is Mitt Romney.

I say this as someone who has not been an active Romney supporter. If conservatives don’t unite behind Romney at this stage, and become vocal in their support for him, then they will get McCain as their Republican nominee and probably a Democrat president. And in either case, we will have a deeply flawed president.--Mark Levin

I will be honest and admit (as most of you are aware) that Romney was not my first choice. Yet, as I look at what is at stake in this November's election I think it is crucial that we pick the most conservative candidate for our nominee. I am a pretty loyal Republican and I like, probably 80% of our guys. Why we are somehow stuck with several candidates that are a part of the 20% is very frustrating, to say the least.

Anyone who has read my blog for any length of time knows that I have had HUGE issues with McCain for many years. The fact that he is now the possible nominee for our party is just beyond dis-heartening. It is like driving a stake through the heart of Reagan Conservatism. I cannot sit by silently while what so many of us have worked for is dismantled by someone as liberal as McCain. Therefore, it is expedient to support the one conservative left in this race, Mitt Romney.

Here are some articles to take a look at that make the case:
--5 Good Reasons to Vote for Mitt Romney
--Rally for Romney by Mark Levin
--Governor Romney on the issues
--A Call to Conservative Action
--A very comprehensive post on Mitt Romney

Solid, Stellar Conservatives who are endorsing and/or are supporting Mitt Romney:
--Senator Rick Santorum
--Sean Hannity
--Talk Show Host Mark Levin
--Michael Reagan
--Reliapundit's post comparing Team Romney with Team McCain

Other sites on Romney worth checking out:
--Evangelicals for Mitt
--Denny's pro-Romney Blog
--Hugh Hewitt's blog

Also, it is worth noting that Mike Huckabee is no longer a viable candidate and the only purpose he serves is to take votes away from Romney. One wonders if he hasn't made some kind of deal with McCain because he refuses to bash McCain but goes after Romney with a vengeance. This post makes the case for Huckabee being a spoiler and I think its blatantly obvious that at this stage of the game a vote for Huckabee is really a vote for McCain.

JUST IN CASE SOMEONE IS STILL CONSIDERING VOTING FOR MIKE HUCKABEE

I did some research on where Huckabee is on some of the issues for my brother who lives in South Carolina and will be voting on Saturday. I thought I'd put it in post form for anyone who is still on the fence.

1. Education:

A) Against school vouchers, in his own words.

B) Endorsed by the National Education Association (aka Teacher's Union) in New Hampshire.

2. Club for Growth (a conservative think tank) gives a rundown on Mike Huckabee's record on economic & school choice issues by citing Huckabee's own record.

3. Mike Huckabee's pardon of Rapist/Murderer Wayne Dumond.
--A video ad on the pardon

4. Cato Institute (conservative/libertarian think tank) rates all the Governors and in 2006 they gave Huckabee an F based on "23 objective measures of fiscal performance".

(Side note: I didn't realize until looking this up that my Governor was the only one to get an A :-). And we have all these one issue voters here in Missouri who don't want to re-elect him this year, sigh....)

5. Wikipedia on Huckabee

6. His foreign policy views in his own words.

--Another article about his foreign policy

7. For Federal Smoking Ban (aka sliding into socialism).
--He has since retracted this position. I think it was a case of realizing how unpopular it is. It doesn't instill a lot of confidence either way.

8. His campaign appears to be aligned with a group that is responsible for some of the extremely negative push polling.


To see other posts and articles on Huckabee, go here!

Arkansas Times (2002): Mike Huckabee and Wayne Dumond

In 2005, long before Mike Huckabee had been mentioned as a serious presidential candidate, the Arkansas Times ran a reprint of a horrifying article.

Editor's note, Sept. 1, 2005: Wayne Dumond, convicted of rape in Arkansas and murder in Missouri, died of apparent natural causes in prison Tuesday.

The occasion prompts us to republish Murray Waas' prize-winning article for the Arkansas Times in 2002 about the extraordinary steps Gov. Mike Huckabee took to help win Dumond's freedom. He has since blamed others for Dumond's release to kill again, but his actions over many years demonstrated his support for Dumond and, ultimately, the instrumental role he played in the parole board's decision to free him.

...Huckabee has denied a role in Dumond’s release, which has become an issue in his race for re-election against Democrat Jimmie Lou Fisher. Fisher says Huckabee’s advocacy of Dumond’s freedom, plus other acts of executive clemency, exhibit poor judgment. In response, Huckabee has shifted responsibility for Dumond’s release to others, claiming former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker made Dumond eligible for parole and saying the Post Prison Transfer Board made the decision on its own to free Dumond.

But the Times’ new reporting shows the extent to which Huckabee and a key aide were involved in the process to win Dumond’s release. It was a process marked by deviation from accepted parole practice and direct personal lobbying by the governor, in an apparently illegal and unrecorded closed-door meeting with the parole board...

Make sure you read the Times' "Special handling - How the Huckabee administration worked to free rapist Wayne Dumond."

And Ace has more on Huckabee's 1,033 clemencies.

Huckabee has no business running for Assistant County Sewer District Commissioner, much less the highest office in the land.

IF MITT LOSES MICHIGAN, WHAT WOULD THAT SAY ABOUT MICHIGAN'S GOP CONSERVATIVES?

As Mark Levin succinctly said:

"It comes down to three choices in Michigan tomorrow: Romney, Huckabee, and McCain. And there’s just no question Romney is the conservative of the three – there’s just no question."

If Mitt loses it will be because Huckabee STOLE some of the conservatives, thereby SPLITTING the conservative vote and LETTING THE LIBERAL MCCAIN WIN.

I say STOLE because he will have taken these votes under false pretenses - as Levin says. Huckabee is PRETENDING to be a conservative.

Why might many GOP conservatives who KNOW that Huckabee is know conservative hold their noses vote for Huckabee anyway!?!?

Maybe because Huckabee is a Christian from a regular protestant sect, and Mitt is a Christian from a sect which Americans know very little about - and as a result they've become victims of Mormon-scaremongering.

I HAVE A REMINDER FOR GOP MICHAGANERS:

Mitt's father was a Mormon and a darn good Governor.

If the late George Romney's Mormonism wasn't a problem in the 1960's then Mitt's cannot be a problem in 2008!

STILL WORRIED!?!?

Don't be: if arch-liberal Harry Reidi and Mitt Romney can both be GOOD MORMONS, then OBVIOUSLY Mormonism is not so weird or so monolithic a creed as to "infect" the political policies of a Mormon elected to public office.

That's why Mitt's Mormonism should be of NO CONCERN FOR YOU.

You should IGNORE BOTH Huckabee's overt Christianity and Mitt's Mormonism.

VOTE THE ISSUES.

AND MITT IS RIGHT ON THE ISSUES.

HUCKABEE LIKES TO DO "IT" MISSIONARY-STYLE!

BY "IT" I MEAN POLITICS!

AP:

Republican Mike Huckabee spoke from the pulpit Sunday, not as a politician but as the preacher he used to be, delivering a sermon on how merely being good isn't enough to get into heaven.

Huckabee is vying for support from the Christian conservatives who dominate the GOP in South Carolina, which chooses a Republican presidential nominee on Saturday. A former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor, Huckabee is competing for their votes with fellow southerner Fred Thompson.

As in Iowa, where he won the Jan. 3 caucuses, Huckabee is rousing pastors to marshal their flocks for him.

HOT AIR:

Huck supporter’s e-mail: Get pastors to endorse him privately, then pitch GOTV from the pulpit

THIS IS PRETTY EFFIN' OUTRAGEOUS, IF YOU ASK ME - AND NOT BECOMING OF A MAN WHO IS REALLY SEEKING TO BE PRESIDENT OF ALL THE PEOPLE.

• BUT MAYBE HUCK DOESN'T WANT TO BE PRESIDENT.
• MAYBE HE'S JUST PLANS ON USING THE NATIONAL PR HE'S GAINING TO START A NATIONAL TELEVANGELICAL CORPORATION IN 2009?
• YOU KNOW, SO HE CAN BECOME THE NEXT PAT ROBERTSON AND JERRY FALWELL ALL ROLLED INTO ONE.

THAT'S WHAT I THINK.

The Huckabee campaign: gone in 60 seconds

In case you missed it Thursday night, Fred Thompson singlehandedly ended Mike Huckabee's campaign with this riff.

On the one hand, you have the Reagan revolution. You have the Reagan coalition of limited government and strong national security. On the other hand, you have the direction that Governor Huckabee would take us in. He would be a Christian leader, but he would also bring about liberal economic policies, liberal foreign policies. He believes we have an arrogant foreign policy and the tradition of, blame America first.

He believes that Guantanamo should be closed down and those enemy combatants brought here to the United States to find their way into the court system eventually. He believes in taxpayer-funded programs for illegals, as he did in Arkansas. He has the endorsement of the National Education Association, and the NEA said it was because of his opposition to vouchers. He said he would sign a bill that would ban smoking nationwide. So much for federalism. So much for states' rights. So much for individual rights. That's not the model of the Reagan coalition, that's the model of the Democratic Party.

No need for applause. This is just a blog.

Update: another good Thompson quip, courtesy Say Anything.

PROOF MCCAIN'S SNARKINESS AND SNIDENESS AGAINST MITT BACKFIRED

RIEHL HAS THE MUST SEE VIDEO.

• RIEHL AND ME AND TNR CALLED IT FROM THE START:
• IN LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE, MCCAIN'S CONSTANT ATTACKS AGAINST MITT LOOKED PETTY AND MEAN AND DISPLAYED PERSONAL QUALITIES UNBECOMING FOE A PRESIDENT.
• (DITTO GOMER HUCKSTERBEE.)

FACT: HUCKABEE ONLY GOT 40% OF IOWA'S GOP EVANGELICALS

The NYTIMES wrote that 80% of the GOP caucusers were evangelicals.

Huckabee only got 34% of the GOP vote.

SO... if ALL his votes were evangelicals, then he only got 40% of them - meaning 60% thought another candidate was better than Preacher Huckabee.

That's hardly a ringing endorsement of Huckabee by evangelicals.

If Huckabee got some non-evangelical support, then his evangelical support is even lower than 40%.

This has a few consequences: first, it PROVES that the evangelical base is NOT MONOLITHIC and NOT UNIFORMLY BEHIND HUCKABEE; second, it suggests that Romney's team is correct when they say that Huckabee won because Huckabee's get-out-the-vote effort was better than theirs.

Elections are won by GOTV and everyone - including me - estimated that Romney and Hillary would get better efforts because of their money and tram experts and organization.

In the next few primaries, the candidate with the best organization on the ground will win - excluding major mistakes (whether forced or unforced).

I think Romney and Hillary may both make comebacks because of their money and organizations.

And I give the edge to Romney: he can always just write a check; Hillary has to raise money and that might becoming quite difficult.

I don't think Huckabee and Rollins can keep the ball rolling. Their support is not deep and it is not wide.

ADDENDUM: I think Mitt ought to more effedtively use Jim DeMint and as many other southern conservatives as possible - to show he is going to govern as a conservative.

Earlier post on Huck's intrinsic weaknesses as a candidate HERE.

IOWA: "THE BIG TENT" VERSUS ELMER GANTRY'S "REVIVAL TENT "

NRO:

The Tale of the GOP Caucuses [Rich Lowry]

Here's one way to look at it: 60% of voters were evangelicals. Huck beat Romney among them 45-19%. 40% weren't evangelicals. Romney beat Huck among them 33-13%.

01/03 11:04 PM

• THE NOMINEE OF THE GOP WILL NOT BE DECIDED SOLELY BY SECTARIAN EVANGELICALS.

• MANY OTHER KEY PRIMARY STATES HAVE FAR FEWER EVANGELICALS THAN IOWA.

• MITT, MCCAIN, RUDY AND THOMPSON MUST MERELY FIND A WAY TO REMAIN VIABLE UNTIL THOSE STATES HAVE PRIMARIES - STARTING WITH NEW HAMPSHIRE.

• ONE OF THEM - AND NOT HUCKABEE - WILL BE THE NOMINEE.

END. OF. STORY.

UPDATE - VIA HOT AIR; IT WAS EVEN MORE SKEWED THAN LOWRY WROTE: 80% NOT 60 BUT 80% OF THE GOP "CAUCUSERS" WERE EVANGELICALS, ACCORDING TO THE NYTIMES:

A poll of people entering the Republican caucuses on Thursday showed more than 8 in 10 of his supporters identified themselves as evangelicals.

NO WONDER HUCKABEE WON.

THEY MIGHT AS WELL HAVE HAD THE GOP CAUCUSES IN CHURCHES!

NOTE: I am NOT arguing that evangelicals should have "NO SAY" in picking the nominee. I AM arhuing that they shouldn't have a say which is disproportionate to their true electoral power. In Iowa ... THEY DID.

END. OF. STORY.

The Arkansas Governorship Virus claims another victim

 
Caucus Cooler offers a new nickname for Mike Huckabee, officially labeling him Arkansas's "Governor Graft."*

The Cooler has obtained documents that show Mike Huckabee received $378,000 in consulting fees during 2006, while he was still governor of Arkansas.

[Most notably], $35,000 came from Novo Nordisk, one of the world's largest embryonic stem cell researchers. It seems that when money is at stake Huckabee may be able to look past his supposedly fervent opposition to this procedure...

...You can view a full list of Huckabee "donors" here.

Bob Krumm provides additional insight into Huckabee's startling stem-cell duplicity:

On April 13, 2007 Mike Huckabee was interviewed by the Des Moines Register. Among the questions was one about stem cells. In response Huckabee said that “I don’t think that the only avenue to curing cacer and heart disease and diabetes and some of the horrible things that inflict Americans is that we have to destroy life in order to create it.”

That’s not an absolute denunciation of embryonic stem cell research*, but the “destroy life” phraseology certainly gave the impression to social conservatives that he is against it.

Interestingly, just one month later Mike Huckabee produced his financial disclosure statement indicating that he had been paid a $17,500 consulting fee by a leading pharmaceutical company engaged in embryonic stem cell research to find a treatment for diabetes.

Obviously, this is a problem for some social conservatives. To others it is an example of the hypocrisy of Huckabee. And to all, that financial statement should raise other alarms.

In addition to the payments from Novo Nordisk, Mike Huckabee took a third of a million, much of it from organizations with governmental interests, even while he was Governor of Arkansas. Included in that is a salary from Flagship Global Health... There is quite obviously a conflict of interest [regarding healthcare]. Even worse, Flagship’s business model would seem to profit from an increase in government medical spending... [even worse,] as the quality of government care deteriorates, his company’s profits presumably grow. It would be like choosing the owner of a taxi company to regulate buses; the worse the buses perform, the more he profits.

After [Mike Huckabee’s] personal success at shedding 100-plus pounds, he has found a platform to share his secrets to creating better health habits in “Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork”. Novo Nordisk, a world leader in diabetes care, today announced the availability of 35,000 Spanish-translated copies of this best-selling book, which can be ordered free of charge.

Glenn Reynolds wondered what Huckabee was paid for the 35,000 books. It’s a good question.

Piling on? The pundits aren't done yet.

BizzyBlog's Tom Blumer adds:

And to think I was tempted to give the guy a pass over the “wedding” registries used to collect gifts from “friends” last year when his time as governor had ended. You see, Poor Huck and his wife Janet were moving into a 7,000-foot house, and had to furnish it “somehow.” Gag me.

...I’m insulted that Huckabee — take your pick — thought he could get all of this past the nation indefinitely, or that we wouldn’t care if it became known.

What is it with these Arkansas governors? Is there some sort of virus circulating in the HVAC of the governor's mansion, similar to those gastrointestinal bugs people catch on cruise ships?


* Because there was simply nothing else to do in Little Rock, the Arkansas House passed legislation in March '07 ruling that "Arkansas's" is the correct possessive form of the state's name.

THERE'D BE ONLY ONE THING WORSE THAN HUCKABEE AT THE TOP OF THE TICKET

AND THAT'S A TICKET WITH HUCKABEE AT THE TOP... AND RON PAUL ON THE BOTTOM.

DNC endorses Huckabee: an "Easy Kill" in General Election

Ace provides the latest election scoops, including the National Review's endorsement of Mitt Romney (hat tip: Larwyn):

Surprising? A bit. I really don't know how much pull NR has though. From my comments and emails, I gather NR is viewed very suspiciously by a large swath of the conservative electorate, which views them as meddlesome yuppie RINOs.

Meanwhile, also from Drudge, Democrats have been instructed to avoid all criticism of Huckabee, viewing him as an "easy kill" in the general election...

Democrat party officials are avoiding any and all criticism of Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, insiders reveal... The Democratic National Committee has told staffers to hold all fire, until he secures the party's nomination... The directive has come down from the highest levels within the party, according to a top source.

Within the DNC, Huckabee is known as the "glass jaw -- and they're just waiting to break it."

In the last three weeks since Huckabee's surge kicked in, the DNC hasn't released a single press release criticizing his rising candidacy... The last DNC press release critical of Huckabee appeared back on March 2nd.

...In fact, as the story broke over the weekend that Huckabee said he wanted to isolate AIDS patients back in 1992, the DNC ignored the opportunity to slam the candidate from the left.

"He'll easily be their McGovern, an easy kill," mocked one senior Democrat operative Tuesday morning from Washington.

Iowans take note.

Cross-posted at Doug Ross @ Journal

HUCKSTERBEE AND GOMER: SEPARATED AT BIRTH

SEPARATED AT BIRTH?

I'd have more confidence in Gomer's foreign policy and his national security cred's than Huckabee's.

Huckabee's confluence of weirdness

Having surged to a surprising lead in Iowa, GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee appears to be melting down faster than a popsicle lodged in Michael Moore's jowls. Larwyn points us to several weird Huckastories, many of them analyzed for us by Dan Riehl:

* Huckabee called for a quarantine of AIDS patients in 1992: Dan Riehl points out that as early as '87, Princess Di and other notables were shaking hands and hugging AIDS sufferers to reinforce the notion that the disease could not be passed through casual contact.

* Huckabee was "ignorant" of the latest National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iran: The Politico's Jonathan Martin reports that Huckabee was completely unaware of the dominant news story of the last week:

Kuhn: I don’t know to what extent you have been briefed or been able to take a look at the NIE report that came out yesterday ...

Huckabee: I’m sorry?

Kuhn: The NIE report, the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. Have you been briefed or been able to take a look at it —

Huckabee: No.

Kuhn: Have you heard of the finding?

Huckabee: No.

...Kuhn: Does the United States face a higher burden of proof on Iran in light of Iraq, in the international community?

Huckabee: Probably so. First time I’ve been asked a question like that. But I think probably so because there is going to be a real anxiety for us to take any type of action without there being some very credible and almost irrefutable intelligence to validate our decision...

* Huckabee supported the disastrous bi-partisan immigration reform bill: The Washington Times reported that the candidate "...supported President Bush's immigration plan and claimed that opposition to Bush's proposal was driven by 'racism or nativism' and that it wasn't amnesty."

That message should really resonate with Iowans.

* Huckabee's made some quaint observations about homosexuality: Riehl ("there goes the Log Cabin vote") highlights a Huckaboo-boo:

Asked if he thinks homosexuality is sinful, he said, “Well I believe it would be -- just like lying is sinful and stealing is sinful. There are a lot of things that are sinful. It doesn't mean that a person is a horrible person. It means that they engage in behavior that is outside the norms of those boundaries of our traditional view of what's right and what's wrong.

[Well, that's better than his 1992 view:]

I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk.

* * *
Any more stories like these and the governor might as well change his name to Huck Paul.

Cross-posted at Doug Ross @ Journal

HUCKABEE IS A NANNYSTATE LIBERAL - a pro-life Hillary

ACE HAS THE DETAILS AND LINKS.

HE'S JUST AN ANTI-ABORTION HILARY.

THE BAD NEWS KEEPS POURING IN ABOUT THE HUCKSTER

Will the Huckster be able to pass the "smell test"? The bad news just keeps rolling in about him as he seems to be gaining some traction.

--Is the Huckster the Republican's Jimmy Carter? I actually thought this exact thing when a caller was talking about him to Rush the other day.

--Mom: 'Carol Sue Would Be Alive Today' If Not for Huckabee

--The Huckster This excerpt from one of the articles was particularly disturbing to me:

Huckabee is very convincing at expressing regret. That's why he is doing so well in the polls: Because he is so good at sounding good, no matter whether what he says holds water or not.
[but]
What he says is an outright lie. Here is the big whopper: "Nobody, not me, not Jim Guy Tucker, not Bill Clinton, not that parole board, could ever imagine what might have transpired.. " This is, to put it kindly, a crock of manure. The whole point of the Murray Waas story out today is that Huckabee was warned repeatedly and convincingly EXACTLY what was likely to transpire if DuMond were to be released, and he ignored all those warnings. Meanwhile, the evidence presented is absolutely overwhelming that he strongly intervened with the parole board to secure DuMond's release -- and he seems to have lied about that too. Just like he lied about whether or not he was "ordered" by his state's courts to impose a particular tax hike, and just like several other now-documented misrepresentations he has made about the circumstances of his tax hikes. (To be fair, I think that at the state and local level there can indeed be reasonable times, although not many of them, to raise certain taxes for particular purposes. That said, Huck's record is in every way that of a fairly profligate taxer and spender.)

But back to DuMond: We can believe Huckabee's denials, or we can believe the overwhelmingly documented evidence. There was a time when Republicans were empiricists, meaning that we actually pay attention to evidence, to facts. The evidence here is clear. Huckabee has no good answer for it, no matter how sincerely he regrets the ultimate, deadly result of his horrendous decision -- a decision whose horrendous results were eminently predictable.

This man simply cannot be our nominee. As Reliapundit so eloquently said, "He is McCain-Lite."

IOWA DOESN'T MATTER: CAUCUS HAS MOSTLY PICKED LOSERS

• OF THE LAST 4 IOWA GOP CAUCUSES, ONLY 1 WINNER WENT ON TO WIN THE PRESIDENCY: GEORGE W. BUSH.

• THE STATE MOSTLY PICKS LOSERS.

NO WONDER HUCKABEE IS LEADING.

HUCKABEE IS MCCAIN-LITE

• MCCAIN AND HUCKABEE ARE LIBS.

• MCCAIN MIGHT EVEN BE MORE HAWKISH ON THE WAR AND ON SPENDING.

• HUCKSTERBEE OPPOSED GITMO AND WATER-BOARDING.

HUCKABEE IS AS UNACCEPTABLE TO ME AS RON PAUL.

HUCKABEE IS NOT THE ANSWER

While everyone in the Republican field is more competent and has more experience than any of the Dem nominees (save Ron Paul) there is a lot of dissatisfaction and division. It looks like it is going to come down to Rudy and Romney. Those not happy with those choices are trying to tout Huckabee. I've always had a gut dislike for Huckabee and the more I see of him the less I like. Below are just 2 of the latest articles on him detailing some of his problems:

--If You Think Paul is scary, Take a look at Huckabee by Jonah Goldberg
Here is an excerpt:

What's so scary about Huckabee? Personally, nothing. He seems a charming, decent, friendly, pious man.

What's troubling about The Man From Hope 2.0 is what he represents. Huckabee represents compassionate conservatism on steroids. A devout social conservative on issues such as abortion, school prayer, homosexuality and evolution, Huckabee's a populist on economics, a fad-follower on the environment and an all-around do-gooder who believes that the biblical obligation to do "good works" extends to using government - and your tax dollars - to bring us closer to the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

For example, Huckabee would support a nationwide ban on public smoking. Why? Because he's on a health kick, thinks smoking is bad and believes the government should do the right thing.

In this respect, Huckabee's philosophy is conventionally liberal, or progressive. What he wants government to do certainly differs in important respects from what Hillary Clinton wants, but the limits he would place on governmental do-goodery are primarily tactical or practical, not philosophical or constitutional. This isn't to say he - or Hillary - is a would-be tyrant, but simply to note that the progressive notion of the state as a loving, caring parent is becoming a bipartisan affair.

Indeed, Huckabee represents the latest attempt to make conservatism more popular. Contrary to the conventional belief that Republicans need to drop their opposition to abortion, gay marriage and the like in order to be popular, Huckabee understands that the unpopular stuff is the economic libertarianism: free trade and smaller government. That's why we're seeing a rise in economic populism on the right married to a culturally conservative populism. Huckabee is the bastard child of Lou Dobbs and Pat Robertson.

Historically, the conservative movement benefited from the tension between libertarianism and cultural traditionalism. This tension - and the effort to reconcile it under the name "fusionism" - has been mischaracterized as a battle between right-wing factions when it's really a conflict that runs through the heart of every conservative.

--The False Conservative by Bob Novak
Some excerpts:

Who would respond to criticism from the Club for Growth by calling the conservative, free-market campaign organization the "Club for Greed"? That sounds like Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich or John Edwards, all Democrats preaching the class struggle. In fact, the rejoinder comes from Mike Huckabee, who has broken out of the pack of second-tier Republican presidential candidates to become a serious contender -- definitely in Iowa and perhaps nationally.

Huckabee is campaigning as a conservative, but serious Republicans know that he is a high-tax, protectionist advocate of big government and a strong hand in the Oval Office directing the lives of Americans. Until now, they did not bother to expose the former governor of Arkansas as a false conservative because he seemed an underfunded, unknown nuisance candidate. Now that he has pulled even with Mitt Romney for the Iowa caucuses and might make more progress, the beleaguered Republican Party has a frightening problem.

There is no doubt about Huckabee's record during a decade in Little Rock. He was regarded by fellow Republican governors as a compulsive tax-and-spender. He increased the Arkansas tax burden 47 percent, boosting the levies on gasoline and cigarettes. When he lost 100 pounds and decided to press his new lifestyle on the American people, he was hardly being a Goldwater-Reagan libertarian.

Rudy may not be perfect but I do think he is our best option. My dream team pick would be Rudy with Fred Thompson as his VP.

MIKE HUCKABEE IS NOT THE ANSWER

As I've made pretty clear I'll be voting for whoever gets the Republican nomination with the exception of Ron Paul but I have also been honest that I am no fan of Mike Huckabee.

I did this post on why I'm not thrilled with Huckabee. I hated to do one on why I didn't like him but people kept asking me why, so I spelled it out. Today, John Fund has come out with a column that I think says it all and is an "I told you so" moment for me. Here is small excerpt:

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."

I know many social conservatives are nervous about Rudy but to be honest I think when it comes to Supreme Court Justices (where most moral issues come into play) I trust Rudy more than Huckabee to make good picks!!