Hucka-has-been
Posted By Russ Emerson on November 30, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I don’t think I’ve ever made it a secret that I am not a fan of former Arkansas governor and GOP aspirant Mike Huckabee. He might be a decent, upstanding guy — I mostly believe him to be — but his executive judgement has always been questionable.
In the past, I opposed him because of his nanny-state tendencies. Though I would appear to fit squarely into his “base” demographic — protestant, evangelical, conservative, white male in the South — I am in fact rather more libertarian in my political leanings. More than once Huckabee has expressed a desire to use the power of government to intrude into peoples’ lives in ways that are as obnoxious to a free society as is the currently proposed health care reform, and that’s all I needed to know to oppose him. I am thoroughly antagonistic to that sort of government intrusion into the sphere of decisions which are inherently personal, whether it comes from the Left or from the Right.
What I was unfamiliar with before yesterday’s horrific crime in Washington was his record as governor of Arkansas of issuing pardons and commutations, often against the advice of law enforcement officials. He took an admirable attitude — the Christian concept of forgiveness — entirely too far, applying it where it ought not to have been used. He failed to take justice into account.
For the Christian, forgiveness towards the person who has committed a crime against you isn’t optional, it is commanded. But that does not remove the obligation to pursue justice for criminal actions, or for the criminal to pay the price for their crimes. Huckabee often let his personal feelings override his obligation as governor to see justice done.
Huckabee’s response to the deaths does even more to call his judgement into question.
I’m only surprised that he hasn’t tried to blame Mitt Romney and the Mormons.
His executive judgement is no longer a matter of speculation; I would no more trust him in the Oval Office than I trust Obama and his Chicago cabal. It was only a matter of time before his leniency would come around to bite him in the backside. I only wish it hadn’t come at the cost of the lives of four police officers.
Huckabee has demonstrated once and again that his decision making abilities are, at best, questionable.
And who wants a president who believes that the Bible is literally true, particularly when it’s easily demonstrated that it isn’t so?
Scary man.
Britney’s flippant comment “that the Bible is literally true, particularly when it’s easily demonstrated that it isn’t so?” is just as “scary man.” If it’s so easily demonstrated, then why hasn’t it been so? Surely a clear thinking person wouldn’t reveal such shallow perspective when making a judgement about someone else. I’m no fan of the Huck. But if you are going to call someone else’s judgement questionable, shouldn’t you refrain from exposing your own as the same? The list of great people, with great minds, in history who have held a literal view of the Bible is too long to list. Including over 63% of Americans according to a Rasmussen survey. Why not avoid making a pejorative statement. It’s usually the case that when a statement like that is made, the maker has an axe to grind, but they rarely grind it to sharpness. So if you don’t dig the Huck or his judgement, just say that.
Mark Twain said it well once, “It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”