Huckabee: If Only…

Michelle Malkin has a link up on a Townhall interview of Mike Huckabee. Huckabee is a pretty good guy with a decent record on a lot of issues in Arkansas. He’s known for losing a lot of weight and performing at the Freeper Inaugural Ball.

Huckabee is culturally Conservative on most issues and there’s a lot to like about Huckabee including a pro-life, pro-family stance. It was so prominent in his administration that when Paul Weyrich wrote about two other Conservative then-potential candidates, he was sent a laundry list of accomplishments:

The list is truly impressive. I can’t possibly mention all of them, but here are ones that I know readers care about. Governor Huckabee doubled the child-care tax credit. He eliminated the marriage penalty and capital gains taxes on the sale of a home. He indexed the state income tax to inflation. The governor protected the right of parents to home school their children. He signed the ban on partial birth abortions. He hosted three conferences on the family, signed legislation outlawing same sex marriage, signed a broad-based tax cut, helped to defeat gambling initiatives, signed a much improved charter school bill, and worked to grant more flexibility to school administrators in firing bad teachers. He has implemented a successful abstinence program in Arkansas, and signed an act defining the fetus as a person in the Arkansas criminal code. He signed a bill to allow judges to require divorcing parents to attend a class to learn about the effects of divorce on children, passed the nation’s third covenant marriage law, and passed a woman’s “right to know” bill, ensuring that women are fully informed before choosing an abortion.

Just this year (which allows a more direct comparison to the records of the other two governors), Gov. Huckabee signed legislation to allow issuance of the “Choose Life” license plate, and to require abortion providers to allow women to see an ultrasound if one is performed. He also put his name on bills that would ban the cloning of human beings, guarantee food and hydration for the terminally ill and those patients who are in nursing homes as well as ones to create public school choice, and to provide more parental rights regarding childhood immunizations. If that is not enough, he also signed bills to keep pornography out of the reach of children, and to provide special education funding for home schooled students.

But there are some problems.

Michelle wrote, “Now, if I could only set him straight on immigration enforcement.”

The link shows Huckabee opposing enforcing the law on immigration, when its his sworn duty as Governor of Arkansas to do so.

Weyrich observed other problems:

What Chris Pyle failed to mention in his e-mail is that during his time in office Gov. Huckabee has increased spending by $4.61 billion. That is an increase of 65.3%, or 7.4% annually. This is three times the rate of inflation. The rate far exceeded the growth of personal income and economic growth in the state. Worse yet, spending outpaced revenue growth by $1.4 billion and that was the reason for the state’s significant fiscal shortfall.

He’s a big spender and how does he make up the shortfall? From Andrew Roth at Club for Growth:

Huckabee signed a 3-cent gas tax increase in 1999
He called for a state sales tax hike in 2002
He signed a 25-cent cigarette tax in 2003
He allowed a major tax hike package to pass in 2004

So, its a Tax and Spend record, combined with a soft on immigration record. If only it wasn’t so, he’d be a good presidential candidate. As Weyrich observed three years ago:

The Governor needs to know that there are different interests within the GOP. Clearly, he would be at the top of the list on social issues, but when it comes to tax and spend issues, Mike Huckabee is going to have to change his policies before he will get unified support for a place on the national ticket.

Never forget that in Iowa, 53% of Caucus goers backed Forbes, Keyes, and Bauer. Had they been backing the same candidate, that candidate would have cleaned Bush’s clock. What’s happened in recent years is that everyone’s gone their own way. There’s no Ronald Reagan figure to unite the Conservative movement, so we all end up backing our own faction candidate. We need someone who can unite Conservatives. Those who are concerned with illegal immigration, those who are concerned with out of control of federal spending, and the cultural conservatives. If they unite, we’re going to get a great candidate in ’08. If they can’t unite behind one candidate, the establishment will win, I guarantee it and will get another 4-8 years of whining and moaning.

The worst thing you can do is to say, “Forget ‘em. The guy’s a great Christian Conservative.” He is and there’s no disputing his faith. However, he needs more than that, which is why I won’t be backing Mike Huckabee in the primary.

Mike Huckabee

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