Redstate

Posted at 9:20am on May 17, 2008 MI Morning Update: MI House Dems Wrong on PBA - McCain, GOP Heavyweights Make Splash at NRA

By saul anuzis

171 Days until Election Day

May 17, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

WHY TAXPAYERS ARE LOSING…the Democrats' strategy is very simple…if you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can usually count on Paul’s support.

HOUSE DEMOCRATS…ENDORSED BY RTL… The rights of the unborn were blatantly ignored by House Democrats again today as they allowed the heinous and unethical partial birth abortion procedure to continue in Michigan. Speaker Pro-Tem Mike Sak gaveled down and refused to hear arguments on seven amendments to ban partial birth abortion.

Posted in huckabee | McCain | Michigan Republican Party | NRA | Partial-Birth Abortion | Republicans | Romney | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:44pm on Feb. 14, 2008 Huckabee's scheme

By Mark Kilmer

It could be that Mike Huckabee is staying in the race hoping to do well in parts of Texas on March 4th, gaining enough delegates to pass Mitt Romney in the delegate count. This would make Huck the frontrunner for the 2012 nomination, should McCain -- knock on wood -- run a bad campaign against Obama.

Posted at 9:08am on Feb. 14, 2008 MI Morning Update: Where is Cong. Candidate Gary Peters? - Huckabee Camp Hunting Delegates - McCain in Great Shape

By saul anuzis

266 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

We held a press conference at Central Michigan University yesterday…looking for Gary Peters?!? He has a $65,000/yr job teaching one class, one day a week…while running for Congress. Ethics…Democrat style. Milk carton to follow him throughout the campaign.

Happy Birthday to our National Committeeman Chuck Yob!

Huckabee folks are hunting for delegates…see your local Huckabee supporter. Gary Glenn and Bill Voorheis are leading the way here in Michigan.

Posted in Gary Peters | huckabee | McCain | Michigan Republican Party | Presidential Primary | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:29am on Dec. 14, 2007 Ed Rollins to run Team Huckabee

Old Reagan, Perot hand to help the Huck

By Mark Kilmer

After listening to ceaseless attacks directly from the mouth of Mitt Romney, 2008 Republican Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has brought on veteran GOP op Ed Rollins to run his campaign.

In recent years, Rollins has been associated with K.T. McFarland, but he continues to be regarded as a stalwart of Republican consultants.

The fact that he would throw his support behind Huckabee lends the former governor some Republican institutional credibility, especially as he appears to be surging in the early states.

Well, Rollins did President Reagan's reelection campaign in 1984, but Rollins also ran the campaign of Ross Perot in '92.

This was in order for Huckabee, as his ragtag band of supporters was having an impossible time of responding to the incoming attacks. It doesn't change Huckabee's ideology and campaign skill though, turning him into neither a Ronald Reagan nor a Ross Perot.

Posted in 2008 Presidential Campaign | Breaking News | huckabee — Comments (48)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:29pm on Dec. 10, 2007 Re: Hurting Huckabee

By Jeff Emanuel

Alexham, those are very important distinctions and points of clarification. Assuming that those are accurate (I won't make any pretensions about knowing whether they are or not), this is something Huck had better get out in front of quickly, before possibly spurious charges such as these become widespread and widely known.

Stories as gruesome and emotional as this will grab people's attention and cause visceral reactions both toward the subject matter and toward the person blamed in the author's account; with a subject as serious as this, I'm honestly not sure that (again, assuming that Huck bears no blame here) even a presentation of the facts can salvage the image of the person implicated by the story, even if that implication is completely undeserved.

Posted at 11:52pm on Dec. 6, 2007 Re: Is Huckabee a Compassionate Conservative?

By Jeff Emanuel

Alex, the next time you wish to (attempt to) shoot a hole in something that is commonly held, please please attempt to find an article which does *not* need to twist logic into a pretzel to bolster your argument.

To wit:

There has been much back slapping in the media and the blogosphere over identifying Mike Huckabee as a “Compassionate Conservative.” In fact a search of his website will find the phrase “Compassionate Conservatism” three times. (Changing to Compassionate Conservative” yields similar results.) In all three instances they are in the comments sections of posts.

So...because he doesn't use a certain term -- which accurately describes his record and platform (if we're being generous to him) -- on his website, it is therefore not applicable? Come on, Alex -- you yourself have used the term "compassionate conservatism" to describe (and to spin) Huck's big-government, nanny-state record; the simple fact that those words are not posted on his official campaign site does nothing to negate their accuracy as descriptors.

It probably doesn’t help matters that “compassionate conservatism” gets blamed for all that is wrong with the Bush administration.

Not all -- not even close. But the expansions of discretionary spending and of government bureaucracies and involvement? Absolutely. So "Huckabee’s own education page actually criticizes 'No Child Left Behind'" -- does that negate the fact that, under the title of Compassionate Conservatism, Bush pushed through (or allowed Congressional Democrats to write/push through) a massive Medicare expansion, among others? Who cares if, as Vox Nova says, "it passed with plenty of support from folks who wouldn’t self-describe themselves as “compassionate conservatives" -- who proposed it, and why?

And then there's the inexplicable attempt to claim that Huckabee the big-government Republican (a la GWB) is actually the anti-Bush, and that the "establishment candidates" have actually been running as a "competent Bush." Um, no -- Bush has been dropped like a hot rock by every candidate on that stage. His domestic policies (and big government ideals) have been as well -- at least, by all but one candidate. Which one? That's right: Mike Huckabee.

By the way, can you get more insulting to your audience's intelligence than to echo Huck's ridiculous mantra and to refer to his opponents as the "establishment candidates," as though he were some noble outsider riding in on a Biblical steed to save the day? Seriously -- please, please explain to me just how it is that a fella who was governor of a state for ten years is *less* of an "establishment candidate" than, say, a career businessman whose only experience in office is four years as a governor, an attorney who spent eight years as mayor of a city, or an actor whose only experience is eight years as a Senator.

Posted at 12:19pm on Dec. 6, 2007 A Big, Hairy Huckabee Question

Has Huckabee Lost His Conservative Card?

By Hunter Baker

I tend to like Mike Huckabee. I admit that I appreciate him mostly because he's a pro-lifer who doesn't sound like an idiot when talking about his faith.

There are lots of knocks on Huckabee. The big one is that he's not an economic conservative and that his record in Arkansas proves that. Here's my question:

Did Mike Huckabee do anything in Arkansas other than make some marginal tax increases in order to fund a state government that is still probably much-underfunded per capita relative to other states? Are we suggesting there is never a time a conservative, free-market politician would do such a thing?

Let's deal with only that question. I'd love to hear what you have to say.

END.

Posted in 2008 | huckabee | Small Government | taxes — Comments (77)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:50am on Dec. 4, 2007 One Month From Iowa

By Mark I

Originally posted at Political-Buzz.com

Sen. Sam Brownback became the first Republican to officially announce his intention to seek the GOP nomination a little less than eleven months ago. Since then, the race has had more twists and turns and ups and downs than a Six Flags roller coaster. Brownback is no longer in the race, and neither are former governors Jim Gilmore of Virgina and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was in, for a day. Then he was out. Other talked about Republicans never made the plunge. Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina decided that his current job was a better one; and former Gov. Jeb Bush decided to keep his surname and look for alternate employment. As the campaign winds its way, mercifully, towards votes that count, all the dynamic changes have failed to shake things out. The nomination is as up for grabs now, one month from Iowa, as it was last January.

Read on . . .

Posted in 2008 | Fred Thompson | giuliani | huckabee | Iowa | McCain | New Hampshire | Republicans | Romney — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:59am on Nov. 27, 2007 Huckabee Wraps Up the Salesmen Vote

By Hunter Baker

Zig Ziglar, the all-time grand champion of inspirational speaking and writing for salesmen has endorsed Mike Huckabee.

Posted at 11:07pm on Nov. 8, 2007 It is exciting enough just to stop Hillary

(Who's Pat Buchanan's pick, anyway?)

By Mark Kilmer

On one of his MSNBC shows this evening, infotainer Chris Matthews talked to Pat Buchanan and washingtonpost.com blogger Chris Cillizza about Republican Presidential politics. I suppose it’s good to hear opinions from outside the party – neither Buchanan nor Cillizza is a Republican – and it fills time for Matthews.

Matthews thinks Rudy wins the nomination. I don’t remember Cillizza expressing a certain opinion beyond Rudy, but Buchanan thought Mitt Romney had a good shot at defeating Giuliani no matter what Romney did. When confronted with the cumbersome fact that Romney is not faring well outside the few primary States where he is buying TV time and on one else has until recently, Buchanan echoed the popular theory that somehow wins in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, South Carolina, etc. will lift Romney’s popularity in other States. It’s plausible, PJB, but it would be insane to bet the fortune on that one. So many States are moving forward this cycle to increase their clout vis-à-vis the traditional candidacy-makers. No one’s going to follow these States just because Pat Buchanan complains that this is how it has always been done.

Nah, if Romney’s going to win this nomination, he’ll need to win more than a few States early, fingers crossed.

But if he does win this nomination, there is no reason why he could not, with some help, defeat Hillary.

Let's look at a poll. (Read More....)

Posted in 2008 | giuliani | Hillary | huckabee | McCain | Romney | thompson — Comments (16)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:14pm on Nov. 7, 2007 Re: Huckabee a Pro-life liberal

By Hunter Baker

I think it's really tough to say whether Huckabee is some kind of problematic liberal. We give Mitt a pass for a lot of things because he was in a blue state, but you have to remember that Huckabee cut his teeth campaigning in a blue/purple state.

He plays to the middle because he has good instincts for a general election campaign. His rhetoric tilts centrist, but I suspect he'd be net positive for us. His weight loss and health stuff will be eaten up by Americans who probably yearn for that kind of thing that everyone can get behind and feel good about.

Huck would probably make the GOP a more populist party and would probably actually broaden its support. The question is whether he'd do so at the expense of bad policy initiatives. I tend to think he'd be like a more virtuous Clinton. Wouldn't accomplish a lot policy-wise, but would be a good face for the party.

Posted at 1:32pm on Oct. 21, 2007 The GOP Conundrum: SoCons like Huckabee, but he's more a threat to the coalition than Rudy

By Erick

As I head back to Georgia after several days in Washington, I've got a few more thoughts on the FRC Action Washington Briefing.

First, John McCain is on his last leg after this. John McCain has been more of a pro-life, pro-family politician than any of the other guys running, save Huckabee. And he lost to Rudy Giuliani in the straw poll. McCain is respected by these people, but they have rejected his candidacy. If McCain can't get the values voters and he can't get the business voters, he really doesn't have much left.

Second, I'm told that people in the room tabulating the votes were stunned by Huckabee's showing. Stunned, for some of them, is an understatement. It seems clear to me that this was an opportunity for the leaders of the social conservative movement to sigh, shrug, and embrace Romney. They intended to.

They gave Romney a platform by himself on Friday night. They played heroic anthems for his entry and departure. He had the night all to himself. And he did well. Then Huckabee showed up the next day, sharing the same time cluster as Rudy. And Huckabee, with a speech he wrote himself, was magnificent.

Now, you can call me partisan or biased or whatever you want, but all I'm doing here is reporting. The leaders of the social conservative movement who were present, the Arlington Group members you hear so much about, were ready and willing to get on board Romney's campaign on Saturday morning. Then Huckabee spoke. Then the straw vote was tabulated. Then they realized that were they to do so, it would put them completely out of step with their members.

The social conservatives do not want to rally around Huckabee because he is as distasteful to fiscalcons as Rudy is to socons. Even Tony Perkins, the head of FRC, said he hoped the social conservative candidate would be palatable to the fiscal conservatives out there. Huckabee is not.

And here we arrive at the conundrum for the GOP and the Press. While the media has been filled with stories about the socons ready to bolt from the GOP if Rudy is the nominee, the real story and the untold story is that the business community is even more ready to bolt from the GOP. For the last eight years they've watched as the socons have scored every significant win on the right — stem cells, judges, etc. Only against Labor have the fiscal guys scored wins. But there have been no budget cuts, no culling of pork, steel subsidies, etc.

The fiscal guys see the writing on the wall. They see Hillary's position. And they are just about ready to cut a deal. And then you have the Republican libertarians who are just about ready to really vote for Ron Paul, doing to the GOP in 2008 what Ralph Nader voters did for the Democrats in 2000.

Huckabee breaks the coalition more than Giuliani because the socons fear Hillary more than the fiscalcons do. And that is why we won't see too many of the socon leaders rallying to the clear favorite of the socon base.

Posted in 2008 | FRC Action | huckabee | Rudy Giuliani — Comments (116)/ Email this page » / Read More »