Behind Huckabee's "Aw Shucks" Smile

This morning on MSNBC's Morning Joe, they played a clip from a speech made yesterday by GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee in which he said:

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it is a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that is what we need to do.... to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary standards that the country needed...."

This is scary wrong on so many levels. Of course, he was referring to his "beliefs," beliefs that he would act upon regarding termination of pregnancy and the definition of marriage. As this quote makes clear, he wants the Constitution to adhere to his literal translation of the Bible. Gone would be consensus, the will of the people.... only the doctrine of conservative Christians would prevail in his tortured vision of a Huckabee presidency.

While pandering to his base using The Word for cover, he, and all other religious hucksters like him, neglect to mention that the Bible does not provide an absolute answer as the flock is led to believe since it doesn't mention same-sex marriage and touches only once on miscarriage with a fine if a man causes something to happen to a pregnancy....

"Suppose a pregnant woman suffers a miscarriage as the result of an injury caused by someone who is fighting. If she isn't badly hurt, the one who injured her must pay whatever fine her husband demands and the judges approve. But if she is seriously injured, the payment will be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, cut for cut, and bruise for bruise. Exodus 21: 22-25. Contemporary English Version, American Bible Society"

In this same Bible chapter, it also demands: "Death is the punishment for cursing your father and mother." Does this biblical admonition also apply? Where would these alignments with the "God's standards" stop under a Huckabee presidency?

Some of Huckabee's religious backers.... The Christian Reconstructionists and dominionists.... are working hard to implement their narrow religious agendas based upon their belief in the inerrancy of the Bible and it's position of dominance in our government... not upon our Constitution and the freedoms and rights guaranteed under that Constitution. They're counting on Huckabee, and Huckabee is counting on their support.

This is serious. It's more than advocating for a breach in the wall separating church and state, it's a full-out assault on the very bedrock of our democracy. An attempt to stampede the unquestioning faithful toward a national theocracy.... and so far it's working.

Huckabee has the second-most Republican delegates and according to politico wisdom, stands to take the lion's share of the South Carolina primary delegates next Saturday.... the same large block of evangelical votes he captured in Iowa.

Huckabee probably won't resonate in the Michigan GOP primary today.... the rust-belt state has policy issues that need addressing starting with the NAFTA-gutting of manufacturing and the desperate plight of their working middle-class.

Hopefully, the religious Republican voters of South Carolina won't be gulled by the silky rhetoric of a former Baptist minister who is using his campaign bully pulpit to promise a rapture that in reality would be a "casting down" of their rights and freedoms.

Can McCain Drive Off with SC?

It was presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) finest hour.

He looked the far right wing of the GOP, and the far left wing of the Democratic party in the eye, put the Straight Talk Express into high gear, and "laid on the horn" in a speech just before the primary in South Carolina during his 2000 White House bid... trumpeting that evangelical pooh bahs Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were "agents of intolerance," comparing them to the left's wingnuts Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton. Intoxicating.

Conservative Christians in South Carolina, prompted by a blizzard of Bush dirty-tricks leaflets smearing McCain, and rejecting his straight-talking comments, put the brakes on his presidential bid.

But, this moment of telling truth to power won McCain the hearts of many Independents and Democrats even though his party abandoned him.

Since 2000 McCain has played the good soldier, many times coming to the defense of The Decider while disappointing many of his supporters who look at Bush as arrogant and an abject failure as president. With dismay they watched as McCain embraced The Decider, and made nice with Jerry Falwell.

Fast forward.... McCain's gassed up the bus and revived some of his straight talk message.... only this time he doesn't face the Bush bully boys, but the newly-minted darling of the religious right, Mike Huckabee. And, a formidable and politically-disciplined powerhouse in Mitt Romney.

So, did McCain's political plays to Bush's base give a boost to his current Oval Office quest?

It seems only marginally...as he also has "annoyed, aggravated and nearly destroyed some of the most powerful members of Washington's Republican establishment, creating a list of antagonists including anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist and the vehement Gun Owners of America." (WaPo) Yet, McCain boosters will welcome the anamosity as evidence that the embattled McCain hasn't totally lost his in-your-face charm.

So the question next Saturday seems to be, can an iconoclastic, and knows-where-the-bodies-are-buried Washington GOP insider get past his party to the wider general election where his curmudgeonish personality resonates?

It'll be a close call. The GOP needs his experience and broad popularity in November. However, South Carolina may be payback time for McCain's old GOP foes.... and conservative Christians with long memories and a new champion in Huckabee.