Mike Huckabee Resigns From CMA Foundation Board Following Proper Outcry In Nashville

There is no love here for any of the Huckabee family.  But when the news was first aired this week that Mike Huckabee was named to the CMA there was displeasure wide and deep.  No homophobic who stirs hatred and foments divisions in the nation, or has a daughter that lies with a twisted eye from the White House should have a place on the CMA.   The pressure against Huckabee built fast and he took the first exit ramp he could find.

Huckabee’s appointment sent instant shockwaves throughout Nashville, one of the few left-leaning cities in a deeply red state, that some in Music City felt showed the country music industry’s reticence to embrace the social movements gaining steam in other parts of the country. Among those speaking up was Jason Owen, head of powerhouse management firm Sandbox Entertainment (whose clients include country artists Little Big Town and Faith Hill) and Monument Records (Walker Hayes), who sent the CMA Foundation a letter Thursday declaring that neither he nor his artists would support the association in any way going forward.

In response to Huckabee’s resignation, singer, songwriter and producer Shane McAnally, who is on the CMA Board, said he was “glad” to hear the news and hopes “this will prevent any further distractions from the work that the CMA Foundation does in our community.”

He continued, “As a member of the CMA Board, I was disheartened to learn that Huckabee was appointed to the position because his beliefs have not been representative of our country music community as a whole, which is made up of dynamic and forward-thinking creatives. The CMA is an organization that acts as an ambassador for our industry, so it is incredibly important that we are diligent in spreading a message that embraces diversity and love. I hope that the CMA will continue to be governed by progressive and empathetic individuals in the future.”

Lets Say Goodbye To Some GOP Presidential Candidates

As much as I love politics there was no way I could watch the kiddies debate last evening.  There was no way I could justify my time being spent watching Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Carly Fiorina and Jim Gilmore stand behind podiums pretending they had a chance at being more than a laugh line.

We all know that was the last debate before the Iowa caucuses but more importantly for everyone who cares about the party nomination it is also the last time those four jokers will appear on any presidential debate stage.    Within 10 days or less all of them will be gone from the presidential trail as they pull the plug on their campaigns.

Well, not every campaign.

Since Santorum is opposed to pulling life support we will just see him carry a jar with his campaign inside–akin to the fetus he lugged home from the hospital to show his kids after his wife had a miscarriage.

Huckabee entered this race for the dollars it would allow him to earn with future business deals while Fiorina wanted to see how many times she could undermine her own gender in one campaign.

And there is no earthly reason why Gilmore entered the race.

But thankfully they are all soon to be asterisks.

Religious Voters Differ With Harsh Tone Of GOP Presidential Candidates Regarding Refugees

Hat Tip To Rick

What we are witnessing over the Syrian refugee issue is the separation of those motivated by a religious perspective who walk their talk–and the GOP candidates who wish to use fear and disorder to their political advantage.

For Republican presidential contenders such as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who have been working hard at shoring up evangelical support in a crowded field, harsh words against refugees carries a risk of looking politically opportunistic instead of compassionate. Some advocates were particularly shocked when Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, New Jersey’s governor, said that the U.S. should bar Syrian orphaned toddlers if necessary.

“That was offensive. That was mean-spirited,” said one advocate with a Christian group that resettles refugees. He added: “it’s disappointing because there have been Republican senators and presidents who have strongly supported this program over the years. There’s a proud tradition in the Republican Party of welcoming those who are fleeing persecution, and this takes the party in a negative direction. It’s easy to pick on vulnerable refugees who have no voice. But there are immigrant groups who have voting power that understand what is going on. They understand that it’s an anti-immigrant message.”

Meanwhile, faith-based groups have also stepped up their advocacy efforts for refugees. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement expressing distress over calls by elected officials to halt the resettlement program.

“These refugees are fleeing terror themselves — violence like we have witnessed in Paris,” said the statement by Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, chairman of the conference’s committee on migration. “Instead of using this tragedy to scapegoat all refugees, I call upon our public officials to work together to end the Syrian conflict peacefully so the close to 4 million Syrian refugees can return to their country and rebuild their homes. Until that goal is achieved, we must work with the world community to provide safe haven to vulnerable and deserving refugees who are simply attempting to survive.”

Mike Huckabee Needs Ethics Lesson

Mike Huckabee is willing to resort to anything in order to make a headline.

Huckabee evoked imagery of Nazi death camps when discussing the deal over Iran’s nuclear program this weekend even going so far as to say President Barack Obama “would take the Israelis and basically march them to the door of the oven.”

“This president’s foreign policy is the most feckless in American history.  He’s so naive he would trust the Iranians and he would take the Israelis and basically march them to the door of the oven. This is the most idiot thing.”

The former minister who loves to talk about morals and righteousness might also want to take a lesson or two in ethics.  I cannot image this was the Christian approach that he wants voters to feel he lives by, or how he deals with complex policy questions.

He also might bone up on the on diplomatic deal so he can talk constructively about it rather then need to resort to the lowest common denominator type of campaigning that turns off many citizens from listening further.

81 Things Mike Huckabee Has Denounced

This is a great political read.  A real list.  With Huckabee I am surprised they only came up with 81!

This list, which is an annotated catalog of things and people that Huckabee has over the last four decades decried as unwise, unhealthy, un-conservative, un-Biblical or un-American. It runs to 81 items. Which is not all of them. But it’s enough to show the risk of a life spent passing moral judgments for political gain.

Here is a sample.

31.) Overbearing security at airports. “Bend over and take it like a prisoner!”(2015, in the same book).

32.) Profanity, as a root cause of mass shootings in America.  “Mass profanity has always been a harbinger of mass violence.” (1998, in Huckabee’s book “Kids Who Kill.'”)

33.) Abortion, as a root cause of mass shootings in America.  “Desensitizing.” (1998, same book)

34.) Violence on TV, as a root cause of mass shootings in America. “The average American child watches 8,000 made-for-television murders.” (1998, same book).

35.) Problems at the U.S.-Mexico border. “My plan to secure the border? Two words: Chuck. Norris.” (2007. Huckabee made that joke as he was being endorsed by action-movie legend Chuck Norris, who has killed at least 102 people onscreen).

36.) Lack of religion in schools, as a root cause of mass shootings in America. “Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage.” (2012)

Mike Huckabee Helped Peddle Cancer Cure Based On Bible Verses

 

I am no fan of the Hick from Arkansas.

I have repeatedly stated Mike Huckabee is a huckster and one who has money in his sights just like the Wasilla Hillbilly, Sarah Palin.  They are made from the same awful slice of the Republican Party.

To add to the list of reasons this glad-hander should be sent packing is news he allowed his mailing list—the names and email addresses of his political supporters—to be used to peddle cancer cures based on Bible verses.

Has the fried squirrel eater no moral center?  As I wrote in 2008 “I can’t see dead squirrels as a way to lure girls into a college dorm, but those squirrels seemed to be a real hoot for the local boys.”  Today I am wondering how any self-respecting Republican can be lured into the ethical wilderness of the Huckabee camp.

Huckabee of course is trying to dodge his own actions, but like every slug it is not hard to track it down and hold it accountable, as was the case on CNN.

“I never signed that letter,” Huckabee said of the email selling cancer cures. “It’s a huge email list that I developed over many years. And we did, in fact, rent it out to entities.”

“But my gosh, that’s like saying, ‘You run some ads on CNN, do you personally agree with all the ads that run on CNN?’ I doubt you do,” he said. “I’m sure there’s some for maybe, I don’t know, catheters or adult diapers, they’re not products you use or you necessarily believe in. I don’t hold you responsible for that.”

Tapper called out Huckabeee for the false equivalence.

“We’re talking about medical devices on one hand, catheters and adult diapers, and you’re talking about something I think a lot of people would consider to be hucksterism in terms of Bible verses curing cancer,” Tapper said.

Did Mike Huckabee Imply Scott Walker Should Resign From Governor’s Job?

A most interesting exchange took place on Good Morning America when former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee had an idea for those seeking the White House who also are elected as a public official.

While Huckabee’s comments were aimed at United States senators seeking the Republican Party nomination it is not hard to see how his words might also include Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.  Huckabee said that his opponents in the race for the White House who are senators should either resign or drop out of the contest.

“If a person has a job that the taxpayers are paying for, shouldn’t that person do that job?”   He added that “I just believe it’s a matter of integrity to say, ‘I don’t want this job that I just got elected to, I think I want another job.  OK, then resign the job you want, or the job you have, and go out there and seek the one you want.”

Hmmm….

Scott Walker seemed to want the job of governor so bad that he moved heaven and earth last fall to convince the electorate that he loved this state and just wished to serve and further implement his ideas.  Once elected he had his airline travels so booked to deal with his Potomac Fever that the Wisconsin State Journal had to place a recent front-page story on the matter to alert readers about their absent governor.

Though Huckabee did not mention Walker by name one can strongly infer what message he wants to send.

There has always been an expectation that a politician will reach for the next rung.  But to see it play out so shamelessly as Walker is now doing after his election win last fall does make the words from Huckabee resonate a bit deeper.

Harder For Mike Huckabee To Be Break-Out Candidate

Today another Republican candidate jumps into the ever-larger pile of contenders for the GOP 2016 nomination.  Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is seeking his second bid for the nomination, but this time will be harder for the man who always seems more interested in making money than crafting policy ideas.

Now I grant my readers that between election cycles Huckabee needed to find a way to make money and his stint on FAUX News provided him a nice paycheck.  But I have a sincere problem with people making a name for themselves as a candidate and than cashing in with book deals and television shows once the voters soundly reject them.  Using the political process for self-promotion so to make money as Sarah Palin and Huckabee have done is unsightly and cheapens our political system.

So that would be my first strike against Huckabee.  The other strikes will be delivered from the voters in the primaries.

This cycle there is a number of candidates who will try to split and splinter the evangelical vote in the early states.   With the huge number of candidates all trying to please the base there is no way not to understand how Ben Carson, Scott Walker, Rick Sanatorium and Huckabee along with others making their religious pitch will find it harder to find a majority of caucus attendees in Iowa or deeply conservative voters in South Carolina.    The ease that Huckabee had in having the evangelical vote fall behind him in 2008 will be much harder for him to achieve this time.

There is a certain appeal that those seeking the nomination will make in Iowa that will not sell in other more broad-minded areas of the nation.  The demographics of Iowa are not in any way representative of the nation as a whole.  For Huckabee and a number of other candidates that will pose a problem.  Since the majority of those who will announce their intentions will be out of the race after South Carolina means that candidates must have a message that can work down the road.  Huckabee is too wedded to his religious themes for a nation to listen.  Huckabee plays well in only a few limited states.

In the end once candidates are forced to speak to voters in places like Florida and Pennsylvania the moderates of the party–such as they are–will take over and the ‘Huckabees’ can go back to making more money.

This is not to say that Huckabee will not make the race exciting to watch or maddening at times as his stand on so many issues is simply wrong.   I am just saying there is no plausible way for the former governor to make serious inroads this cycle towards the nomination.