Mike Huckabee Ain't No Sissy

I came up with the title of this post after reading an article in newsobserver.com from North Carolina. "Huckabee's faith moves him past hot button issues"

• WASHINGTON - Mike Huckabee isn't what pundits would call a mainstream Christian conservative Republican.
  Sure, the candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination is a devout Christian. In fact, he's a Baptist minister and was the president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention before he served as the governor of Arkansas for 10 years.
  But ask the 51-year-old Huckabee how his faith affects his politics, and he skips over the standard hot-button issues of abortion, gays or whether people should say "Merry Christmas" or "season's greetings" -- topics that dominate talk radio and cable TV and thus define Christian conservatives to much of the country.
  Rather, he talks passionately about the morality of helping parents send their children to college, the need to observe the golden rule in handling Katrina refugees mistreated by an uncaring federal government, and the immorality of corporate chief executive officers getting multimillion-dollar bonuses while taking pensions and jobs away from workers.

I think it is more important for someone in government to care about these things. While abortion is a major issue, it does not affect everyday issues. Does who's gay or how holidays are wished put young adults through college? No. Does it help victims of natural disasters? No. Does it put dinner on the kitchen table of the workers of the big corporations? No.

• But he says his version of moral conservatism makes sense in governing, and it could appeal to a broader audience at a time when many Republicans have lost support from independents and moderate suburbanites.
  "It is an appealing message to a broader cross-section of the voting public, not just a litmus-test list," said former South Carolina Gov. David Beasley, who recently endorsed Huckabee. "His sense of right and wrong is more than just a few issues."

David Beasley says exactly what I am thinking. Mike Huckabee is a multi-faceted candidate. He doesn't fit any mold. I think this is what scares some in the "party establishment," about him. They want some Pinocchio that they can mold, create and pull the strings. Well Mike ain't no sissy who will allow others to control him. There is no elitist Republican ventriloquist speaking behind Mike Huckabee. Soon, the noses of the "Pinochios" will grow long and the ventriloquists hands up the butts will be exposed. Then the American people will see who the true Conservative really is. And that person is Mike Huckabee.

• During a recent Republican debate in New Hampshire, Huckabee criticized his fellow opponents of abortion for appearing to lose interest in children after birth and for not talking about problems such as homelessness later in life.

I am glad that someone is speaking out that pro-life is more than just what happens up until birth. How is it pro-life if life is not taken serious? When life after birth is not taken serious then it is just "talking points" spin and drivel.

• Huckabee started in politics as Arkansas lieutenant governor in 1993. He moved up to the top job in 1996 when the governor resigned amid a corruption scandal. Huckabee cut income taxes, expanded health care for poor children, boosted elementary-school education and was re-elected twice.
• He noted that he's solidly against abortion -- he signed a state ban on late-term abortions -- but stressed that the issue didn't come close to dominating his agenda.
  "I was consistent in my views and values as it related to social issues," he said. "But 91 percent of our state budget is spent on education, prisons and Medicaid. So it didn't make sense to spend 91 percent of my time on issues that didn't reflect my real job."

• Huckabee insists on other examples to illustrate how his faith affects the way he governs. Nothing got him as agitated as the thought of people losing jobs or pensions.
  When a CEO makes $100 million while his workers lose pensions or jobs, he said, "that is immoral. ... That's not free enterprise. That's theft."

This is one of my biggest pet peeves about the party. They try telling everyone that these fancy pants guys deserve all the big raises and whatnot, because he went to college and got a BS degree. I am not knocking down someone who went to college and studied to graduate. But there is such an imbalance in the pay between the "fat-cats" and the blue-collar people who are struggling to put dinner on the table and pay their bills according to which utility company is threatening to shut them off.

Some people may disagree with me and even call me a liberal. But I don't care. Personally, I think whenever these CEOs and executives get raises and promotions it's because they got a new mistress. And he needs more money to buy her a car, jewelry, fur coats or "set her up" in a condo. Maybe he has to pay hush money. It also could be that his wife has found out about said mistress and is threatening to call the best divorce attorney in town. So what does mister fancy pants do? He buys her something shiny to keep her quiet. These are the same people who talk about morality and purity. Ha-ha!

Sometimes I can see communism in both parties. One party says they want to take from the poor and take from the rich. And yet they want to stay rich. Why? Because they know more than everyone else. They deserve it. That is wrong. Then you have another party that wants to see a major schism in pay between the haves and have nots. Whenever anyone questions this they are told not to question. We are told they know better than the rest of us. This too is wrong. How I got off on a tangent about communism is beyond me?

God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan!

Mike Huckabee at House Party in N.H.

On Sunday, June 3 Mike Huckabee attended a house party at the farm-home of Roger and May Pat Jackson, where he spoke about border control and tougher trade negotiations.

The majority of the attendees said that of the policies Huckabee proposed border security is the most important.
What are people saying of his visit?
"His answer on immigration was good," said Bruce Jackson, 23, a firefighter from Auburn. "He wants to close down the borders and track what is going on."
"He was quick on his feet and knowledgeable," , says Mary Pat Jackson

Talking about American businesses and international trade, he says this, "there is no free trade without fair trade,"

Roger Jackson, who is employed at Merrimack Street Volvo in Manchester, liked these ideas. He said that the domestic automobile industry is dire straights because it builds health care and retirement into the prices of its vehicles, expenses not always included in foreign vehicles.

He also touched on the subject of energy dependence. "The U.S. is being held hostage to foreign oil," he said.
From Fred Noyes of Epson, "I thought he failed to address geothermal resources. This country has volcanic heat beds that can be converted to steam and electricity," said Noyes who asked the candidate to consider this.
"He promised me he would look into it," he said.

Read the full story in the Union Leader.


I would like to get a little off track for a moment and speak from a Michigan perspective regarding the auto industry. Roger Jackson's comment above got me thinking. I grew up near Flint, Michigan. As most people know this is where General Motors got it's start. And of course Ford got it's start in Detroit. In fact, Flint's nickname used to be Buick City. A good majority of the kids I went to school with had fathers who worked in the General Motors plants and mom was a homemaker. Many of those kids, or at least the boys, figured they would follow their fathers into the "shops." By the time we started graduating high school this was not the case.
If you talk to the Democrats and Democrat voters in Genesee County they will tell you that the "Big wigs" in Detroit are evil and greedy. Talk to the Republicans and Republican voters in the county and they will tell you that the UAW is evil and greedy. Talk to me... I will tell you both sides got greedy.
Look at the picture in my header. That photo was taken at the Sloan Museum in Flint, Michigan. The 1955 Chevy Bel Air in the background, there is a 75% chance that my grandfather had his hand on it as it was rolling down the assembly line.
Fifty years ago and longer GM needed so many workers that they couldn't find enough locals, so they recruited men from Down South to come up to Flint to work. My grandfather was one of those men. He was a cotton farmer in Arkansas with an eighth grade education. He brought his family up to Flint so that he could provide better for them, to become what is known as a "shop rat." That is an assembly line worker. My grandparents still live in the same one story two bedroom house, where they raised 3 boys and 3 girls, my youngest uncle came way later. The girls slept in one room while the boys slept in the living room. My other grandfather grew up in Flint and didn't finish college, yet he was made a supervisor as soon as he started working there. This was the era that, "What's good for GM is good for the country." Now Michigan unemployment rates are 7.1%.
I can't say that the employee benefits are bad. I think GM was doing what they thought was right at the time. When the 70's came quality levels of cars went down. While at the same time employee salaries went up. It doesn't take an economic genius to figure how this was going to end. If it wasn't for these benefits neither of my grandparents would be in the financial situation they are. Enough blabbering! I thought I was just going to make a quick note about GM.

God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan!