Mike Huckabee will Speak at NEA

From Campaign e-mail-

Mike Huckabee to Address the National Education Association

in Philadelphia on Thursday, July 5 at 1:45 p.m.

Little Rock, AR – Former Ark. Governor Mike Huckabee, a Republican, will outline his vision for the future of America’s public schools at the National Education Association (NEA)’s Representative Assembly in Philadelphia on Thursday, July 5 at 1:45 p.m. ET. The event is open to the press. The NEA is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 3.2 million teachers, higher education faculty, educational support professionals, school administrators, retired educators and students preparing to become teachers. More than 9,000 school employees will attend the assembly, which is one of the largest democratic decision-making bodies in the world. Huckabee, who served as governor of Arkansas from 1996-2007, is recognized as a national leader. A past chairman of the bipartisan National Governors’ Association (NGA) and chairman of the Education Commission of the States, he has been honored by several renowned publications and organizations for his numerous accomplishments. Governing Magazine named him as one of its 2005 ‘Public Officials of the Year.’ Time Magazine called him “one of the five best governors” in America. In 2007, he received the Music for Life Award by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) for his commitment to music education. As governor, Huckabee created intensive reading and math programs for elementary and then high school students, resulting in a dramatic rise in test scores – and one of the most demanding high school curricula in the country. Other achievements included raising teacher salaries, from among the lowest in the nation to among the most competitive, and making schools more accountable by insisting on transparency in how money is spent and creating more efficiency by putting money into classroom programs, rather than administrative costs. Huckabee, who formed a 2008 presidential exploratory committee, said education reform remains a critical part of his agenda. He supports the “No Child Left Behind” law’s effort to set high national standards; however, he believes states must be allowed to develop their own benchmarks. Among other initiatives, he stresses the importance of music and the arts to prepare the nation’s youth to meet the challenges of a creative global economy. (For more information, please visit: http://www.explorehuckabee.com/.)

Huckabee's Legacy to Arkansas

From Arkansas Republican Assemblies:

Huckabee's Legacy to Arkansas: Over a $1 Billion State Surplus

Dr. Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: Six months after former Arkansas Governor Huckabee left office, the financial figure are now reported. His legacy to the state, financial Independence with a revenue surplus exceeding $1 Billion. No debt! Arkansas is no longer the "poor step child."
Read more

Part 1 Chapter 5 Yellow Dogs Bite

Well, you've been waiting all week for this. I finally have the book report for Chapter 5 done! Whew! If you are new to this blog or missed previous book reports please read Intro,
Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, before continuing to read.

So now it is time to join me on the front porch, have a cup of sweet tea, in fact take some banana pudding. Bring your own guitar or grab Stella and guitar pick while a write this.

The premise of this chapter is about the Democrat/Republican rivalry that goes on in Arkansas. And how Mike Huckabee overcame that through his political career. As you recall from my previous blogs and if you have read his biography, that he was only the third Republican to be elected Governor of Arkansas since reconstruction.

Mike Huckabee says that it is difficult for a Republican to run for public office in Arkansas. When he ran in the 1992 U.S. Senate race at dinners he was given the worst seat and ignored by the event organizers. He was always at the end of the line in parades.
During this time the Clinton presidential race dominated all the news in Arkansas. State and National media was covering Bill Clinton's campaign. This was the first time that anyone from Arkansas had been a nominee for a major political party in a presidential race. Thus the Senate race didn't get much national coverage.
Dick Morris had been Mike's pollster. How loyal were Mike's supporters? This is what Mr. Morris said to him, "Your voters would swim the Mississippi at flood stage to get to the ballot on election day." They did not believe anything negative that was printed about Mike Huckabee. They knew what he stood for and they stood for the same ideals. If you don't recall from previous he lost.
As stated in my previous reports, after Bill Clinton became President Jim Guy Tucker, Lieutenant Governor at the time, elevated to Governor. Thus there was a need to hold a special election for a new Lieutenant Governor, a spot vacated by Tucker. Mike figured that since he had had a dedicated staff from his Senate race, he would run for this position. He knew that this would be an uphill battle.
Mike knew that many Arkansans would choose to vote for the Yellow Dog Democrat before they voted for a Republican.* The newspapers did not cover him or his campaign. When he would be at parades or events middle age women would make obscene gestures and yell at him.

Mike points to three factors in his victory.

1. Learned through experience in the Senate race.
2. He had a message of honesty and integrity.
3. Took opponents by surprise

After Mike finally got into his office, there was no furniture. See Chapter 3 When riding in the elevators in the capitol people would get off, because they didn't want to ride in the elevator. One time he attended a Summer festival where he was told to sit anywhere, this was while he was the Lieutenant Governor.
There were other politicians at this event. After they took their turns speaking one of the announcers mentioned, "We do have other members here in our audience, including a Republican Mike Huckabee." They didn't even mention that he was the sitting Lieutenant Governor. Many people were upset and embarrassed that their Democrat party would behave that way.
Governor Tucker and Lieutenant Governor Huckabee got along better than Governor Clinton and Lieutenant Governor Tucker got along. The rivalry between Clinton and Tucker went back to 1978. In 1982 Clinton and Tucker were planning on running against each other for Governor. In 1990, thinking Clinton would not run again, Tucker thought he would give it a try to run for Governor. Bill Clinton had called a press conference. Everyone, including Hillary Clinton, thought he would make an announcement not to run for re-election. To every one's surprise, Bill Clinton said "I'm going to run one more time." Sometime after that Dick Morris told Mike that Clinton's plan was to say he would not run again.
After the 1990 election, Clinton was not around much. He was already planning on running for President. Tucker was left to take care of business. He was ticked off at Clinton. Clinton never gave him the vital details to be able to properly take care of things. Clinton also left the state with a huge financial mess.
Tucker and Huckabee got along fine, until 1995. That was when the indictment for Tucker's involvement in Whitewater was handed down. Tucker wanted to look like a tough leader, before going into court.

Three things that Tucker tried doing.

1. Change of public school funding.
2. Highway construction program.
3. Rewrite of state constitution.

For the school districts Tucker wanted to consolidate 311 districts into 35 super districts, adding country schools in with the city schools. Mike said this was a bad idea, since the country schools were doing better than the city schools. In Cabot, Arkansas Tucker was booed off the stage. His idea was unpopular.
In order to get the highway bill passed Tucker had to make promises to the state senators. Mike was told that the senators thought it was a bad idea, but they voted for it to get the things promised to them.
Mike was told that for the constitution convention he and other Republicans would be included in on the plans. When Mike was to speak at a Methodist Church, Tucker called him and told him the inclusive deal was off for the Republicans. Mike alludes this to the fact that Tucker caved into political pressure from the Democrats. This was also about the same time that Mike decided to run for US Senate again. This would be the first time in 18 years that there would be an open seat for Senate.
In December of 1995 the constitution convention failed 80% to 20%. The highway bill failed 87% to 13%. Mike had opposed this also. Due to the fact that it was going to cost too much money. Also, the Republican Party spent $200,000 for him to oppose it on TV.
After these failures, Jim Guy blamed Mike for being the reason these bills failed. Mike says Tucker just got egotistical. He wanted to look cavalier before he went into court. He looked anything but. Political cartoonists portrayed Tucker as a lame duck. After all this the only time the two ever saw each other was for two photo ops.

• Leaders have the responsibility to think and to act in the context of their positions. Having been awarded their offices by voters, elected officials in particular must consider the effect their actions will have on others. In trying to pursue his interests instead of those of his constituents, Governor Tucker found that his own people turned against him. Even yellow Democrats had had enough.

* Yellow Dog Democrat: A cowardly despicable person. I admit it, I did have to look this one up.

In my attempt to butcher the Beverly Hillbillies closing credits, written by Paul Henning and sung by Jerry Scroggins:

• Now it's time to say goodbye and read the next chapter
• I would like to thank you folks for kindly reading this
• You're all invited back again to this blog
• To have a heaping helping of this hospitality
• (Hillbilly that is. Set a spell. Take your shoes off. Y'all come back now, ya hear?)
  

I will try harder to get these book reports out faster. I will be honest, this one took a while because it was mostly about specific incidents about Jim Guy Tucker and Arkansas politics. I wanted the report to be relevant to Mike's point about character without getting too far off track.
The problem with doing a book report on a book written by Mike Huckabee is that he speaks so eloquently that I am afraid that I will either butcher his words and/or not relay the message to y'all correctly.
I have already started my notes on Chapter 6. I will be putting Chapter 6 and 7 together, since they match so closely.

God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan!

Part 1 Chapter 3 The People Rule

Regnat Populus

"The People Rule"
(Arkansas State Motto)

Time to pull up a chair. Grab a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, in fact, take a piece of banana pudding. I have finished Chapter 3. It was a rather short, yet another great chapter. The thing with doing a book report on a Mike Huckabee written book is that it's hard not to just want to copy each and every one of his wonderful words. If you are new to this blog or missed previous book reports, first go to Intro , Chapter 1 or Chapter 2

The premise of Chapter 3, is about the power is in the hands of the people and that elected officials are not be all-end all. Rather they are the employees of the people, no matter how rich or poor.

I shall elaborate. Mike Huckabee says that his first day as governor of Arkansas, was better than his first day as lieutenant governor. Upon his first day as Lieutenant governor in 1993, the door to his office was nailed shut from the inside. When he questioned anyone they told him that the room was going to be used for the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission. No one would give him a straight answer. He was unable to enter his office for 59 days. John fund from The Wall Street Journal flew all the way from New York to see this for himself. It even took Mike four months to get personalised letterhead for his stationary. He had to pay for it himself.
On his first day as Governor, staff from the previous administration had not send resumes. They were told that it would be pointless, because they would all be fired anyways. Mike and his people told them all to submit resumes and they would be given fair consideration. With one or two exceptions, Jim Guy Tucker refused to discuss transition process, within the time frame of May 28 and July 15. This is normally done when one governor is making plans of departure to make room for the next governor.
When he started his new position, filing cabinets in the government offices were found empty. Paper and computer records had been destroyed.
He received a letter of public apology from Jim Guy Tucker.
He made a conscience effort to rebuild morality in the Governor's Office. He banned swearing. He has no patience for sexually inappropriate comments.* This was not because he is a self righteous prude, but because he feels it kills morality and productivity. He believes in the "Golden Rule", Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
He promised not to yell at any of his staff if they made mistakes. This was something they were not used to. His philosophy is that one who feels that they have to announce they are in charge, they really aren't in charge. He wanted people to do a decent job, not because they felt they had to, but because they wanted to.
He wanted to get to know all those who worked in the capitol. He would walk around and introduce himself. He looked at family pics of his staff. He truly wanted to get to know them. This transition took mere hours to days. Previous and new staff worked equally side by side. He treated everyone equally.
He wanted his staff and the citizens of Arkansas to know he was not " The Boss." Everyone on his staff were to work as a team. There was a chain of command, but he also believed that every job and position was important. Behind his secretary's desk was picture that was titled, "The Boss."

I want to share the whole paragraph from the book.

• One week it might be a girl scout troop from Arkedelphia; the next week it might be a teacher from Mount Ida; the next week a retired farmer from West Memphis. These were the people we had pledged to serve.** All of us passed this picture frame several times a day. It was and effective reminder of our ultimate place in the chain of command.

He showed respect to all of the citizens who came to his office. Even those who showed up in tattered clothes and smelling bad were respected by Mike Huckabee. He has no tolerance for those who look down on others. Even when people who have less money, less adequate housing or poor job skills - those in state government are their employees.

Now I want to share the inspiring words from the last paragraph.

• Servant leadership is the highest form of leadership. It's not the same as doormat leadership. To see your role as servant leader is the ultimate model of Biblical leadership. I expected our employees to treat others the way they wanted to be treated, to understand that their job was not to be served but to serve--that they were never to be rude. The people out there who called, wrote, or visited were not our problem, irritation or interruption; they were our job. Our challenge was not to get those people out of the way so that we could do our work; our work was to help those people. Those people are citizens are people of the state, they are our bosses.
• Regnat Populus

* My Christian woman thought on this. Some so-called conservatives want to say that because the PC crowd says lewd, sexual comments or come-ons, or whatever is disrespectful it is OK. Hey, they don't want to look PC. It has nothing to do with PC or un-PC. It is good Christian common sense. To me, it looks like Mike Huckabee takes a Christian approach to the situation.

**This is one sentence that really got to me. Not only does he say we instead of I, he also mentions pledging to serve the people. We need someone who pledges to serve the people. Not someone who pledges to serve himself (or his cult).

In my attempt to butcher the Beverly Hillbillies closing credits, written by Paul Henning and sung by Jerry Scroggins:

• Now it's time to say goodbye and read the next chapter
• I would like to thank you folks for kindly reading this
• You're all invited back again to this blog
• To have a heaping helping of this hospitality
• (Hillbilly that is. Set a spell. Take your shoes off. Y'all come back now, ya hear?)

God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan!

Gotta stop listening to Elvis when I write .

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Book Report Intro

Like I said I would work on a book report for Character Makes a Difference. I did start reading it last night. For my first report I will set up the seen.

The book was originally published as Character is the Issue in 1997. It has been updated to include Hurricane Katrina and other current affairs. Even though it was originally wrote a few years ago it is still relevent. Character is the same yesterday, today and tomorow. He wrote it in 3 parts; Part 1: Character in the Furnace, Part 2: The Need for Character, Part 3: Selected Speeches & Commentary.

Mike starts off with an introduction about character. The first paragraph goes like this, "Responding to questions regarding his personal character, President Bill Clinton once told his audience that 'character isn't the issue.' Yet our character defines the world we live in. Our government, welfare programs, schools, and everything else in our lives are shaped and directed according to our character. It's claimed that 'you can't legislate morality,' but, in fact, every law in the country is a reflection of our moral values. We have laws against murder and stealing because we believe they are morally wrong. We used to have laws against abortion in most circumstances. When our moral values changed, the laws changed with them."

He goes on to talk about the character of those we elect. My favorite quote from the Introduction is, "And their character depends on you." He gives great encouragement to those who are bummed about the direction of the character and morality in the country, that there is something that can be done.

Truly, his story about how he got into politics is amazing. He was a Baptist preacher who felt God giving him direction to enter the political arena. Yet, he was a Republican living in a highly majority Democrat state. His reasoning for getting into politics was that he had the same values and character as his fellow Arkansans. Many of these Arkansans felt disillusioned that government didn't care about them.

He gives an explanation to the different sections in the book. The first is how character can overcome many crisis'. The second part is about why character is important and how both good and bad character can have positive and negative impacts in one's personal life. Then the third part is his previous speeches that show how character is directly related to public policy.

He ends off the Introduction inspiring readers to use their character in everyday aspect of one's life. Then he inspires his readers to be proud to proclaim their faith.

I will be blogging more on this book report within the next few weeks. So pull up your chair to the fireplace and get cozy as I make a virtual cup of coffee or hot chocolate for you. And enjoy the reading and atmosphere. And God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Character Makes a Difference: Where I'm From, Where I've Been, and What I Believe (Paperback)

I just ordered Mike Huckabee's book, "Character Makes a Difference: Where I'm from, Where I've Been and What I Believe" on Amazon.com.


Editorial Reviews

Book Description
How powerful is integrity? Just ask minister-turned-statesman, Mike Huckabee.As lieutenant governor of Arkansas in 1996, he was publicly cast between the ultimate rock and hard place when his boss, governor Jim Guy Tucker, refused to resign despite his felony convictions in the Whitewater scandal. Holding fast to the tenets of honor and faith, and his concern over what was best for the state’s people, Huckabee led the impeachment charge against his superior before a televised audience. That same day, Tucker resigned, and Huckabee would serve as governor of Arkansas until 2007, winning many national honors along the way.Character Makes a Difference is Mike Huckabee’s biographical account of how he handled that potentially major constitutional crisis and why he believes character is the key issue in everyone’s life, “in the work you do, the candidates you vote for, the people who look to you for leadership.”

About the Author
Mike Huckabee recently completed more than ten years of public service as governor of Arkansas. In 2005, Governing magazine named him among the Public Officials of the Year, TIME magazine called him one of the five best governors in America, and he received the AARP Impact Award recognizing those who have done something extraordinary to make the world a better place. An outspoken man of Christian faith, Huckabee is also a musician, playing bass guitar in his rock-and-roll band Capitol Offense. In January 2007, he received the Music for Life Award from NAMM for his outstanding support of music arts and education. Mike and his wife, Janet, have three grown children: John Mark, David, and Sarah

The above is the exact description from Amazon.com page for the book. The book description sounds great! I am very excited to get it, in 4 to 5 days. I will definitely be checking the mail box everyday starting Monday. I will give a chapter by chapter book report. Fortunately, I am a quick book reader, so long as it's a good book. Any book written by Mike Huckabee has got to be good. I plan on lending it to my work and church friends.

God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan!