|
Rockin' Huckabee
Tuesday December 11, 2007
Tonite we serve a disturbing little varietal from the Whine Cellar™ --
Gov. Huckabee secures endorsement of Jim Gilchrist, the founder of the anti-illegal immigration Minuteman Project --
Allahpundit apoplectic!!! Michelle mendacious!!!
The headline at HotAir screams: Huh? Founder of Minuteman Project endorses … Huckabee? At Michelle Malkin's eponymous site more hyperbole -- Minuteman Project founder endorses Huckabee?!?!?! Say What?
Then the fun begins.
Allahpundit says: And why not? What better choice for a border enforcer than a guy known for blaming opposition to comprehensive immigration reform on “racism or nativism”?
He then links to a story at Standard Newswire where the "racism or nativism" quote is from. Not surprisingly, the story is written by Karen Hanretty, who lists her website as Fred08.com Hmmm, that doesn't seem too impartial to me. What do you think? I know Allah doesn't mind, he's been a big Fred? supporter all along. He then throws out this line to try and lesson the impact of the endorsement:
Do note: The Minuteman Project is distinct from the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, the group led by Chris Simcox that patrols the border. The MP is the one that got rushed at Columbia and which accused Bush of … throwing the 2006 election in order to make it easier to push amnesty through Congress. Good work, Huck.
So now the Minuteman Project isn't worthwhile? Funny, back in October 2005, this headline was on the HotAir site prominently:
Columbia amnesty fascists rush stage at Minuteman speech
With the following first line:
"Another black eye — literally — for the filthiest Ivy"
So before they supported Mike Huckabee, the Minutemen Project was worthy of your support, but now they're just a bunch of nobodies? Is that how it works, Allah? But he doesn't stop there. Here's his next little stab:
Perhaps I was hasty in pronouncing Rudy the most shameless panderer on immigration. Via Slublog, June 30, 2005: “Huckabee promotes ‘open door’ policy at LULAC convention.”
He then drops in the following quote to make his point:
“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” Huckabee said, citing the Golden Rule. “I have tried to govern that way and it stands to reason that I really do believe that what made this great country so great and so unique is that it has always been a place for people to run to - and not run from."
This quote is from the Gov's speech at LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens [emphasis added]. This quote was part of a story in the Arkansas News Bureau. What Allah conveniently leaves out is this bit in the story:
Although he never actually talked about the U.S. or Arkansas immigration policy, Huckabee made it very clear where he stood on the issue. In his opening remarks, he said the nation will need to address the concerns of the Hispanic community because of its growing influence and population base.
Look at the first twelve words in this quote: "Although he never actually talked about the US or Arkansas immigration policy..." See what I emphasized there? The Gov. never spoke about policy at this meeting. But this is where all those great quotes come from, including the joke about white men becoming a minority in this country. Something that is validated by US Census Bureau data. This is more parsing and disengenuous blogging by conservatives. Pitiful.
Then Michelle wades in under the blaring headline shown above. She starts off with this bit:
Another positive sign is the fact that Roy Beck of NumbersUSA has changed several of his ratings for Governor Huckabee from “red” to “green” in response to his new immigration plan. This is a big turnaround from just a few days before, when Beck characterized the Governor as a “disaster” in the area of immigration.
She is referencing a graph by Beck that compairs all candidates on their illegal immigration stances. The graph shows GOOD on "No amnesty" GOOD on "stop future illegal immigration" FAIR on "reduce illegal immigration - protect american workers from mass foreign worker competitions (which doesn't make much sense to me, but whatever). She follows the graph with the pithy comment:
We are entering Alice in Wonderland territory.
She laments afterward:
Gilchrist, an ally of the candidate who has been most anti-illegal immigration in the GOP field, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, said his endorsement of Huckabee stemmed from the former governor’s recent statements on the issue, particularly a plan that Huckabee put out last week that would require illegal immigrants country in the country to go to their country of origin before trying to return. The plan also would build a border fence and increase fines on employers who hire illegal immigrants, similar to proposals offered by some of Huckabee’s opponents in the GOP nomination process. [emphasis added]
and . . .
“It was a plan I myself could have written,” said Gilchrist, who noted the Huckabee campaign reviewed the proposal with him before it was released.
Michelle's response?
A piece of paper, an empty promise, with nothing behind it.
I would think that any campaign promise is suspect until it is realized when the candidate is in office. Why is it different with Huck? Because you've decided already, without any evidence, that he won't follow through? As I noted above, the plan is similar to plans offered by other candidates. Why are their's so much more believable? Jim Gilchrist seems to think Huck is on the level, why can't you trust Jim's judgement, Michelle?
Back in 2005, Michelle headlined a story:
Stop Smearing the Minutemen
In that story, you mentioned what Gilchrist was pushing for with his organization and that you completely agreed with:
1) Full funding for the Border Patrol
2) Enforce federal employer sanctions
3) People here illegally should be barred from getting driver’s licenses and barred from voting in our elections.
4) Illegal alien criminals should not be released blindly into the public to commit more crimes.
5) Stated that another mass illegal alien amnesty without increased enforcement would lead to more fraud, more law-breaking, and less security.
Wow. That's kind of eerie, you know. All that stuff above seems really similar to the program put forward by the Gov. that was modeled on a plan written Mark Krikorian, Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which was first published in National Review (“Re: Immigration: Ten Points for a Successful Presidential Candidate,” May 23, 2005.) To wit:
1. Build the Fence
2. Increase Border Patrol
Fully support all law enforcement personnel tasked with enforcing immigration law, that is fully fund the Border Patrol.
3. Prevent Amnesty
4. Enforce the Law on Employers
5. Establish an Economic Border
6. Empower Local Authorities
7. Ensure Document Security
8. Discourage Dual Citizenship
Impose civil and/or criminal penalties on American citizens who illegitimately use their dual status (e.g., using a foreign passport, voting in elections in both a foreign country and the U.S.).
9. Modernize the Process of Legal Immigration
Is it just me? Aren't the Gov. and Michelle in agreement here? So where's the beef?! Is it just that she isn't hearing it from whom she wishes? Isn't that just hard cheese? Perhaps if she wasn't backing a one trick pony like D-Hunt or Tanc or the somnambulent Fred?, she'd be less agitated.
Earlier in the race, Allah, Michelle, and Brian were all saying that conservative voters needed to back someone who can win it all. Someone who can defeat Hillary or Obama. Well guess what? It may just be that the right pick might be Huck.
Get over it and get with it, folks. Quit whining!
| | | |
|
|
Monday December 10, 2007
With apologies to Britt Hume, here is tonight's pickings from the Whine Cellar™ --
Over at ReihlWorldView.com, Dan Reihl posts a slam at the Gov. titled "Huckabee On Univision: Mucho liberal, Maybe Loco, Too?"
"Hugh Hewitt has posted the transcript of the Univision debate. In wading through the transcript, I've picked out what I think are a few revealing bits from Governor Huckabee."
Well here's Dan's first problem -- using anything from Hugh Hewitt, who eviscerated any vestige of journalistic integrity or impartiality with his fawning, overwrought cheerleading review of Mitt Romney's Mormon speech the other day.
"Does anyone believe America should, or even could become oil-free in the foreseeable future? Most realistic people would tell you that's just insane. Huckabee seems to think so."
No Dan, what the Gov. wants is us to be independent of foreign oil, you know, self sufficient. I think everyone wants that, isn't that what they say on those BP commercials? No one I know thinks that is insane, just you.
"He also seems trapped in a sort of liberal rhetoric, invoking the word empowerment not just as regards education, but on terrorism, too. And his plans for education strike me as the standard liberal drool conservatives have been fighting for decades."
OMG! He used the E-word! Who knew there were words that only liberals can use? Silly me, I'll have to get that conservative version of Websters from Amazon.
"Given that he repeats the oil comment, I can only assume he means it."
HUCKABEE: Well, Hugo Chavez is hardly the friend of the United
States. And even though we get 60 percent of their oil, I think it's
one of the major reasons we need to become increasingly oil-free and
energy-independent so that we don't have to worry about Mr. Chavez.
My mother used to have a statement: If you give somebody enough
rope, they'll hang themselves. I have a feeling that Mr. Chavez,
continuing to take power from the people as he has done, will find
himself unfortunately out of power, and hopefully for all of us,
fortunately a democratically elected government there that will give
those people back the freedom that he has robbed from them and
hopefully by then we won't need their oil, but they will have their
freedom.
Let's see here, the Gov. said "...increasingly oil-free and energy independent..." does that sound insane to you? The key word here is increasingly as in more than we are now, more in the future and continuing on in this manner. If we were to reduce our oil consumption by 5%, that would mean that we had become a little more oil-free, right? That's not the same as saying 100% oil-free is it Dan?
"Using the word empowerment when it comes to terrorists might be just a poor choice of words, so that's not necessarily a big deal. I only reference this below because I think Huckabee talks like a liberal because he thinks like one. After all, if you walk like something and talk like it, too - most people conclude it's because that's what you are. Perhaps some will disagree. This below is on staying the course in Iraq:"
Using the word "empowerment" when speaking about terrorists is not a poor choice of words at all. Empower means to enable, and we don't want to enable, that is "make able...give power or sanction" to terrorists. Someone who writes for a living ought to be able to handle a word like empowerment, Dan. Also, if the best you can do is paraphrase Dan Rather's "If it walks like a duck..." speech, then you might want to take a couple of creative writing classes in your spare time. You did say you've been writing all your life, right? Just checking.
HUCKABEE:This isn't an issue that's about Hispanics or anybody else interms of ethnicity. This is about every one of us being able to be free, to have a future, and to be able to know that we're not going to allow a vacuum there, which happens if we lose -- and we lose when we walk away -- to create an opening so that terrorists can build even greater cells of training and empowerment there. That's why we have to stay. And it's why we have to win.
Okay, what exactly is wrong with this passage? Anyone? Like everyone from the soldier on the ground to the President has said, if we walk away from Iraq, we allow terrorists to gain control and assert themselves in the region. It would "empower" them. Duh.
"And then when he gets to education, he loses me completely and there's that empowerment thing, again. Do most right-siders really believe we need more touchy-feely crap in our schools, as opposed to less?"
More "touchy-feely crap"? You mean like actually teaching children instead of pushing them through like an assembly line? I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that most folks on both sides of the political spectrum want our children educated properly.
HUCKABEE: An education is empowerment. The lack of it leads us to incredible, just all kinds of obstacles in our path. And we always talk about we need more math and science, and we, and we're doing a better job. But one of the reasons we have kids failing is not because they're dumb, it's they're bored. They're bored with a curriculum that doesn't touch them. We have schools that are about perpetuating the schools, not helping the students.
I propose launching weapons of mass instruction, making sure that
we are launching not only the math and science... but music and art programs that touch the right side of the brain, and not only educate the left side of the student's brain. Because without a creative economy and a creative student, you have a bored student, and that's one of the reasons we see so many of them dropping out.
I'm not sure what part of this is so confusing to old Danny boy. Maybe because it was a live speech, not some pre-written filled & justified text. Of course, Hugh might have been distracted staring at a glossy of Mitt during this part of the speech, who knows? But the Gov. wants to put music education back in the schools, isn't that a good thing? Haven't we read enough reports to know that music and math are tied together? Haven't we also read enough reports to know that one of the reasons private schools turn out smarter students is that the teachers can engage students more directly and tailor programs to their specific needs. You know -- "touch" the students. Didn't that used to be a good thing?
Here's my advice Dan -- if you can't find something legitimate to criticize about the Gov., then don't waste our time filling up web pages with this nonsense.
| | Posted by postaldog at 8:58 PM - | |
|
|
New poll data out today shows Huck solidly in second place nationally and way ahead in So. Carolina.
Sweet!
poll data via realclearpolitics.com
|
NATIONAL thru 12/11 |
|
RCP AVERAGE |
GIULIANI 24 |
HUCKABEE 18.8 (2) |
|
RASMUSSEN |
GIULIANI 24 |
HUCKABEE 19 (2) |
|
CNN |
GIULIANI 24 |
HUCKABEE 22 (2) |
|
CBS/NY TIMES |
GIULIANI 22 |
HUCKABEE 21 (2) |
|
SOUTH CAROLINA thru 12/11 |
|
RCP AVERAGE |
HUCKABEE 23.2 |
ROMNEY 17.4 |
|
SURVEY USA |
HUCKABEE 30 |
ROMNEY 19 |
| | Posted by postaldog at 8:01 PM - | |
|
|
Sunday December 9, 2007
As you can see, the Gov. will be on the cover of this Monday's issue of Newsweek. Pretty good stuff, I say.
In spite of the breathless, hyperventillating attacks from conservative blogs and pundits, Huck is soaring in the polls (see below). Over at Captain's Quarters, Ed is postulating that if Huck takes Iowa, So. Carolina, and Michigan (where Rasmussen shows him leading), Mitt might drop out of the race causing religous voters to throw their support behind Huck rather than Rudy.
See, it's not just me saying this stuff.
Watch for the attacks to really ramp up, though there is little left to "break" now. Haters will be forced to regurgitate the same old complaints over and over which will reveal them to be the baseless whinings that they truly are. | | Posted by postaldog at 7:42 PM - | |
|
|
New poll data out today. I'm getting a real primer in polling, more than I ever wanted to be truthful. But there has been some movement since my last update -- Huck's jumped up a place in Nevada, Rudy is overtaking Mitt in So. Carolina, and Huck's numbers have improved in New Hampshire.
I'm trying to keep both Rasmussen and Zogby in the data as I think they are the premier polling companies. I'll also add any other that are shocking/surprising or just real new. I hope this is a help to everyone.
poll data via realclearpolitics.com
|
NATIONAL thru 12/6 |
|
RCP AVERAGE |
GIULIANI 24 |
HUCKABEE 16.6 (2) |
|
RASMUSSEN |
HUCKABEE 21 |
GIULIANI 20 |
|
AP-IPSOS |
GIULIANI 26 |
HUCKABEE 18 (2) |
|
ZOGBY thru 12/5 |
GIULIANI 26 |
HUCKABEE 11 (5) |
|
IOWA thru 12/6 |
|
RCP AVERAGE |
HUCKABEE 29.6 |
ROMNEY 23.4 |
|
NEWSWEEK |
HUCKABEE 39 |
ROMNEY 17 |
|
MASON-DIXON |
HUCKABEE 32 |
ROMNEY 20 |
|
ZOGBY thru 12/1 |
ROMNEY 26 |
HUCKABEE 25 (2) |
|
RASMUSSEN thru 11/27 |
HUCKABEE 28 |
ROMNEY 25 |
|
SOUTH CAROLINA thru 12/4 |
|
RCP AVERAGE |
HUCKABEE 21.5 |
GUILIANI 17.3 |
|
MASON-DIXON |
HUCKABEE 20 |
GUILIANI 17 |
|
RASMUSSEN |
HUCKABEE 25 |
ROMNEY 18 |
|
INSIDER ADV |
HUCKABEE 23 |
GUILIANI 17 |
|
NEW HAMPSHIRE thru 12/6 |
|
RCP AVERAGE |
ROMNEY 32.4 |
HUCKABEE 11 (4) |
|
MASON-DIXON |
ROMNEY 25 |
HUCKABEE 11 (4) |
|
ZOGBY thru 12/3 |
ROMNEY 35 |
HUCKABEE 10 (4) |
|
RASMUSSEN thru 11/29 |
ROMNEY 34 |
HUCKABEE 14 (4) |
|
MICHIGAN thru 12/4 |
|
RCP AVERAGE |
GUILIANI 22.5 |
HUCKABEE 10.3 (5) |
|
RASMUSSEN |
HUCKABEE 21 |
GUILIANI 19 |
|
NEVADA thru 12/6 |
|
RCP AVERAGE |
GUILIANI 23.7 |
HUCKABEE 15.3 (3) |
|
AMER RES GRP |
ROMNEY 29 |
HUCKABEE 23 (2) |
|
MASON-DIXON |
GUILIANI 25 |
HUCKABEE 17 (4) |
|
ZOGBY thru 11/10 |
ROMNEY 28 |
HUCKABEE 5 (6) |
|
FLORIDA thru 12/4 |
|
RCP AVERAGE |
GUILIANI 30.6 |
HUCKABEE 12.8 (3) |
|
SURVEY USA |
GUILIANI 32 |
HUCKABEE 18 (3) |
|
QUINNIPIAC thru 12/3 |
GUILIANI 30 |
HUCKABEE 11 (3) |
|
RASMUSSEN thru 11/18 |
GUILIANI 27 |
HUCKABEE 9 (5) |
|
NATIONALLY -- HEAD TO HEAD reported 12/8 |
|
RASMUSSEN |
EDWARDS 44 |
HUCKABEE 40 |
| | | |
|
|
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
| |
Have you checked out the
new Blogstream site,
Question Stream.com?
Many Blogstream members are there
already! Quotes from members: "It's like blog lite!" -- "I like the instant
gratification!" -- "Stop spectating, get in the game!"
If you have not joined in, you are really missing out!
|
|
2466 Visitors
|
