CFG Slams Huckabee
Written by Sean on August 17th, 2007Social conservatives may begin to close ranks behind Mike Huckabee, but the same cannot be said for the Club for Growth:
Of course this leftward swing is not a new development but an echo of his ten-year record as Governor of Arkansas, where Huckabee accumulated a record that ought to make the folks at Daily Kos proud:
- A sales tax hike to fund the Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas parks (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 11/07/96)
- Higher gas taxes (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 06/29/99)
- Higher taxes on nursing home beds (Associated Press, 06/25/01)
- Allowed a 17% sales tax increase to become law (The Gurdon Times, 03/02/04)
- Supported taxes on the Internet (Reuters, 02/23/04)
- Supported a 50% increase in government spending (Arkansas Department of Finance & Administration, Office of Budget)
- Raised the minimum wage and encouraged Congress to do the same (US Newswire, 08/03/06)
- Signed a bill into law that would prevent companies from raising their prices a mere 10% ahead of a natural disaster. Services like roof repair and tree removal were targeted (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 03/07/97).
To be sure, Huckabee hasn’t been blacklisted by all fiscal conservatives. He signed the ATR Taxpayer Protection Pledge and is a supporter of the fair tax, both of which please conservative leader Grover Norquist. How far Huckabee can go in the primaries depends in part on which Huckabee voters see on the ballot, tax-hiking Governor Huckabee or pledge-signing candidate Huckabee.
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Huckabee supported the Shamesty Bill for illegal aliens. He is weak on stopping the invasion.
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The original white paper on this came out months ago. What I found surprising was that Rudy and Brownback were given mostly favorable treatment while Huckabee and McCain were given mostly poor ratings.
They’ve only analyzed 4 candidates… I’d like to see what they say about Romney and Fred Thompson.
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Mitt Romney,
John McCain,
Fred Thompson,
Rudy Giuliani,
Mike Huckabee
5 candidates, only three of these people will be walking out of the Iowa caucuses in one piece. My point being, Rudy Giuliani has a serious chance of taking the Republican nomination. Suspend any disbelief and consider: Giuliani has monster leads in over half of the Super Tuesday states, he’s ahead 21 points in California, he’s way out in New York-New Jersey-Colorado. If Rudy Giuliani walks into Super Tuesday with any fashionable momentum (i.e. finishing 3rd in Iowa and finishing 2nd in NH), he wins the primary, or is at least substantially likely to do so.
So, five candidates. Only four pro-lifers, ehem. Who does the “conservative base” want to run for President?
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I agree with you, Joe. I have longed believed that Rudy will end up the nominee.
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x_o
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I think a vote for Rudy is a vote for Hillary. A lot of people in the conservative movement are fed up with liberal Republicans, and are nowhere near stupid enough to believe the few flip-flops Giuliani has performed to win conservatives over (lying about appointing strict constructionists when in April he said he thinks abortion is “a constitutional right,” see YouTube; lying about ending illegal immigration; lying about respecting the Second Amendment). A lot of them will stay home in 2008 if Giuliani gets the nomination, because the GOP has moved much too far to the left and they simply won’t support it any more if it moves one inch further i nthat direction. Enough, as they say, is enough.
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I wish Huckabee would just get over this foolish run for the Presidency, and start his inevitable campaign for the Senate.
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Rudy cannot win the GOP nomination and I stand by that. He will never get past the 35% ceiling on a moderate platform.
Polls in any states past Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina are 100% useless. The momentum after Iowa and New Hampshire that the 1st and 2nd place winners get cannot be understated. Romney right now is way ahead in Iowa and is also ahead in New Hampshire.
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This thread needs updating! Ghouliani and Man Tan lost big in the 9/5/07 NH debate. Hunter came out smoking and looked great. I think he really surprised a lot of people. He had just won big in the Texas Straw Poll…Huckabee got boring. He hates real conservatives, calls them/us “bigots” and Tancredo wasn’t nearly as combative towards Huckabee as he needed to be. Brownback with that ugly rug was a bore. McCain and Ghouliani kept touting their war and mayoral records, respectively. Nothing could be more boring! Tancredo AND Hunter lost a golden opportunity to tell McCain to his face that he’s a failed Senator, that he has presided over the Mexican Invasion as a sitting Senator from the Invasion state. And what has he done about it? Open Borders and amnesty.