Mr. Nice: Not So Much As Fred's Barbs Sting

Update: Fred's picking up a little post-debate cash and is back on the air in SC:

I'm glad the media has noticed. Thompson attacked Huckabee for his policy positions and Mr. Jesus couldn't keep himself from striking back personally in several different shots at Thompson. For all his preaching, Huckabee seems like a very low-minded, mean individual. That should be a concern. Character counts and Huckabee doesn't have very much of it.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) - Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee went from Mr. Nice to Mr. Nasty when rival Fred Thompson started calling him what he considered a bad name—a liberal.

Huckabee said Friday that the lawyer-turned-actor-turned-politician had little to show for his time in the Senate.

"Eight years is a pretty long time to get a check from the federal government and not be able to say" he passed a major bill, Huckabee sniped.

You can tell his anger gets in the way of his judgment. He has nothing to gain from keeping this going. All that does is open the door for Thompson to keep hitting him where it really hurts - on the fact that he's a charade as a conservative and is actually very liberal.

Not that he's being nasty, of course. After suggesting that Thompson needed to lighten up—he told MSNBC on Friday that Thompson needed to drink a bit of the digestive aid Metamucil—Huckabee later assured reporters that he was only trying to bring some humor to the stump.

Classy guy, our Huckster. Good to see Fred getting some positive press.

“But then last night — we hadn’t even been thinking about him — all of a sudden it was clear he was the one,” said Mr. Berenberk, a retired teacher. “The bluntness, the forcefulness. He was really impressive.”

Hot Air has a link to Huckabee defending himself and Allah says Huck 1- Fred 0. But I disagree. It's adolescent humor, which most adults appreciate as often mean-spirited. Yeah, it plays on MSNBC. But that's hardly a hang-out for the Republican base. The guy wants to be President of the United States, for heaven's sake. Some folks would like the office to retain a little dignity, even if Bill Clinton occupied it for a time.

“You have to understand the context of the show….It’s not quite as irreverent as Imus…not quite Stephen Colbert but it’s serious topics with an edge.”

“I really do believe if people can’t have some sense of humor as they approach this stuff, then it causes everybody to be so locked down and consultant driven that their campaigns become so boring because all they’re going to do is give this robotic answer to everything that’s very carefully scripted. I promise you, you won’t have moments like this,” Huckabee said, gesturing to the handful of reporters that had gathered around him for an on-the-record conversation that would last about 40 minutes…

“If I thought I couldn’t be a human being. That I gotta wait till six handlers tell me what I can and can’t say and I have to read it, you know, it’s not worth it.”

Comments

[syn]

There is something freaky when I watch TV MSM side with an evangelical liberal who preaches he will take America back for Christ after I have watched over the last six years TV MSM crucify President Bush for being a Christofascist.

What is going on inside the Church these days, are they preaching God's words or Marx's words?

The weirdest thing is reading comments made by Huckabee supporters that George W. Bush isn't 'Christian' enough. Now I am not an evangelical but I do support many of their social conservative views but if they decide Huckabee is the only real Christian leader in America I will lose my faith in their social conservative values.

I hope Christian evangelicals understand that outside the Republican Party they have no friends who will support them.

[Fausta]

Fred mopped the floor with the Huckster during the debate.

[Eberta]

I am an evangelical Southern Baptist and do not understand how one becomes a "former Southern Baptist pastor". As I read scripture, you don't decide to "try out" being a pastor, you are called to be one, and it is not up to you become "un-called". What caused Governor Huckabee to decide to drop his church and get into politics? Were some of his views too liberal for his relationship with his denomination? Were his ambitions in conflict with his "first call" to the ministry? We should all be involved. We are called to be salt and light. I just don't get what let the governor to become "un-called" to the ministry. This is not something he should be able to brush off as none of my business. He wears his faith on his sleeve and quotes scripture when it suits him. He should tell us when he came to the realization he was no longer called to be a pastor. His background...all of it...tells us whether he is fit to be President of the United States.

[BobInStamford]

For the record - that Huckleberry fellow stole my line about Metamucil. Look it up. Who is this guy, Joe Biden?????

[Coyote99]

Eberta: I read an article recently in which Huckabee talked about his decision to leave the ministry and go into politics. He said he decided it was time to "get off the bench" or "get off the sidelines" (or words to that affect; I don't remember the exact quote) and get into the "real game" (government). Apparently Rev. Huckabee believes that preaching the gospel is a calling fit only for the faint of heart -- those who don't have the guts to become politicians! Quite an unusual (and disturbing) point of view, IMO.

[edward cropper]

Mitt Romney Told Elmer Gantry that he makes up facts faster than he can talk.
What he should have said was that he makes up excuses and dodges faster than he can talk.
I also wondered why Elmer left the ministry.Maybe his ego got the best of him and he didn't want to lift up Christ anymore, deciding lifting up Elmer would be more gratifying.
Not judging mind you just surmising.
Elmer is without a doubt one of the biggest scammers I have ever come across.
What amazes me is that he is so shallow and obvious and so few actually see it.
That is the problem with many evangelicals. They feel so persecuted at times (and with some justification)when they see one who claims to be a fellow believer they can't see anything else but supporting him or her.
Their record be damned, he or she is our candidate full steam ahead.(Can you say Pat Robertson?)
Elmer Gantry is not only bad for the country he is bad for all Evangelicals.Once his true colors are revealed and people see him for the total fraud he is, that will just be another slam at Evangelicals. (Can you say Jim & Tammy Bakker?)
This is unfortunate, since Evangelicals for the most part are really good people.

[tally]

bull s***, eberta. if you were a southern baptist minister you would know not to judge his faith (or for that matter wag tongues and cast stones).

while i'm not for huck, i'm not going to throw him under the bus either. with his wit and charm he can be a grand asset - just in another role that is.

[JorgXMcKie]

Having been raised in a very Baptist community and a very Baptist family (mostly), I can recognize a Baptist conman when I see/hear one, and Huckabee is a conman. I'll not judge his religion ("Judge not, lest ye be Judged"), but I think I can be a fruit inspector ("by the fruits of their labors shall ye know them"), and I think Huckabee's fruit is rotten.

[farideh]

Sorry tally, but eberta is absolutely correct. It is not judgment but observation on eberta's part. That Americans would fall and vote for the biggest conman and phony ever appearing before them would be the biggest tragedy this country would ever -- repeat: ever -- face; may I even say a tragedy greater than 9/11 because the devastation this conman would bring to America would be far greater than 9/11. If you thought the Clinton years were bad ... Something about the water in Arkansas. Nowhere in the New Testament does it state to compromise the law of the land, but rather to the contrary: "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's." Yet, Elmer has gone out of his way to reward law breakers.

[Eberta]

Coyote99: If you're right, I wonder why the Itinerate Preacher from Galilee never "got in the game" as a zealot and took the chance when the masses wanted to make Him King. Hopefully more people of faith WILL stay involved. But was Huckabee called to the ministry, or did it just not work out for him?

[OCBill]

I don't think a real conservative would consider passing "major bills" a sign of accomplishment. See also "No Child Left Behind". The notion that major bills equals accomplishment reveals a view that Government is the solution.

[ma_che62]

Hey farideh,

You wrote: may I even say a tragedy greater than 9/11.

9/11 was not a "tragedy," it was a massacre, a slaughter, mass murder. A flood or an earthquake is a tragedy. 9/11 was an atrocity. And if you start using the right words, people will start to respond in an appropriate way...instead of how they respond when they hear the word "tragedy."

[GeoffB]

I think Eberta and Coyote99 have put their finger on the problem: Huckabee seems to view politics as another, better form of pastorship, with the State House and the White House being the ticket to bigger flocks - that can be led by law and regulation. For our Commander in Chief, we should be looking for a leader who will keep our country free and safe, not a pastor to shepherd us to his version of a life of righteousness.

Ronald Reagan wanted to get government off our backs.
Mike Huckabee wants to use government to get into our hearts.

No thanks.

[MuscleDaddy]

"Hot Air has a link to Huckabee defending himself and Allah says Huck 1- Fred 0."

- 'Course, that would be the same Allah who published "Fred Will Drop Out If He Doesn't Make 2nd in Iowa".... the day before Iowa, which seems to me like annoucing the East coast election results before the West coast polls close, in an attempt to influence an election.

.... or would seem like that, anyhow - if the the story hadn't been catagorically FALSE in the first place.

I guess that's what we can expect from Allah.

Too bad.

- MuscleDaddy