December 22, 2007
RIGHTWING HATRED OF HIM ISN'T JUST ABOUT CHRISTOPHOBIA...:
Mike Huckabee governed against the grain: He shepherded many changes in Arkansas, but left some supporters feeling abandoned (ADAM NOSSITER and DAVID BARSTOW, 12/22/07, New York Times)
In more than a decade of presiding over this state, Mike Huckabee produced a legacy like few other Republican governors in the South, surprising even liberal Democrats with his willingness to upend some of Arkansas' more parochial traditions.A review of his record as governor shows that beginning in 1996 he drove through a series of changes that transformed education and health insurance in Arkansas, achievements that were never tried by most of his predecessors, including Bill Clinton. [...]
[T]he novice governor found the sea legs in 1997 to help enact, with overwhelming support in the heavily Democratic Legislature, a major expansion of health insurance for children of the working poor whose families did not qualify for Medicaid. It was one of the first such expansions in the nation, coming before the federal government authorized them, and it baffled some Republicans in the Legislature.
"None of us understood what he was trying to do," said Peggy Jeffries, then a Republican state senator and now executive director of the Arkansas affiliate of the Eagle Forum, a national group of conservatives.
Easily elected to a full term in 1998, Huckabee was emerging as something of an unquantifiable presence in the state capital, sometimes exerting leadership, other times not, and often floating above the details and minutia of governing.
But he confounded Republicans again when he pushed for a fuel tax increase to finance an ambitious road-building program, and eventually won support for what historians say was the largest highway bond program in Arkansas history.
...it's also about asking them to pay for the government programs they demand. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 22, 2007 9:00 AM
Can you really imagine this bunc
Can you really imagine this bunch in the White House?
HEEHAW, HEEHAW
Posted by: George McMillin at December 22, 2007 11:27 AMI can remember the Carter and Clinton bunch, so yes I can imagine it and it's very unnerving.
Posted by: erp at December 22, 2007 12:15 PMYes I can imagine it and it's very unnerving.
Posted by: erp at December 22, 2007 12:19 PMHe's also an NEA favorite adamantly opposed to vouchers. So, by the standards of the blog, he's a racist. What I'm not sure about is whether I'm still a Christophobe for not liking the racist.
I need a ruling from the referee.
Posted by: Ibid at December 22, 2007 5:21 PMWhat good would vouchers do kids in a state where all the schools are crappy?
Posted by: oj at December 22, 2007 9:20 PMThe schools are lousy in New Hampshire? Because that's where he's the first Republican in years to get an endorsement from the state NEA in return for his kowtowing to the education establishment.
(Yes, I know you mean Arkansas, but I assume that, like every other southern state, the good schools are the private schools dating from integration where all the white kids went and that's the way that Huckabee likes it.)
Posted by: Ibid at December 23, 2007 8:57 AMHe's just the first, and won't be the last, of populist pseudo-conservatives playing the victim game and identity politics. And with St.Hillary! on the other side, it shows the Arkansawification of our politics is complete.
White male religious is the GOP identity.
Posted by: oj at December 23, 2007 5:24 PMThe best schools in Arkansas are in Arkansas. They suck. He had to fight vouchers to improve education at all.
Posted by: oj at December 23, 2007 5:29 PMWOULD EVERYONE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
PUT ON BLINDERS AND GET OVER YOUR RACISM CRUD...OUR COUNTRY IS GOING DOWN...LET THE MAN DO BUSINESS..AND GET THE BLACK KIDS MINDS OFF THEIR SAGGY BUTT PANTS AND ANGER OVER THEIR COLOR AND INTO DOING SOMTHING FOR THEMSELVES! LIKE BE AN AMERICAN AND GO TO SCHOOL AND DO SOMETHING BESIDES MOAN AND GROAN! (WHAT A LEGACY SHARPTON AND JACKSON LEAVE THE BLACKS....CORRUPTION,WELFARE,GREED AND NEITHER WORK.THEY USE DRAMAAND YOUR PAIN FOR DONATIONS!) AS FOR BORN AGAIN SNOOTS QUIT WITCHIN ABOUT IT ALL AND CHNGE IT..YOU ARE JUST AS GUILTY SITTING OON YOUR MOANS AND WOE!HOW DID WE ALL MAKE IT OUR FAMILIES AS IMMIGRANTS!MY MOTHERS FAMILY IS OLD OLD..SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE AFOUNDER OF OUR COUNTRY...JOSIAH BARTLETT! YES, OF WESTWING KNOCKOFF FAME..HE WAS A DR.AND A SENATOR FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE...MY OTHER GRANDPARENTS IMMIGRATED FROM FRANCE AFTER THE REVOLUTION AND WERE POOR AND MADE WELL IN RICE...MY FATHER? FIRST GENERATION ITALIEN...WOP,IF YOU WILL..WHICH MEANS WITHOUT PAPERS FOLKS!!!HOW DID THESE FOLKS MAKE IT AS AMERICANS? THEY DINT WEAR BAGGY PANTS AND CHAINS AND COMPLAIN INSTEAD OF WORKIN...THEY DIDNT SPEND TIME IN CHURCH CONDEMNING EVERYONE ELSE...THEY DIDNT COMPLAIN ABOUT LEARNING THE AMERICAN CULTURE OR LANGUAGE CUZ THEY FELT THEY WERENT SMART ENOUGH TO RETAIN TWO LANGUAGESS! DUH! JESUS FOLKS...NO PUN INTENDED...GET OFF YOUR SAD SOAP BOXES AND OFF YOUR OVERWEIGHT BURGER KING BUTTS AND DO SOMETHING FOR YOUR NEIGHBORS..ALL OF EM...PINK BLUE PURPLE GREEN...GET OVER YOUR HIGHBROW JEALOUS SELVES..AND BE HAPPY FOR THOSE THAT SUCCEED ..LET IT BE YOUR INSPIRATION...BE HELPFUL TO THOSE THAT HAVE LESS..AND KNOW THEY CAN DO IT TOO..BE AMERICAN