Mike Huckabee

Former Governor of Arkansas
Ordained Southern Baptist Minister

In this issue:

GOP Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee:

As a "Compassionate Conservative"
Supports benefits for Illegal Aliens
Increases Size of Government by 20%
Supports a 30% "Fair Tax"
As a Tax Hiker
Constitutionally Ignorant or Defiant?
"You are a bigot if you oppose benefits for illegal aliens"
Huckabee, like Dukakis, has a 'Willie Horton'
NEW! Is Huckabee a Bush-Style Big Government Conservative?
NEW! Why did Huckabee push for a Mexican Consulate in Little Rock?
NEW! Did Governor Huckabee violate Arkansas law?
NEW! Pro-Huckabee Columnists ignore ethics issues which clouded his Arkansas Governorship
NEW! Huckabee is a Tobacco Prohibitionist

HUCKABEE HAS BEEN A BUSH-STYLE “COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE”

“Mike Huckabee’s surprise second-place showing at the Ames straw poll has catapulted him into contention with the leading candidates in Iowa. This was all the more remarkable given the former governor’s record of ‘compassionate conservative’ sympathies for government activism and liberal immigration policy.”

HUCKABEE BACKED TAX-SUBSIDIZED BENEFITS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

“Since his presidential campaign began, Huckabee has been careful to mask his views on immigration, including support for recent ‘comprehensive reform,’ with an emphasis on border enforcement and security. Yet only two years ago, as governor, he denounced a bill in the Arkansas legislature that would have prohibited state benefits for illegal immigrants as ‘un-Christian’ and ‘un-American.’

“A former Baptist pastor, Huckabee sermonized against the bill’s supporters: ‘I don’t understand how a practicing Christian can turn his back on a child from this or any other state.’ Like his fellow presidential candidate, Sen. Sam Brownback, Huckabee regards it as his Christian duty to help subvert and liberalize U.S. immigration laws. Together, they embrace the notion that fidelity to the Gospel requires privileging the interests of non-citizens over those of fellow citizens.” Source: Daniel Larison, The American Conservative, 9/24/07, p. 27

HUCKABEE INCREASED NUMBER OF

ARKANSAS GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES BY 20%

Tom Roeser writes regarding GOP Presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Michael Dale Huckabee that “For one thing, his great record in Arkansas came in part because of higher spending and taxation. He hiked state spending 65.3%, from 1996 to 2004. He supported five tax increases, leading the ‘Club for Growth’ to call him a liberal in disguise, prompting him to retort that the organization should be called the ‘Club for Greed’ which offends free-marketers. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank with heavy ties to the national GOP, gives him an F grade for spending and taxes in 2006 and an overall grade of D in his governorship. During his tenure, the number of state employees increased over 20% and Arkansas’ general obligation debt rose by almost $1 billion.”

IS A 30% FAIR TAX POLITICALLY SALEABLE?

“Even so, Huckabee can survive this charge but another one will test his creativity to the utmost. It’s his support of the so-called Fair Tax, a national retail sales tax that would replace the entire current federal tax system and junk the IRS. It was originally devised by the Church of Scientology in the 1990s to get rid of the IRS, which was refusing to recognize it as a legitimate religion. And as the details roll off Huckabee’s silver tongue on the stump, it sounds too good to be true.

“As former U.S. Treasury Department expert Bruce Bartlett recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal, it is. The idea is that since almost all states have a sales tax, replacing federal taxes with the same sort of tax would allow the states to collect the federal government’s revenue and rid themselves of the hated IRS.

“Advocates assert that a rate of 23% would be sufficient to replace federal individual and corporate income taxes as well as payroll and estate taxes. …

“But Bartlett, a Treasury deputy assistant secretary for economic policy under Ronald Reagan, wrote, ‘In reality the Fair Tax rate is not 23%. [The authors] get this figure by calculating the tax as if it were already incorporated into the price of goods and services.’ The real figure, he said, is 30% and asked: ‘Does adding 30% to the price of every house sold sound like a good idea to you?’

“He added: ‘This is only the beginning…. [T]he federal government would have to pay taxes to itself on all of its purchases of goods and services. Thus if the Defense Department buys a tank that now costs $1 billion, the manufacturer would have to add the Fair Tax and send it to the Treasury Department. The tank would then cost the federal government $300,000 more than it does today but its tax collection would also be $300,000 higher.’ ” Source: Thomas Roeser, The Wanderer, 9/6/07, pp. 1, 5

GOVERNOR HUCKABEE WAS A TAX-HIKER

“Thanks to a final term grade of F, Huckabee earns an overall grade of D for his entire governorship. Like many Republicans, his grades dropped the longer he stayed in office. In his first few years, he fought hard for a sweeping $70 million tax cut package that was the first broad-based tax cut in [Arkansas] in more than 20 years. He even signed a bill to cut the state’s 6 percent capital gains tax – a significant pro-growth accomplishment. But nine days after being reelected in 2002, he proposed a sales tax increase to cover a budget deficit caused partly by large spending increases that he proposed and approved, including an expansion in Medicare eligibility that Huckabee made a centerpiece of his 1997 agenda. He agreed to a 3 percent income tax ‘surcharge’ and a 25-cent cigarette tax increase. In response to a court order to increase spending on education, Huckabee proposed another sales tax increase. … He’s already been hailed as a viable big-government conservative candidate by some. That seems about right: Huckabee’s leadership has left taxpayers in Arkansas much worse off.” Source: Stephen Slivinski (director of budget studies at Cato Institute and author of Buck Wild: How Republicans Broke the Bank and Became the Party of Big Government), Policy Analysis, 10/24/06, p. 18

Issue #823 - October 15th, 2007

HUCKABEE IS CONSTITUTIONALLY (a) IGNORANT OR (b) DEFIANT

_______IN SUPPORT OF GIVING D.C. A VOTE IN THE HOUSE_______  

The Washington Post (9/28/07, p. A6) reports, “Several of the candidates took pains to cater to the mostly black audience, blaming inequality in America on continuing racism. Brownback said he wants Congress to pass a formal apology for slavery and segregation. Huckabee promised he would, as president, improve housing opportunities for minorities and address unequal treatment of different races in the criminal justice system. He also pledged to support voting rights for the District of Columbia.”

Issue #824 - October 31st, 2007

HUCKABEE APPARENTLY BELIEVES

YOU ARE A BIGOT IF YOU OPPOSE BENEFITS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

“On illegal immigration, Huckabee makes George Bush sound like Rep. Tom Tancredo (R.-Colo.). Huckabee has compared illegal aliens to slaves brought here in chains from Africa, saying, ‘I think, frankly, the Lord is giving us a second chance to do better than we did before.’

“Toward that end, when an Arkansas legislator introduced a bill that would prevent illegal aliens from voting and receiving state benefits, Huckabee denounced the bill, saying it would rile up ‘those who are racist and bigots.’

“He also made the insane point that companies such as Toyota would not invest in Arkansas if the state didn’t allow non-citizens to vote, because it would ‘send the message that, essentially, “If you don’t look like us, talk like us and speak like us, we don’t want you.” ’

“Like all the (other) Democratic candidates for President, he supports a federal law to ban smoking – unless you’re an illegal alien smoking at a Toyota plant.” Source: Ann Coulter, Human Events, 10/15/07, p. 6

HUCKABEE, LIKE DUKAKIS, HAS A WILLIE HORTON

“If Huckabee does get some traction, The Boston Globe’s Susan Milligan has details of a little-remembered aspect of his record as governor: when he paroled convicted rapist Wayne Dumond, Milligan writes, ‘Huckabee, whose self-deprecating humor and easy candor have charmed many on the campaign trail, bristles when asked about the case, in which Dumond – now dead – was paroled from an Arkansas prison, with then-governor Huckabee’s endorsement, only to sexually assault and kill a woman in Missouri…. If Huckabee, who is creeping upward in the polls, gains more momentum, the case is certain to become an issue.’ ” Source: http://abcnews.go.com, 10/15/07

WAYNE DUMOND SHOULD HAVE BEEN EXECUTED, NOT PAROLED

“Dumond’s case is notorious in Arkansas. In 1984, he raped a 17-year-old girl. While awaiting trial at his home, he was castrated by, he said, masked intruders. Later, after Dumond went to prison for life, some people in Arkansas saw the sentence as excessive, especially given his mutilation.

“Huckabee was one, and, after becoming governor in 1996, he announced his desire to commute Dumond’s sentence. Dumond’s rape victim, Ashley Stevens, saw it differently.

“Stevens, now 40 and living in the western United States, said she tried to persuade Huckabee not to shorten the sentence for Dumond.

“ ‘I told [Huckabee]: If you ever let him out, he’s going to do it again,’ she said in an interview.”

HUCKABEE IGNORED RAPE VICTIM’S PLEA

“She was able to get a meeting with the governor – who, she said, had not spoken to her before announcing his intention to commute Dumond’s sentence – but realized Huckabee had ‘made up his mind.’ So Stevens stood up, she said, walked over to Huckabee, who was seated on a sofa, squatted down and thrust her face inches from his.

“ ‘I said, “This is how close I was to Dumond’s face for an hour,” ’ Stevens recalled. ‘ “I’ll never forget his face, and you’ll never forget mine.” ’

“The parole board – following a closed meeting with Huckabee – decided to let Dumond go. The following year, Dumond committed the Missouri slaying. He died in prison in 2005.”

EVEN BILL CLINTON WAS TOUGHER ON CRIME THAN HUCKABEE

“If Huckabee, who is creeping upward in the polls, gains more momentum, the case is certain to become an issue. Stevens said she is prepared to campaign actively against him if he becomes a serious [candidate] for president or vice president.

“Bloggers have already dubbed the matter ‘Huckabee’s Willie Horton,’ referring to the case of a Massachusetts man who was paroled during Michael Dukakis’s tenure as Massachusetts governor, and then raped a Maryland woman and terrorized her fiancé. The episode tainted the onetime Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign even though Dukakis had not personally intervened on Horton’s behalf. …

“[Huckabee] also has had a running feud with the Club for Growth – which he calls ‘the Club for Greed’ – which ran ads attacking him for raising taxes to improve schools.

IS HUCKABEE A BUSH-STYLE BIG GOVERNMENT CONSERVATIVE?

“The ‘conservative’ Christians are beginning to throw their support behind another ‘conservative’ Christian named Mike Huckabee because he comes across as the most Christian. What these ‘conservative’ Christians have not been paying attention to is his actual rhetoric. Yes, he addresses abortion and homosexual marriage, but if you listen closely, all the things he supports increase the size, power and cost of government. From subsidies for energy research to increasing money for health care and government housing, the size, power, and cost of government will not shrink under a President Mike Huckabee; they will increase. Please be very wary of the flat tax or ‘fair tax’ being proposed and endorsed by Mr. Huckabee. It will lead to a national ID card, and it does not guarantee that the personal income tax will be altogether abolished. Mr. Huckabee swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution when he became governor, yet many of his proposals are clearly unconstitutional.” Source: David Ulrich, Letter of the Week , www.WorldNetDaily.com, 10/26/07

WHY DID HUCKABEE PUSH FOR A MEXICAN CONSULATE IN LITTLE ROCK?

“Financial inducements arranged by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to establish a Mexican consular office in Little Rock may have violated state law, according to an Arkansas attorney.”

DID HUCKABEE FINANCIAL SUPPORTERS WANT

MORE LOW-WAGE ILLEGALS TO WORK IN THEIR FACTORIES?

“As WND reported yesterday, critics in Arkansas charge Huckabee, who lately has enjoyed a surge in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, worked with some of the state’s most prominent and politically powerful businesses to establish the consulate as a magnet for drawing illegal immigrants to the state to accept low-paying jobs. …

“Arkansas attorney Chip Sexton provided WND a written legal brief arguing the state government’s sublease to Mexico of office space for the consulate was illegal under Arkansas law. Sexton contended the deal raised questions about the appropriateness of private citizens and corporations in Arkansas providing financial incentives for the government of Mexico to locate a consulate office in Little Rock.”

CONSULGATE?

“ ‘This arrangement to bring a Mexican consulate to Little Rock and the manner in which it occurred amounts to a “consul-gate,” ’ Sexton told WND. ‘I’m an Arkansas citizen, why doesn’t the state lease me some property and furniture for $1 per year?’

“Robert Trevino, commissioner of Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, told WND he and Huckabee helped arrange state and private financial support to induce Mexico to establish the consulate as a business development ‘quid pro quo.’

“Trevino signed on July 7, 2006, a ‘Facilities Use Agreement’ with Mexican consular officials to rent state government office space for $1 a year on the second floor of the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services building at 26 Corporate Hills in Little Rock.”

DID GOVERNOR HUCKABEE VIOLATE ARKANSAS LAW?

“Sexton points to Arkansas law, which appears to prohibit state agencies, including Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, from sub-leasing government space.

“Ark. Code Ann. § 22-2-114(C)(i) provides: ‘After July 1, 1975, no state agency shall enter into or renew or otherwise negotiate a lease between itself as lessor or lessee and a nongovernmental or other government lessor or lessee.’

“ ‘Even more offensive, there was nothing in the lease or other agreements that would have prevented the Mexican consulate from providing legal assistance to illegal aliens,’ Sexton told WND. ‘We have information that the Mexican consulate operating out of the Arkansas Rehabilitation Facility was providing legal assistance even to Mexican illegal aliens who were accused of committing violent crimes in Arkansas.’

“Sexton said he and other critics have ‘called on the Arkansas attorney general’s office to set the lease aside and recover the value of the lease.’ …”

HUCKABEE WORKED WITH FOX TO OPEN THE DOORS OF TYSON’S CHICKEN COOP

“Arkansas attorney Sexton disagreed, insisting, ‘This whole scheme to get a Mexican consulate to locate in Little Rock appears to be nothing more than a veiled invitation for illegal immigrants to come to Arkansas to work for the Arkansas corporations who want cheap labor.’ ‘The package is enhanced by social welfare benefits provided by the state of Arkansas and financing assistance to support the Mexican consulate’s presence in the state,’ Sexton said.

“Trevino confirmed he was state director of the League of United Latin American Citizens, also known as LULAC, an activist group strongly advocating for rights of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S., when on Oct. 3, 2003, he accompanied Huckabee in a state airplane to visit [President Vicente] Fox in Mexico.” Source: Jerome Corsi, www.WorldNetDaily.com, 11/1/07

PRO-HUCKABEE COLUMNISTS IGNORE ETHICS

ISSUES WHICH CLOUDED HIS ARKANSAS GOVERNORSHIP

“Mike Huckabee has been gaining momentum in the Republican race for the presidency, but a senior editor at the American Spectator says his time as governor of Arkansas was filled with scandal.

“ ‘National media folks like David Brooks, dealing in surface appearances only, rave about what a nice guy Huckabee is, and a moral exemplar to boot. If they only did a little homework, they would discover a guy with a thin skin, a nasty vindictive streak, and a long history of imbroglios about questionable ethics,’ Quin Hillyer wrote yesterday at Spectator.org.”

AMERICAN SPECTATOR REPORTS FACTS WHICH WOULD BE

HIGHLIGHTED BY DEMOCRATS DURING GENERAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN

“ ‘Once, Gov. Huckabee even had the gall to file suit against the state ethics commission. He lost,’ Mr. Hillyer said. ‘Fourteen times, the ethics commission – a respected body, not a partisan witch hunt group – investigated claims against Huckabee. Five of those times, it officially reprimanded him. And, as only MSNBC among the big national media has reported at any real length, there were lots of other mini scandals and embarrassments along the way.”

QUIN HILLYER RAKES THE MUCK

“ ‘He used public money for family restaurant meals, boat expenses, and other personal uses. He tried to claim as his own some $70,000 of furniture donated to the governor’s mansion. He repeatedly, and obstinately, against the pleadings even from conservative columnists and editorials, refused to divulge the names of donors to a “charitable” organization he set up while lieutenant governor – an outfit whose main charitable purpose seemed to be to pay Huckabee to make speeches. Then, as a kicker, he misreported the income itself from the suspicious “charity.” ’ ” Source: Greg Pierce, Inside Politics , The Washington Times, 10/25/07, p. A8

HUCKABEE IS A TOBACCO PROHIBITIONIST

“GOP presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee suggested that as president he would, for the good of the people, support a federal anti-smoking law. You see, as governor, Huckabee supported such laws because, well, he doesn’t like smoking and doesn’t think folks should indulge in so health-threatening an activity. If he could move on up to the presidency, he would continue his abolitionist crusade at the national level without giving much, if any, thought to the question of whether the Constitution or anything else would legitimize a federal ban on smoking.” Source: David Keene, Chairman of the American Conservative Union, The Hill, 11/6/07, p. 31