The Republican establishment finally comes around

Lately, there has been a lot of consternation among establishment Republicans about Mike Huckabee. I find the whole thing pretty funny. To quote the bible, "You reap what you sow." There was this from the Arizona Republic today about Huckabee being offensively and overtly religious in his appeal. I find it particularly funny that so many Republicans can complain with a straight face.

Here is the problem that I think Republicans really have with Huckabee:

They don't control me. I'm not one of theirs. I'm not one of those guys that just owe my soul to the people on Wall Street. I'm not a wholly-owned subsidiary of them. I don't live in the circles of power in Washington. I really do come right up from the people. . . .

There's a sense in which all these years the evangelicals have been treated very kindly by the Republican Party. They wanted us to be a part of it. And then one day one of us actually runs, and they say, Oh, my gosh. Now they're serious. They don't want to just show up and vote. They actually would want to be a part of the discussion, and really talk about issues that include hunger and poverty and things that ought to be really a concern to every American, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative. . . . (emphasis mine)

I never did propose that we would impose our religion on somebody else. What I did do [as Governor] was improve children's health, education, the road system. But we didn't do it just for the people at the top. The tax policies and other things we did, it helped the people at the bottom so they might have a chance to live the American dream. For that, I apologize to no one. (From the Today Show Via Glenn Greenwald)

I agree that his overt religious gestures have no place in politics, but I find them no more offensive or egregious than most other Republican candidates of the past 10 years. As far as the criticism of Mormons,

"Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

Isn't that truly what they believe? That is a pretty soft attack when compared to the attacks lavished on homosexuals, atheists, feminists and liberals over the past eight years. According to many we are destroying the very fabric of society and caused 9/11. Welcome to our club... Tell your former friends to layoff the hyperbole pills...

BTW -- In the interest of being self-congratulatory, I have been warning people about Huckabee for about a year. Even still, I am surprised by his sudden rise. In the end, I think he may end up being a Dean type candidacy. It is hard to fight your own party establishment. Also, just for record, I have been saying that Giuliani did not have a snowballs chance in Hell. I stick by that earlier assessment.