(This post appears with a special thanks to commenter CarlH.)

It’s Official - Huckabee Stands In Front of An Anti-Romney Push

Yet another niche market media outlet carries that silly story about silly people in the midwest. Clearly there is a bit of a media push going on, but to date it has not gotten much traction - a few local papers and internet outlets like the one linked here. And I would place a bet that that lack of traction is why Huckabee himself stepped into the fray yesterday. He managed to score a little national media attention, CBS - their blog only, but said nothing we haven’t heard a thousand times before.

“I think a lot of people, not just social conservatives, but a lot of the Republicans I know are not necessarily comfortable with Romney,” Huckabee told CBSNews.com. “But it has nothing to do with religion. It has everything to do with inconsistencies in positions he’s held, and that’s it.”

OK, here’s the deal. Huckabee has always had a personal distaste for Romney, and I have always been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, I really thought it was a personal thing, not a religious one. Yes, he was unashamed to play the religion card in Iowa, but I thought that was opportunistic, not a sign of genuine religious bigotry.

I am beginning to wonder; however. For one thing, he keeps yapping like this. If it was a purely personal beef it is REALLY intense on Huck’s part and he and Romney have not had enough interaction to develop a dislike that intense. Being this ugly usually requires a betrayal or other actual personal interaction. Besides, Huckabee has nothing at stake in a competition with Romney anymore.

Further, there is Huckabee’s invocation of “flip-flop.” What did we learn back in January, courtesy Vanderbilt? That’s right - “flip-flop” is CODE for “Mormon.” Although “code” implies intent to deceive and for many of these people, Huck likely included, the only deception is self-deception. Huck is a lot of things, but dumb is not one of them. He has to know of the Vanderbilt study and he has to know that many of the people that are speaking here are obviously legitimate bigots. So, he has to know he is, at a minimum, providing cover for them.

Given the comments that appeared on his web site during the campaign, he was certainly willing to provide cover for the bigots then - so one must ask if proviing cover for bigots does not, in the final analysis, make one a bigot as well.

I will no longer give Huckabee any benefit of any doubt. I have accused him in the past of being “slick,” even “Clintonesque,” but I have refrained from using the truly ugly words like “bigot” or even plain old “jerk.” I think the one I shall use; however, is “hypocrite.” Remember that, very embarrassing “won’t air this negative ad I am about to get you to air for me for free” thing? Well, if this isn’t negative, I don’t know what is. Time for Mike Huckabee to take a long walk off a short pier.

And a bit of shame should fall on FoxNEWS as well. Do you think they would give a show to Democrat who provided cover for people that really did say (if anyone actually has?) Obama should not be president because he does not look like those others guys on the dollar bills? I bet not.

And The Press Stirs The Pot . . .

If religion and politics must mix, then the approach Rick Warren is taking this coming weekend, having BOTH candidates appear, is a decent way to go. But the press cannot help and try and turn that into a negative. The LATimes covers the upcoming event with these words:

But Warren’s willingness to soft-pedal political issues once central to U.S. evangelicals, such as opposition to abortion, has opened him to criticism that he has strayed from his calling to spread the Gospel.

In other words, they try to paint, like they always do, Evangelicals as small and close minded types lacking any generosity. Now, of course, there are some among us that fit that characterization:

TheCall — a group representing so-called “values voters” — will hold a rally on the National Mall as both candidates speak at Pastor Rick Warren’s 20,000-member Saddleback mega-church in southern California.

The author of the best-selling book, “The Purpose Driven Life,” is slated to interview both McCain and Obama.

TheCall, and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council — a Christian organization that opposes same-sex marriage and abortion rights — will hold a press conference in Washington Friday to push McCain and Obama to delve further into issues facing evangelical voters, The Hill newspaper reported Saturday.

Now, if you read between the lines here, you get some insight into what is really going on. There are a bunch of people trying to lay claim to leading Evangelicals - its a good old power struggle. The problem is, Evangelicals are a terribly diverse group, and therefore extraordinarily difficult to lead. I would contend they in fact, cannot be lead as a bloc, and hence all this bickering. But what they are really doing is shuffling the deck chairs while the ship is sinking.

It would be much better for all these type to define their “sub-set” of Evangelicals and consolidate their leadership over that set to give them a solid base to work from. But no, not unlike Huckabee, they cannot set aside animosities. real and imagined, for the sake of their higher aims. And so, as a political movement, Evangelicals in all their diversity sink into irrelevancy.

*SIGH*

Lowell’s post-script:  Political cartoons usually carry a grain of truth; this one has more than a few grains. 

Humor aside, I ask this:  Where are the denunciations?  Is there no one in a visible position who has the guts to say something strong about this?  To call people out for hiding behind “flip-flops?”  Were he a man of more courage and with a better moral compass, Mike Huckabee could have earned himself a place in history by forefully denouncing those among his supporters who are simple bigots.  Instead, he gives them cover.
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