Isn’t blood-lust a bad thing?

January 1, 2008

I hesitate to give too much attention to Mike Huckabee’s promote-my-ad-for-free attack, but Michael Crowley raises a good point.

About mid-way through the ad, during a litany of accusations against Mitt Romney, Huckabee criticizes his rival with this data point: “No executions.”

Apparently, Huckabee — you know, the evangelical, pro-life Republican — is going after Romney for not having executed any Americans during his gubernatorial tenure.

I realize Republican politics are far more crass than norms should allow, but it’s disconcerting to think “You didn’t kill anyone” has suddenly become a criticism in conservative circles.

It’s probably just as well he didn’t execute anyone as governor, given that there’s no death penalty in Massachusetts. He did try pretty hard to institute one, however, with no success.

  • but it’s disconcerting to think “You didn’t kill anyone” has suddenly become a criticism in conservative circles.

    What’s with the “suddenly?”

  • Save the fetus! Once it’s born it’s on its own because it’s alright to host off the mother’s body but not off the government dole. No children’s aid for you! No lunches (remember, ketchup was a vegetable to good old Uncle Ronnie Reagan), no healthcare, no nothing…but we ain’t gonna pay for your abortion and we certainly don’t give a crap what happens to you once you’re born!

    Compassionate conservative my a$$!

  • Thanks dcm, I read that and thought something was amiss.

    Once again MuthaHucka shows a true ReThug’s insatiable desire to look like an ignorant twat and an arrogant belief that no one will dare point out his flaws. He’s practically daring Mittens to deploy an ad about that convicted rapist he let out of prison.

    Popcorn?

  • I noticed this trend in this year’s Rethug campaign when Romeny and others started hitting Huckabee for the number of commutations he had given. While some of those may have been questionable (not to mention the interesting religion-preferencing patterns Huck showed), the general theme was more a matter of mercy now being considered a personality flaw. Party of Moral Values indeed!

  • If it weren’t for double standards, the Republicans wouldn’t have any standards at all.

    Hey, Huck pulled that ad. You’re not supposed to criticize it. 🙂

  • Phuckabee just likes to kill things—it’s that morbidly-Baptist mentality that’s been around since the days of his OT ancestors coming down out of the hills for the purpose of smiting all the Philistines, and has “evolved” into the insatiable desire to prove one’s knuckledragging qualifications to the knuckledragging base.

    Hey—it takes a lot to drag a knuckledragger away from his barstool, his Nascar, and his hunting season. Cheap beer, mangled steel, and chasing Bambi with a hand-held howitzer’ll do that to a person….

  • hmm – i thought i saw somewhere that he paid $18 for the cut and $14 for a shave (if i were a politician you think i’d let anyone get a straight razor near by throat?)

    i cant speak for everyone in Iowa, but i can say that i personally have never paid $75 for a haircut. now the better half may have; she tries not to let me see those cancelled checks. . . maybe Huck had some highlights put in!

  • Well, isn’t this straight out of Bush’s campaign for governor against Ann Richards? Didn’t Bush win that election pretty much on the single issue of Richards, who signed as many death warrants as any other governor of the time, being soft for not executing enough people?

  • This shouldn’t be surprising. Huckabee’s way of understanding the world is essentially a death cult that grew into a major world religion.

    He thinks that a certain instance of capital punishment was the greatest event in all of history. Don’t tell me that doesn’t work its way into policy.

  • I love that visit to the Creation Museum “j” pointed out in #11. Proof there are indeed two kinds of hairless biped on the planet: homo sapiens (us) and homo sap (them). Reverend Hucklebuck proves what I was listening to today on Patt Morrison’s NPR show about conservative brains being unable to deal with ambiguity (which is whey they’re all found in the shallow end of the gene pool and the lower rungs of the IQ ladder) is right.

    You know, the scary thing is, one out of every four people you meet out there is One Of Them. Sure explains the traffic problems, doesn’t it???

  • As Barney Frank remarked: “for these (pro life repubs) people the right to life begins at conception and ends at birth”.

    And dcm is right, Romney worked very hard for a death penalty in Ma, and came frighteningly close to pulling it off.

  • Off topic, but since we dont have an open thread. . .

    Kucinch has now asked his supporters in Iowa to realign to Obama in places where Kucinich isn’t viable (i.e. everywhere). This is (a) a bit of a concession that Kucinich has no chance here and (b) a bit of a slam on Edwards, since in 2004 Edwards and Kucinich had a reciprocal “second choice” referral that was credited with helping Edwards surprise people with his showing.

  • ok, more OT:

    When I went to grab some carry out, what I believe was a CNN crew was sitting in the bar having a drink. I overheard a discussion where one had been following Biden today, and at one location that had a balcony “they were even three deep in the balcony” and in Indianola, Iowa, they had expected “about 15 people” and “about 107” turned out. He and another among the group said in amazement “this just doesn’t feel like a 4% campaign to me.”

    So if anyone is looking for a longshot bet to seriously outperform expectations in Iowa. . .

  • Fontor wrote:

    Huckabee’s way of understanding the world is essentially a death cult that grew into a major world religion.

    Oh, come on. If you read this blog every day, it’s pretty clear that Huckabee is totally insincere. He’s not some idealist, he’s an insincere opportunist. Criticizing him has nothing to do with Christianity or with religion.

  • Swan said: Oh, come on. If you read this blog every day, it’s pretty clear that Huckabee is totally insincere. He’s not some idealist, he’s an insincere opportunist. Criticizing him has nothing to do with Christianity or with religion.

    Why do you hate Christians?

  • Zeitgeists reports make me realize the value of the Iowa phenomena. It scales the campaigns down to an understandable size. What is usually a huge remote event, can be understood on a more human scale.

  • Dale, that has always been part of my defense of Iowa (or some similarly small, less-population-dense state) starting things off.

    What is odd about that observation is that many Iowans would tell you that things are different this time – that much of that human scale is being lost. Clinton, Obama, and even Edwards are such rockstars that they draw thousands to their events. In 2004, I met Dean numerous times where there were less than 8 of us in a room; I met Kerry in a good friend’s backyard at a small afternoon reception; I met Edwards in a group of about 20 in a condo complex party room. That sort of thing just hasn’t happened this year, at least not among the top tier candidates. There are security perimeters and secret service and auditoriums.

    The other change, I think, is that certain “message discipline” tactics of the Rethug machine have been seen as successful, and the prohibition on using them has been broken – as a result, once candidates get in the lead, they are less open: in December, Clinton has taken open Q & A at 20% of her appearances; Obama just under 50% (at least for Clinton, part of this is schedule-driven – she is remarkably on-time, whereas Bill used to run hours late).

    But it is nice, as a general proposition, for the candidates to have to interact with real, non-beltway, non-famous citizens on a very personal, face-to-face level – not just through the media. I just hope those days are not forever lost regardless of where the process begins.

  • Dale:

    I don’t know what your comment #21 is about, if you meant to address me. I was crticizing Fontor for what looked like an unfair, substancelss criticism of Christianity, not saying anything against Christians myself.

    Fontor made it sound like the disgusting stuff Huckabee does is because he’s a Christian. That kind of thing doesn’t belong on this blog. Huckabee pulls off a lot of disgusting deception that doesn’t have to do with whether Huckabee’s a Christian or not.

  • Schwag of Tulsa — I haven’t had a chance to keep up; but is there anything new with the ORU scandal?

  • Dale: “Hey, Huck pulled that ad. You’re not supposed to criticize it.”

    Taking Huckabee’s supposed change of heart at face value, it could be that the executions thing was exactly what prompted him to pull the ad.

  • Not to mention, there IS NO DEATH PENALTY in the state of Massachusetts. In Mitt’s defense, though, I’m sure he really WANTED to kill someone.

  • Since George Bush outdid Ted Bundy as a serial killer in Texas, maybe the blood he spilled can be credited to Romney’s account.

  • Pingback: A Mind is a Terrible Thing » An episode of “What Steve Benen said”

  • jen flowers: “(A fictional, violent culture.)”

    Thanks for the clarification. I’m not up on all the new Star Wars.

  • Grumpy said:
    “jen flowers: ‘(A fictional, violent culture.)’

    Thanks for the clarification. I’m not up on all the new Star Wars.”

    I’ll say, since the Klingons are from Star TREK, not Star WARS. 😉

  • BuzzMon said:
    “Would Dick Cheney get credit for his hunting?
    Or does he get a share in all of the bloodshed in Iraq ?”

    Isn’t shooting a friend in the face bloodthirsty enough for you?

    Grumpy said:
    “Don’t insult my intelligence, Kirk.”

    Just your ability to cite a reference correctly 😉

  • The GOP would be foolish to nominate Huckabee. Isn’t it screamingly obvious he’s the Howard Dean of 2008? He loves playing the nice guy while putting out stealth attacks, playing victim, then “showing the ad anyway” which Fox News happily aired a few times for free.

    If the Dems nominate Obama, it doesn’t matter though. No Republican can beat him.

  • Some idiot wrote “He’s practically daring Mittens to deploy an ad about that convicted rapist he let out of prison.” It’s sad how that moron resorted to lies to make his weak jab. Romney didn’t ever let a convicted rapist out of prison. A judge with a previously respectable track record made the decision that the man was fit to return to society. It was a poor decision, and Romney had her dismissed for it. Idiots who leave comments like that are basically saying, Romney should have been personally monitoring every single judge appointed in his state, every single time they made a court decision. Not only is that completely irrational, but it just proves what a good record Romney has, when the only dirt people can find is petty, ridiculous, and baseless allegations like that.

  • In upside-down Conservative world, it isn’t merely important that you live and you’re rich, it’s very, very important that other people die and remain poor. It’s Gawd’s punishment, after all.

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