Obligatory Annual Huckabee Post

I don't think about Mike Huckabee very often. In fact, I've tried to whitewash his flapping jowls out of my fragile little mind. But he's caught my attention twice in the last few days. I guess you can only keep an evangelical down for so long before Fox gives him his own TV show.

I happened to catch the opening segment Saturday. It was an accident, I swear. Before long, Huckabee hooked me in with his smooth Southern folksiness and plainspoken conviction on the coming socialism that Barack Obama was surely installing into the U.S.

But really, it was a near-stunning display of dishonesty regarding health care. Death panels, rationing, taxpayer-funded abortions (where he was especially vile, making frightening inferences and far-fetched connections), he hit all wingnut fetishes of the day. The misconceptions were not only laughable, but completely warmed-over after the week of debunking they had gone through. Mike can't even time his screwball rhetoric to match the news cycle, apparently.

And he talks to his audience as if they were children, with his mommy voice.

See it here. (I'm sorry that Fox wouldn't provide a working embed code for their crappy video player....)

Then Glenn Greenwald notes that Huckabee ridiculed U.S. policy toward Israel's illegal settlements while he was in Israel. And it seems he was there to do just that: desecrate the Obama administration's in front of militaristic Israeli leaders.

Now ripping policy overseas is fair game in many cases. Can it be quite cowardly? Sure, but definitely not always. If U.S. policy is to allow Israel to have their way in settling territory that isn't theirs (Bush adm.), which sounds illegal to me, I would say it's okay to speak up in a foreign country to denounce what the U.S. condones. But if U.S. policy is to limit (barely) those unlawful settlements (while continuing to pump money and support to Israel), I just don't see the justification. But that's what he did, so there.

Possibly more important is that no one on the Right, nor in the press will give him a hard time about this. They'll certainly rip Al Gore or Jimmy Carter for speaking out, but not when it's their own. The hypocrisy of the Right is, again, shameful. (Why do I act surprised in these moments?)

But more disappointing (but also not shocking) is the willingness of the mainstream media to lift nary a finger to question Huckabee's motives. There are two standards here when it comes to dissent from the Left. MoveOn, Gore, Code Pink, war protesters, "filthy hippies," everyone is lumped into some kind of moonbat category by the MSM. On the Right, the press recognizes patriotic "democracy in action," from town halls to a fervent, again patriotic, support for all things war. I think This Modern World nails it here. (I especially like the menacing Harry Reid in the background.)

As for Huck, I'm waiting for him to come out of the birther closet. I guess we'll then know (if it's possible to "know" anymore) that he's an opportunistic hack trying to out-Palin Palin herself. Hey, those wingnuts don't pledge their loyalty to just anyone these days.