from The American Prospect:
Why the GOP Won't Get Behind Huckabee
Why hasn't this charmer with a perfect record on the right's core social litmus tests not already wrapped up the Republican nomination? Look no further than the uber-conservatives who are spitting mad that he's too nice to poor people and foreigners. Sarah Posner | December 3, 2007 | web only
During a media conference call in October, when he was riding high from his strong showing at the Values Voter Summit, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was asked how his populist economic message would sell to financially strapped Michigan voters. After arguing that a thriving stock market doesn't exactly resonate with working-class voters, Huckabee chastised his fellow Republicans for "read
right off the Republican National Committee talking points" on the economy during this fall's GOP debate in Dearborn.
It was a stunning statement, with Huckabee sounding like he was reading from the opposing party's talking points as he accused Republicans of being too "busy going to upscale, nice parties with folks who haven't been impacted by a downturn in the economy." But Huckabee will say those sorts of things and then just amble on as if he hadn't frontally insulted the very people whose support he seeks, like when he accused Christian conservatives of being "more intoxicated with power than principle" shortly before the Values Voter Summit (and then denied he was speaking about the organizers of the summit).
With his steady rise in national polls and burgeoning support in Iowa, particularly among conservative Christians, hardcore movement conservatives who are trying to make the race for the Republican nomination about taxes and xenophobia are putting Huckabee's record on economic issues and immigration under the microscope. Huckabee's willingness to use government to help those economically left behind, including immigrants, has turned him into a pariah among some economic conservatives who mobilize the ground troops for the GOP's anti-tax, anti-government message that serves the corporate wing of the party, which Huckabee has accused of being a "wholly owned subsidiary of Wall Street." For anyone who wonders why this charmer with a perfect record on the right’s core social litmus tests has not already wrapped up the Republican nomination, they need look no further than the disgruntled uber-conservatives who are spitting mad that Huckabee has been too nice to poor people and foreigners.
The fanatically anti-tax Club for Growth -- which Huckabee has disparaged as "the Club for Greed" -- has gotten a lot of mileage out of its portrayal of Huckabee's tenure in Arkansas as that of a "habitual tax-hiker." Huckabee has fired back, saying that the Club for Growth's figures are wrong, and besides, the Club doesn't understand what it takes to run a state government. He argues that his policies of taxing gasoline sales to pay for road construction and using state revenue to pay for poor children's health insurance did not ravage the pocketbooks of Arkansans, but provided desperately needed services to his state. ......(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=why_the_gop_wont_get_behind_huckabee