Stephen Kruiser: The Mouth Of America

Monday, December 10, 2007

A Bad Blessing For Pastor Mike

Here we are finishing up Week One of the Mike Huckabee (R-Um, Kind Of) juggernaut and he's already surrounded by so many red flags that it's hard to see his folksy grin. Of course, the red flags are only visible to discerning, real Republican voters who would rather win in the general election than make an ideological fetish statement in the primaries. 

It was a big week for me too as I broke out my first conspiracy theory to explain the media frenzy surrounding Aw Shucks Huck and JFK Romney.  

My none-too-fragile ego and I learned years ago that the universe seems hell-bent on proving me right so I've just sort of relaxed and accepted the responsibility. This week's validation came from the official publication of the Democratic National Committee, The New York Times. That the Times is unwittingly helping to support my theory should be enough for the rest of you to accept the verity of my pontification. 

Frank Rich, which is the name Maureen Dowd goes by when she's wearing men's clothing, spent several paragraphs comparing Mike Huckabee to St. Obama in Sunday's Opinion section. 

While not effusive in his praise of Huckabee, Rich wasn't the condescending one-note prick ex-theater critic to whom we're most often treated. I apologize for using the word "prick" to describe Rich but my spell-check always gives me grief for "peckerhead". 

Sunday's article was notable because Rich has never written an entire paragraph about any Republican without leveling charges of racism, insensitivity or mental retardation. He's one of those guys who you can just tell was pulling for the Soviet Union during the Cold War. After the Soviet demise he had to settle for writing for the Opinion page of the Times, which is the next best thing to actually working for Stalin. 

Lincoln was the last Republican the Times had anything nice to say about so why is Huckabee getting the soft treatment? Ah, we're back to my conspiracy theory now. I can only conclude that he's the guy who they think would be the easiest for any Democrat to trounce in the general election. Their thinking goes like this: if the MSM tells us he's our star we'll believe he's our star. 

If you don't buy that the MSM believes it can dictate opinion just look at Rich's tortured logic explaining Huckabee's rise. It's not really about his social conservative credentials, it's because he was nicer about immigration during the YouTube debate. Be honest, Frank. The Times has a meth lab where most companies put the coffee room, doesn't it?

Rich also attributes Huckabee's popularity to an "uplifting" message that would transcend the partisan bickering that plagues Washington. Yeah, that made me throw up in my mouth a little too. 

Knee-jerk partisanship occurs when a party is devoid of ideas, much like the modern Democrats. "We hate this administration!" isn't a platform, it's a hissy fit. I'm a big fan of the good kind of principled partisanship that's kept John Edwards' hand out of my wallet so far.

I asked last week who you wanted picking our nominee, us or MSNBC? Do you really want the New York Times sticking their leftist little fingers into the process? 

Cross posted at Grizzly Groundswell and Real Clear Politics (Vote for it!)