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ABC News looks at Huckabee's proclivity for pardons, which follows a similar AP story from Monday.  The granddaddy of them all is this 2004 Arkansas leader piece linked last week by Matt Drudge, which found that Huckabee pardoned more people than in the six states neighboring Arkansas combined.

Comments

[PaulL]

Huckabee wanted to turn these prisoners into taxpayers. He also wants to turn the Iranian leaders into our friends by talking to them. He's at least as naive as Obama.

[PaulL]

Huckabee wanted to turn these prisoners into taxpayers. He also wants to turn the Iranian leaders into our friends by talking to them. He's at least as naive as Obama.

[vnjagvet]

I do not favor Huckabee.

But I question the timing of all of the stuff in the liberal press (e.g., NY and LA Times, Boston Globe) about how liberal he is.

Also the stuff about Dem operatives hoping he wins the Republican nomination, because he will be so beatable.

When you hear that stuff, you wonder why now?

Maybe it is just me.

[RichatUF]

vnjagvet-

When you hear that stuff, you wonder why now?

Curious indeed. I would think that the MSM might want to tread carefully around the pardons and communitations issue. In the last days of, Senate Bound: Clinton II, Hillary's brothers bought and sold some pardons and some of the pardons helped Hillary in NY.

I haven't been paying much attention and am sort of stunned about Huckabee's rise in the polls. I have been meaning to ask Clarice what the Thompson Campaign is planning-the primary schedule here makes Feb 5 look like the key date. Is Thompson saving his firepower for South Carolina and Florida [understanding that Iowa and NH really aren't that important in the national picture] and using maybe a surprise win in one or both he carries himself to some substantial wins on Feb 5.

IIRC, in 1992 Bill Clinton didn't even compete in Iowa and lost in NH-

[Jane]

vnjagvet,

I actually think the liberal press is pumping him up because there is no way he can win the general. The primaries are going to fall very quickly. As always, most people will never get a chance to participate.

[RichatUF]

spellcheck on:

and communitations->and commutation

[clarice]

vnjagvet, no stranger than Evan Thomas saying the press can get Kerry another 15 percentage points.

A good friend was an editor for Time when Carter ran first ran. He swears the editors were bragging that they could get anyone elected president, ran the feature story (and cover) on him --a true hagiography. No one really knew much about him, he'd been running an under the radar operation in Iowa and NH, the cover story carried him forward and the rest is history--a true story of the election of the worst president in modern times.

Huckabee's problem is that word got out too soon, I think, of his successful work in Iowa and people who knew more about him, started screaming that he was not what he was pretending to be.In other words, the Carter strategy was blown.

[vnjagvet]

Jane:

Then why the stories that the DemPros are salivating with the prospect that he might be nominated? Is this some sort of reverse english?

Clarice:

I understand your point. I am a yankee from PA who has lived in Georgia since 1968. My then law partner, a politically astute former Speaker's Page under Sam Rayburn, began working on Carter's campaign in Spring of 1975. I thought he was crazy, but he convinced me that a Carter election would be good for our business (we had a DC Office and my partner turned out to be right about that), so I hopped on the bandwagon thinking he was more in of a Sam Nunn, Scoop Jackson Democrat than he turned out to be. I remember my astonishment when Jimmuh won.

Unfortunately, he began turning left when he marched down Pennsylvania Avenue on the way to the White House rather than being driven in a limousine.

And I was in Georgia when he was Governor.

At this stage, it sure is hard to tell what someone will do when he/she is finally sitting in the oval office.

[GMax]

Huckabee has neither the organization nor the funds on hand to win this nomination outright. He may be able to win enough delegates to prevent any of the Big Three from getting to the magic number on the first ballot. But in a brokered convention, I really dont see him prevailing. I could see him trading his committed votes for a V/P slot, which is what I think he at least initially was angling for.

[Rick Ballard]

Gmax,

Here's a good site to bookmark. I agree with you and I'd like to hear someone explain how ole Huck spins a bank account of $600K through 22 states on Feb. 5.

That's less than two months away. He's got just a teeny tiny scaling problem to overcome - and a short shoestring with which to work.

[Sara]

Huckabee is the "I don't know" candidate. He doesn't know about why we embargo Cuba (a lie since he tried to get it lifted), he doesn't know about the NIE, thinks it is the one from 2002, today he doesn't know about glow-bull warming, and he takes a Carteresque attitude toward the Europeans and thinks we should play nice with them and with Iran. If we would just love them enough, they would love us back. He thinks Jesus put him ahead in the polls and that women should be subservient and remain 2nd class citizens to their husbands.

The man is the GOP McGovern and to nominate him guarantees a win for the democrats, which is exactly why the DNC and the MSM are pushing him so hard. He is a guaranteed looser in the General. I would stay home and not vote before I'd vote for him, as genial as he might be. I've seen dozens of conservative sites today that say they would vote for Hillary before Huckabee. I would never go that far, but I would not vote at all.

[GMax]

Even if he gets some funds, which he probably will pull more than the peanuts he has gotten so far, how does he build organizations in all of these States at this late date? It aint like there is a bunch of party loyalists just sitting around waiting for his call. They are all committed and he gets scraps or outsiders.

If we get to the convention, the Party bigwigs gets about 15% of the votes there. He gets damn few of those. I think ole Huck may just be about to see his 15 minutes expire.

We have been overquota on Arkansan residents running for President anyway.

[Sara]

Republicans WIN in the special elections held in Ohio and Virginia today. So much for all is lost in Ohio.

[GMax]

Even if he gets some funds, which he probably will pull more than the peanuts he has gotten so far, how does he build organizations in all of these States at this late date? It aint like there is a bunch of party loyalists just sitting around waiting for his call. They are all committed and he gets scraps or outsiders.

If we get to the convention, the Party bigwigs gets about 15% of the votes there. He gets damn few of those. I think ole Huck may just be about to see his 15 minutes expire.

We have been overquota on Arkansan residents running for President anyway.

[GMax]

Even if he gets some funds, which he probably will pull more than the peanuts he has gotten so far, how does he build organizations in all of these States at this late date? It aint like there is a bunch of party loyalists just sitting around waiting for his call. They are all committed and he gets scraps or outsiders.

If we get to the convention, the Party bigwigs gets about 15% of the votes there. He gets damn few of those. I think ole Huck may just be about to see his 15 minutes expire.

We have been overquota on Arkansan residents running for President anyway.

[Sara]

Interesting photo of Romney that National Review is using on the magazine cover for their endorsement issue.

National Review Endorses Mitt Romney

[GMax]

On the Ohio district Stuart Rothenberg had been going on and on ( as only MSM democratic pundit can do ) about the toxic environment for the GOP and the devisive republican primary. Lefty sites were full of hope on taking this one.

Lord only knows why. The Dimmicrats ran a two time loser for the district. She had never carried more than 43% of the district in the past. Results? She did not get a majority in any of the 15 counties ( some are only partial counties as the line goes down the middle of several counties ) of the district. She got slightly less votes than she pulled against the incumbent the last time she ran.

Rothenberg is a fool and the Rahm Emmanuel predicted a Dimmi pick up so he is scraping egg off his considerable mug at the moment too.

[Sara]

GMAX, I admit I have paid little attention to either race, but I read enough blogs every day to have picked up on the scuttlebutt of a GOP loss. I think I remember seeing something within the last couple of weeks that the Virginia outlook was highly bleek for Repubs there too. I scanned but didn't really retain other than the gist.

[MayBee]

The one in Ohio had the power of the kingmaker, Kos, behind it. I hope Newsweek feels good about their investment in him. He's got the touch!

[Sara]

From Drudge, Democrats have been instructed to avoid all criticism of Huckabee, viewing him as an "easy kill" in the general election...

Democrat party officials are avoiding any and all criticism of Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, insiders reveal... The Democratic National Committee has told staffers to hold all fire, until he secures the party's nomination... The directive has come down from the highest levels within the party, according to a top source.

Within the DNC, Huckabee is known as the "glass jaw -- and they're just waiting to break it."

In the last three weeks since Huckabee's surge kicked in, the DNC hasn't released a single press release criticizing his rising candidacy... The last DNC press release critical of Huckabee appeared back on March 2nd.

...In fact, as the story broke over the weekend that Huckabee said he wanted to isolate AIDS patients back in 1992, the DNC ignored the opportunity to slam the candidate from the left.

"He'll easily be their McGovern, an easy kill," mocked one senior Democrat operative Tuesday morning from Washington.

[vnjagvet]

That is the article I was referring to earlier, Sara. Thanks for quoting from it.

I wonder why it was leaked now? Any ideas?

[Sara]

I don't know, other than their miracle maid was beginning to tank. The thing is, I believe they are right. Huckabee would be a disaster for the GOP.

[Topsecretk9]

I don't think Huck would be a disaster for the GOP per se - my Democrat mother sure likes him -- and that is why I think the DNC spin they are holding their fire put out is--- indicative of my mom. He is a Dem threat. (I am sorry, but all GOP are...the Dems candidates just don't have the leadership chip)

[SlimGuy]

I was reading another site earlier today that was really putting out a spinner of a story that just sorta made you look at the page again and say "What have you been smoking".

Here is their pitch.

Bill had Tucker for Lt Gov who took over when Bill won the election and Huck came in as Lt Gov for Tucker via a special election. Then Huck won a full term as Lt Gov to back that up.

After that he took his second shot at Senator and won the Republican nomination but quit the race to take over as Gov when Tucker resigned due to Whitewater.

OK Now this is where the site goes totally weird.

Their theory is both were born in Hope, Ark about 11 years apart and two old home boys got together and figured when Hill runs for the White House you run on the opposite side and we fix it so you win the Republican nomination and you lose big time to Hill.

I told ya it was weird.

[Sara]

Well I think we've had enough residents from Hope in the White House already.

[Sara]

Sheesh, my spam filter blew up today and all of a sudden I had 622 emails in my inbox in a 4 hour time span. And about 95% of them were telling me how I could enlarge my male appendage. I cannot believe the number of slang words there are to use for the male sex organ. However, I did find out that I'm the beneficiary of over a million dollars from some dead guy in Germany and another one from Denmark. And that my pharmacy needs are only a click away.

[SlimGuy]

Clinton/Tucker
Clinton > Pres
Tucker > Gov
Huck > Lt Gov
Tucker > resign
Huck > Gov
Rockefeller > Lt Gov
Rock > dies
Halter > Lt Gov
Huck > followed by Beebe
Beebe/Halter

Halter in OMB for Clinton

[SlimGuy]

Tucker AG of Ark
Clinton > AG of Ark
Clinton > Gov
Purcell > Lt Gov
Clinton > replace by White
Clinton > Gov after beating White
Tucker > Lt Gov

[Patrick Tyson]

It's hard to see how the cash thing (Huckabee has a lot less) doesn't apply in this quarter and yet a look at the Rasmussen weekly numbers on daily tracking shows Huckabee at 6% on 10/8 and 21% on 12/10 and it's mostly at Thompson's expense.

Thompson's people know that their strategy, whatever it was, has failed. Iowa is important. So, it appears, has Romney's, but, again, until actual votes are cast and counted all one can do is watch and evaluate because no campaign is going to make it easy to figure out their strategy and its effectiveness if they can find any way to keep from doing so.

[Porchlight]

Rahm Emmanuel predicted a Dimmi pick up so he is scraping egg off his considerable mug

Why the long face, Rahm? Ha ha, I crack myself up. Good news in Ohio, though.

[Jane]

That's okay Porchlight, you cracked me up too.

[cathyf]

And about 95% of them were telling me how I could enlarge my male appendage.

What always puzzled us back at the office are the number of spams offering to enlarge male appendage AND breasts. We were trying to figure out just what the market was for people who want both... It's just hard to see the hermaphrodite market as that large!

[Sue]

Just practicing. I am trying to duplicate my posting of nothing on another thread. I want to see what the I did to cause a blank post. I think I know.