I suppose next he'll be saying we need racial purity tests to "prove" that citizens are American enough. If you don't want to click a WashTimes link I understand.

Mike Huckabee wants to amend the Constitution to prevent children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens from automatically becoming American citizens, according to his top immigration surrogate — a radical step no other major presidential candidate has embraced.

 Read more…

Josh at TPM has got a new Christianist Dog Whistle catch from Hucklebee's campaign, and I think he's underplaying it. It sounds simple to the point of simplistic (like a lot of Hucky's stuff) but it is a deep and foul pit indeed once you dig into it.

The word is "Vertical." Josh has a screen shot with the quote "I think the country is looking for somebody who is vertical, who is thinking, Let's take America up and not down."

So what is a "vertical thinker" anyway? Horizontal brings to mind Fred Thompson, but resist that thought and think in terms of society, and communities, and how we organize ourselves and agree to follow certain rules: i.e., government.

The short? "Vertical" means that rules--which is to say laws--come down from God Above, and all we can, and should, and must do is obey them. "Horizontal" thinking by contrast is what us old time freethinkers thought was the social contract, agreements, the coming together of people to agree, one person one vote, on what the laws would be.

Not in Huck's world.

This guy is shameless. Not only is nothing beneath him regarding dirty politics, but apparently he can get away with saying any old thing that Jesus whispers into his ears.

Like shooting voters dead, or slip into a warm tub and slit your wrists, or "Paul is Dead". Now it is the Lord's Will that Huckabee faithful go forth and clog the wireless to prevent reporters from sending in those bad field reports from Iowa. Where do you draw the line when commanding your followers to do your bidding?

NYTimes: (h/t thinkprogress)

McClatchy:

What happened: Accused during a debate Wednesday of raising taxes, Huckabee left the impression that he raised only one. "I was governor nearly 11 years, and in that time I cut 90 taxes," he said. "Over that period of time, the income tax remained exactly what it was. The sales tax is one penny higher."

Why that's wrong: While he did preside over many tax reductions, he failed to mention the 21 tax increases on his watch. Factcheck.org says he presided over a net tax increase. The newspaper Arkansas Democrat-Gazette says the state's taxes went up by $505 million in one year, adjusted for inflation, and that the average Arkansan's tax burden went from $1,969 to $2,902.

Wow. Thank God Huckabee only "cut taxes" 90 times, eh?

Republicans eat their own in increasingly nasty race. Of course, there's nothing new...

No. I won't go there.

A friend sent me an email this morning:

The Administration is timing results in Iraq to best influence results in 2008 elections. They have paid members of the Iraqi Parliament to delay development of a government and have made closed-door deals with various factions. Look for gradual developments towards resolutions to be parceled out starting in March. Throughout the Spring and Summer, a variety of already scripted announcements will be unveiled and will lead to some kind of reasonably stable arrangement in Iraq. Democrats will be placed in a very difficult situation and Mike Huckabee will be the next president. Also, oil prices will drop back to $50-60 a barrel.

You heard it here first...

Via Think Progress, here's Huckabee on Chris Matthews, talking about Scott "Sucker MC" McClellans' "revelation" that Bush was involved in blowing CIA agent Valerie Plame's cover for political gain:

HUCKABEE: Well, I’m just hearing it this afternoon for the first time. It’s stunning. It’s one of those moments where I’m very glad that I’m not a Washington insider. It would not be a good time to have a Washington address.

MATTHEWS: Do you think this smacks of the problem of cover-up and sleaze and underhanded behavior, when even the president is apparently, according to his spokesman, party to a cover-up, willingly or not, wittingly or not putting out false information and then commuting the sentence of the person who shared in that party line, which was to deny any criminality?

HUCKABEE: … these are serious allegations…

MATTHEWS: Scott was told to do something, Scooter did it. I mean, it’s fairly parallel here.

HUCKABEE: Well, they’re serious allegations, but we don’t know yet whether they’re true. Scott’s not saying this under oath. It’s not being denied under oath. And I have a feeling that before it’s all finished through the wash, that’s what’s going to happen.

But these are serious allegations. They deserve to be thoroughly examined, investigated, and the truth brought to the American people.

MATTHEWS: Do you think the American people deserve a statement from the president in this regard, personally?

HUCKABEE: Oh, I think [Bush] will have to respond to it, because the closeness and the fact that Scott McClellan was one of his most trusted aides and in the position of press secretary.

Catch another Republican candidate saying Bush will "have to" do anything! And it's interesting that Huckabee is staking out this position, isn't it? It's almost like he wants to get out ahead of something....

And herewith some entirely fact-free pontification on why the next Republican candidate will be Huckabee, based on interviews with a real American (me). Heck, if Broder can do it, why can't I?

Overturning Roe v Wade, which keeps the decision on pregnancy with the person who is, like, pregnant, is no long enough for some Republicans. Dear, sweet, populist, fun-to-have-a-beer-with Mike Huckabee hath spoken: (via AP:

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee rejects letting states decide whether to allow abortions, claiming the right to life is a moral issue not subject to multiple interpretations.

"It's the logic of the Civil War," Huckabee said Sunday, comparing abortion rights to slavery. "If morality is the point here, and if it's right or wrong, not just a political question, then you can't have 50 different versions of what's right and what's wrong."

"For those of us for whom this is a moral question, you can't simply have 50 different versions of what's right," he said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday."

You sure can't accuse him of dog-whistling, I'll give him that.

Here. Make up your own jokes!

Phoenix Woman:

Dr. Wiley S. Drake, Southern Baptist pastor from California and apparently second in command of the Southern Baptist Convention, has been caught sending out letters to the membership of the entire SBC on church stationary telling them that god wants them to vote for Mike Huckabee.   Read more…