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Huckabee, Limbaugh, Saltsman, York And I

21 Dec 2007 03:18 pm

Reader Jim Welsh writes:

You don't give the name of the Huckabee ally. To be fair just becauses some unnamed Huckabee supporter criticises Rush doesn't mean the whole Huckabee campaign is against Rush. Rush's beef should be with the "Huckabee ally" instead of the Huckabee campaign. Allies are not necessarily official campaign spokespersons.
Very true.

The person quoted was not a campaign spokesman. But neither is he or she a person who prayed on my gullibility to identify as a Huckabee ally. After hearing and reading about Limbaugh's criticism, I put the question to someone I knew was familiar with the thinking of many (though by no means all) of Huckabee's campaign advisers. And the response I received was the response I printed.

Chip Saltsman, Huckabee's campaign manager, tells a curious Byron York that he's a huge fan of the man behind the golden EIB microphone.

And while it's certainly correct to suggest that one ally does not represent the view of the Huckabee campaign, from what I've been able to gather from conversations with various members of Huckabee's team, on this one issue -- the motivation of Rush Limbaugh -- neither does the campaign manager.

I wish I could name names, but I won't, and if that presents a credibility problem then so be it. The truth is that Limbaugh does not want to see Huckabee nominated, and it's not terribly surprising, or terribly newsworthy, that folks who think Huckabee should be nominated have developed a theory or theory to explain his opposition.

Comments (43)

Not terribly newsworthy? Is that a self-indictment?

"But neither is he or she a person who prayed on my gullibility to identify as a Huckabee ally."

"prayed on"... That's one of the best unintentionally accurate typos I've ever seen. Are you and Yglesias sharing a cubicle, by any chance?

Marc, I have been your reader for a while. We have every right to criticize Huckabee but stirring up this against him, albeit unknowingly, and refusing to name the culprit at least to be on the side of fairness is sort of cruel and makes me sympathize with Huckabee.

Marc, I heard Rush's talk regarding your posting and got the impression while listening that he was treating you (and not your anonymous source) as the Huckabee campaign spokesman.

This would have been easy enough to correct. Just deny you were speaking for the campaign. However, in this piece you now suggest that the Huckabee "ally" you quoted does reflect (in your judgment) the feelings of the majority of "Huckabee's team."

This makes you appear to be speaking for the Huckabee team in a way, or rather, reporting what the team purportedly feels about Rush. Doing this while relying on an anonymous "ally" (some ally) and being unwilling to name any names within the campaign itself is pretty sloppy of you, in my opinion.

If you were out to do some significant damage to Huckabee, you probably succeeded. And what other motivation could you have for posting such a shaky, unsourced piece in the first place?

But then, given the editing of the sentence, "But neither is he or she a person who prayed on my gullibility to identify as a Huckabee ally," it doesn't surprise me that the original piece was sloppy, not to mention irresponsible. Name some names if you want to gain some credibility. Otherwise, this was just a setup and Rush unfortunately took the bait.

I don't care about who did what. Journalism ethics is an oxymoron even though most people at the Atlantic actually practice it versus the ignorant scum that is the majority of the MSM. It was good to see this happen because all the elements were just sitting around and someone needed to get this chemical reaction moving before Iowa. Sorry but this likable idiot stuff just can't fly and he is really taking advantage of some of the more gullible Republicans. Religious people aren't buying his stuff, you can look all over the internet and see Baptists and Christians of many other denominations in sheer terror of this Religion exploiting politician. Not only that, he is probably the biggest liar in the race. People can't attack him on the issues because he never discusses the issues in any detail, just with folksy parables. If he talked about the issues people would see what an inconsistent joke he is and how conservative he isn't. Then he exploits religion to the nth degree, it is sickening. Nobody should rally around this charlatan, they should grab their pitchforks and chase him out of town. How fitting he will be at Hagee's church this weekend. Pull out the rapture monsters and tell the people that God wants us to bomb Iran. Peas in a pod if you ask me.

And this Huckabee garbage is serious stuff. Some people might actually think he is a mental midget but he is really smart if you ask me. No man who is this skillful can actually be the part that he is acting. Sorry but this is not pilfering the bingo revenue kind of stuff, this is running for the most important office in the land, and what he is doing is so unethical that it is ridiculous. He reminds me of John Goodman from "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" and if the Republican mouthpieces let their guard down on this guy they will end up with a 2X4 upside their head and a dead frog to boot. There's my folksy parable.

So are we supposed to just take your word for it that this guy spouting lib talking points against Rush was a "Huckabee ally?"

This smells like a dirty trick to me. When would attacking Rush ever do any candidate any good?

Rather than reporting the story, you created the story. And it seems you fell for a opposition trick, right before the weekend of Christmas. Rush had to respond. Someone's laughing, and it isn't a "Huckabee ally."

I know Huchabee and his followers are a devotional lot, but I don't think they want to pray on you or your gullibility. Please correct the spelling in "a person who prayed on my gullibility."

Rush did not want Huckabee to be the nominee LONG before this episode ever began.


Rush, like all good conservatives, does not want somebody as ignorant, unprepared and liberal as Huckabee to be OUR STANDARD BEARER.

I think the Republican in-fighting may reach fractious levels before long. This can't be the work of a lib - the libs don't want to do anything to upset Huckabee's apple cart - they're sure they can beat him. McCain? That would be a lot harder; Rudy - oh, yeah - even harder. Mitt? Hmmm, good reality show contest, libs win. Thompson - obscured by all the battlefield smoke - probably the only real conservative on the playing field. Ron? Bring it on, baby!! They would love to give him a wedgie and take him lunch money. The libs are probably loving this - it's much cheaper if we eat each other....I think what we're seeing is meltdown caused by frustration and anxiety. This can't be good. Cheers, from Round Rock.

And while you're changing "prayed" to "preyed" you might want to change "the wrote Clinton response" to "rote" in the post below.

This type of comment may sound petty, but I've never read your blog before today, and those types of errors make me wonder if I should read it again.

Something stinks in this whole drama. I have never heard Rush go on like this about a unknown source in a blog. Rush seems really rattled about something. Gee, maybe its because Bain Corporation (Company Mitt Romney founded) is just about to assume ownership of Clear Channel. Mitt loses Iowa and Rush loses 400 stations. Follow the money

Ok, I'll be upfront that I'm a big Huckabee supporter. But, I emphatically deny that that fact has removed my ability to think. I'm a Huckabee supporter because I CAN think. I get very weary of street urchin conservatives talking about Huckabee's non-conservative. I've been a conservative all of my life. I am a social conservative, but I was a conservative before there was such a thing. I was a conservative before that required adjectives and prefixes. I was a conservative when real, educated conservative people's writing filled The National Review.

I'm so conservative that I never voted for George W. Bush for president. I don't dislike him. I just don't think that he's a philosophicallyy lucid conservative. When he was first elected in 2000, I said "Leviathan gets a night manager," and I was exactly correct. It wasn't hard to see: the man had no driving philosophy. The apple doesn't fall far from the "I'm not big on the vision thing" tree.

Anyway, ALL of the conservative rattle againt Huckabee is a massive irony. Huckabee better understands fundamental American and constitutional principle than any of the relatve conservative pygmies running against him: manifest infidels every single one of them. Giuliani doesn't understand the foundation of The Declaration of Independence, obviously not The 2nd Amendment, and he endorse Mario "Irwin Corey (empty verbosity) Cuomo. Romney can forget and remember principle on a dime, depending upon what he thinks his audience wants to hear. He's a Republican Bill Clinton with steaks instead of cheesebutrgers. McCain, I think is a ghood man and an honorable patriot. But, he and Thompson made toilet paper of the 1st Amendment with McCain-Feingold and appear not even to know it!

Huckabee would not do ANY of these things. He understands The Constitution and human nature that it was designed to constrain. And, unlike all of his supposedly "conservative" critics, he understands the difference in the proper jurisdictions of federal and state government defined in the 10th Amendment, which he cites often. His critics sound as though they are afraid he will run the federal government like a state governor. Are they really that thick from inhaling the liberal fumes in the "pop" atmosphere for so long? That's what I was talking about: the intellectual conservatives at National Review in the 60's and 70's would never have barfed out such ignorant stuff. And, they never would have endorsed a groundless plastic chameleon like Mitt Romney.

These "conservatives" of today can't possibly be that ignorant. If they are, then the public spokespeople of conservatism have drastically declined. Or, is there an unspoken ulterior motive? I have some ideas.

Some of you might be right. We might lose to Obama for choosing to go with Huckabee. That is a chance I am willing to take with my vote. It disappoints me that Rush Limbaugh would go on the offensive against Huckabee though. I thought he was above the drivel that the standard media outlets whine about. He has generally had a good read on people and historically has been willing to give the underdog a shot if they happen to have any backbone and good character qualities.
I don't know why he is opposed to Mike, but I think he is dead wrong on this one. Governor Huckabee has more experience and has not waivered on his values like Mitt Romney has. Governor Huckabee clearly explains the pardons, tax increases, support of the children of illegal immigrants and other questionable moves that he has made in many online videos. If I were in his shoes, I may have made the same decisions. The media is continually brining his religion into it and trying to force him to defend himself (e.g. bookshelf/cross). If they kept it to the issues, it would be clear that he is very much middle America. Obama is even left of Hillary on many issues, although in the Democratic race, he is the only candidate worth voting for and who promises to bring change and fresh ideas. I don't know who will win, but I can't side with the anti-american, socialistic party of America, so I'm going to throw my support behind Huckabee - win or lose.

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