Marc Ambinder (January 02, 2008) - Some Dirty Tricks In Des Moines

What goes around, comes around. Huckabee's surrogates Trust Huckabee and Common Sense are push polling in Michigan. I got one of their negative campaign calls a couple of weeks ago. So I guess if you're going to play dirty, you have no right to complain when others do to.

Posted by Spunky | January 2, 2008 2:50 PM

And speaking of dirty tricks, here's what Huckabee "jokingly" told his supporters on

"If for some crazy reason they’re not going to vote for me, you have a different job. Do not let them leave their homes. Tell them the Orange Bowl is going to be the most exciting football game in the history of mankind, shovel your snow into their driveway, let the air out of their tires, disconnect their battery cables,"

Really funny, huh?

Posted by Spunky | January 2, 2008 3:03 PM

actually spunky it was very funny.

Posted by veryfunny | January 2, 2008 3:10 PM

Yeah Spunky it was a JOKE. Get a sense of humor. He said laughingly and everyone in the audience was laughing as well. I know. I was at there in person.
And Huckabee does not do Push Polling and denounces it all together.

If you knew him or even tried to get to know his morals you would understand that, but it is quite obvious that your brain does not have enough room to take in that much knowledge and I am guessing "morals" and "decency" are not part of your vocabulary.

Posted by Chad | January 2, 2008 3:12 PM

It's Mike versus the Money People. I'm with Mike.

Posted by Ben | January 2, 2008 3:19 PM

Not surpised by either.

Slick Mitty and his ilk seem to revel in mudslinging.

Posted by KrisW | January 2, 2008 3:25 PM

Spunky, you are misinformed. "Huckabee's surrogates Trust Huckabee and Common Sense" are in fact acting on their own accord. Gov. Huckabee has repudiated "push polling" and asked them to stop. He has no control over what an independent group chooses to do, even if he disagrees with it. Again, he has multiple times disassociated himself and personally called for it to stop. Also, even though I personally also disagree with the "push polling," the information that they are telling voters is factual. These false reports are not.

P.S. Romney said he SUPPORTS ENDA on his Meet the Press interview a few weeks ago (fits with his DOUBLING the Governor's Commission for glbt teens in MA - see link below). He also choose not to line item veto a $50.00 co-pay for abortions shortly before leaving office. So much for "coming down on the side of life on every piece of legislation that came to his desk" as he claims.

As far as his playing fast and loose with the truth regarding Huckabee, C. Rice did NOT claim Huckabee's Foreign Policy was "ludicrous," as his ad claims, she called his statement re: the Bush Admin. that. BIG DIFF.! Also, Huckabee's "growing a budget from 6 to 16 Billion" was in line with inflation and actually less that other states! Check the facts people, don't just believe a 30 sec ad from an opponent! Hello!

Remember, a man that will lie about marching personally with MLK (1978 news article), claim to be a "life-long hunter," and claim to have endorsements that he never received from the NRA, is the same man that will run as a liberal in MA and a conservative from the GOP nomination. Watch out! This man is a politician par excellence!

One parting shot. Look at Romney's judicial appointments vs. M. Huckabee. MH also governed in an overwhelmingly Dem. state! Don't forget the Supreme Court nominations at stake in this election.

for more truth on Mr. Mitt, check massresistance.org

For the truth on Huckabee, mikehuckabee.com then check out the "Truth Squad" link.

Posted by Truth is Immortal | January 2, 2008 3:32 PM

Spunky, the Huckabee campaign has publically decried the third party groups who were push polling IA constituents. They don't want the calls going out any more than the people receiving the calls.

Posted by Anon | January 2, 2008 3:34 PM

Spunky,

I understand how recieving a call like that could cause you to dislike Huckabee's tactics, so I did a quick search and found articles in the Washington Post reporting on both incidents. For what it's worth these quotes may grant beneficial information:

"...former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee got a little help over the weekend from a non-profit called Common Sense Issues Inc. ...Huckabee immediately distanced himself from the effort. "We don't want this kind of campaigning because it violates the spirit of our campaign," the former Arkansas governor said."

The whole article can be found at http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/12/03/post_222.html

On the Trust Huckabee effort:

"I don't know who's behind it," Mr. Huckabee said yesterday. "We've asked them to stop because it really defeats the kind of politics that I want the campaign to be a part of."

You can read the whole article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/03/AR2007120301769.html

I realize you are not predisposed to believe Huckabee's claims - and rightfully so - but I urge you to take a closer look at his character and record and see if you don't discover a man striving to run with integrity.

Heidi

Posted by Heidi | January 2, 2008 3:47 PM

I like Mike, but I LOVE Fair Tax

Posted by MyKisa | January 2, 2008 3:51 PM

And I suppose it wasn't disingenuous of Huckabee to call a press conference to announce he was airing a negative ad but "deciding" that he wouldn't run it but going ahead and showing it to the very reporters that he knew would air it?

You deserve the liberals you will get.

Posted by Irish Right | January 2, 2008 3:52 PM

Irish,

Though these videos are not of very good quality, they tape exactly what happened at that conference and I encourage you to watch them - not necessarily in hopes you'll be swayed in your opinion, but that you might be fully informed about what has taken place and how it happened, because, as (I think) Huckabee once said, "If people reject me I want them to know why."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNZnUf6ygcg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOv_ZRyzOwA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7a5LzzN-oI

Heidi

Posted by Heidi | January 2, 2008 4:12 PM

Here's a great article detailing what went on behind the scenes on the pulled negative ad.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/01/AR2008010101864.html?hpid=topnews

Posted by Jimmy Morris | January 2, 2008 4:16 PM

That's the problem with Mike, everything is a joke. Including him.

Posted by Renae | January 2, 2008 4:24 PM

Regarding the "showing" of the attack ad to the media at the time of the announcement that it would not be aired: It didn't happen. No one in the media saw the ad in its entirety. That is why the media are not able to report on its contents.

Instead, this is just another example of the dirty tricks by the corrupt media against Huckabee, when the truth is that he finally over-ruled the advice of others to go negative. If he becomes the President, HE will make the decisions based on his conscience, instead of the dictates of the obscenely rich accustomed to calling the shots.

Posted by David Anderson | January 2, 2008 4:39 PM

Come on people, dont watch TV or ONLY listen to your candidate to base your judgement. Most of the media information is driving by money and many attacks from one campaign to the next are out of context and lack the whole story.

The sad thing is that most voters are followers. Because they do not research both sides of the story themselves, they will fall right into some of the candidates campaign strategies. These people will vote for what one candidate formulated about another versus what the candidate says about him/herself.

I just want a president that believes in what he says, thats what we need. I will not vote for someone based off what they want me to believe about another candidate...thats a bad sign for a leader. Next time you hear an attack about Huckabee, please view his website mikehuckabee.com to get both sides of the story first. I think you will begin to understand, as I did, who Huckabee REALLY is and what he stands for!

Romney is running the most ridiculous campaign out of all candidates. I personally believe in Mike Huckabee the most, I think others will soon catch on as well!! Go Huck

Posted by Brock | January 2, 2008 4:39 PM

Huckabee said, "I don't know who's behind it, We've asked them to stop because it really defeats the kind of politics that I want the campaign to be a part of."

However from the Washington Post we read exactly who is Common Sense and Trust Huckabee,

"The Ohio-based nonprofit is run by Procter & Gamble executive Nathan Estruth, a longtime Huckabee supporter, and its effort is being overseen by Patrick Davis, who worked with Saltsman at the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2001. The group has engaged in several state and federal campaigns, and in the past much of its financial backing came from Ohio billionaire and longtime conservative donor Carl H. Lindner Jr.

A spokeswoman for Lindner said that his money is not being used to help Huckabee and that he is a national co-chair of the Romney campaign this year. His son, Carl Lindner III, is backing Huckabee.

Fred Wertheimer, a campaign finance expert in Washington, said Common Sense Issues is so deeply engaged on Huckabee's behalf that it is edging very close to the limits of the law. There is some indication that political activity is all the group does, Wertheimer said. If that is the case, "it would appear to be violating both tax laws and campaign finance laws. This is a group that needs to be investigated by both the IRS and the FEC," he said."

And I'm supposed to believe Huckabee doesn't know who these people are but the Washington Post does?

As for the joke, I guess I just don't get Huckabee humor. Sorry, flattening tires and disconnecting batteries is not funny. Especially in a climate where accusations of "dirty tricks" are being thrown. And I suppose Ed Rollins wanting to punch Romney in the teeth, that's humor too, right? Real comedians at Team Huckabee, if Huckabee loses maybe Leno will bring Huck and his band of merry makers on permanently.

Here's the link to the WaPo article I quoted from,

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122802477.html

Posted by Spunky | January 2, 2008 4:41 PM

Poor Spunky. He gets offended too easily. As is the case with closet liberals (like ROmney is), nothing can be funny. If it is too hard for you to make it to the caucus becuase the Orange Bowl was so exciting, you should not vote.

Posted by Jack | January 2, 2008 4:47 PM

Huckabee has been polled to have the best chance at beating Hillary, so giving Romney the Nom will just ensure Hillary will convert us all to Socialism.
Many of you who buy the lies against Huckabee must be forgetful about truth about Romney, amazing!

Posted by Bob | January 2, 2008 4:49 PM

The level of animosity in politics today is disheartening. To be sure Renae, what Governor Huckabee has accomplished on a shoestring budget with a handful of paid staffers is no joke and neither are the slew of hopelessly inaccurate criticisms being levelled at a good man and a strong candidate. A quick visit to factcheck.org would do wonders for anyone who does not believe that Mitt Romney has been wildly dishonest in his full-frontal assault on Mike Huckabee. But from the tone of some of the above comments, I highly doubt that the authors of said postings will allow the facts to interfere with their personal agendas and animosities.

Posted by Patrick | January 2, 2008 4:58 PM

"Poor Spunky. He gets offended too easily. As is the case with closet liberals (like ROmney is), nothing can be funny."

Now that is funny! For this "closet liberal" is not a "he" but "she" and had one of the largest Conservative Christian homeschool blogs on the on the internet up until a year ago when I retired it to work on other projects. The real "closet liberal" is Mike Huckabee.

Posted by Spunky | January 2, 2008 5:16 PM

The push polling by Common Sense is a group backed by one of Romney's big supporters. There's no way Romney doesn't know that Linder is behind this. The Dems know this and will pull this out during the general election. They are just praying Romney makes it through.

http://www.democrats.org/a/2007/08/corrupt_donors.php

Posted by Bill | January 2, 2008 5:42 PM

Bill, from the WaPo link I quoted, "A spokeswoman for Lindner said that his money is not being used to help Huckabee and that he is a national co-chair of the Romney campaign this year. His son, Carl Lindner III, is backing Huckabee."

There are two Lindners. One is supporting Huckabee the other Romney. The Huckabee supporter is the one believed to be associated with Trust Huckabee. Others associated with Lindner are linked to Chip Saltsman. More in the link I quoted above.

Posted by Spunky | January 2, 2008 6:34 PM

Spunky: Huckabee denounced push polling. It is legal though.

What this article talks about is illegal. Big difference.

Spunky: Talk about closet liberal...go visit TrueRomney.com

Posted by Robert | January 2, 2008 6:46 PM

Sorry Spunky, that is simply not true. Craig Sr. lied. His son was named an Honary co-Chari in Ohio for Romney's campaign. If he's really supporting Huckabee he wouldn't be named to such a position in Romney's campaign.

http://www.mittromney.com/News/Press-Releases/Ohio_Finance_Chairs

Posted by Bill | January 2, 2008 8:01 PM

Spunky is an operative from another campaign whose primary function is to quell the flood of homeschoolers switching to the Huckabee camp. She'll say anything to achieve her goal, and seems to use Mitt Romney's talking points to get her through.

She had a fairly credible homeschool blog that has since gone to seed because of crazy political content she has posted in her effort to trash Huckabee. People in the homeschool movement are beginning to Google her site to see if the "homeschool" content is actually her own or if it is borrowed from "real" homeschool sites. Don't bother.... She is for real -- or at least she was at one time. Besides, bogus sites are usually fairly new and do not have "valid" content.

Spunky's site has a lot of stuff from Ned Ryun, a disgruntled former employee of the homeschool advocacy group, HSLDA. He's feeding her anti-Huckabee and anti-HSLDA stuff to support her effort to turn homeschoolers. HSLDA is the leading homeschool advocacy group and their PAC, which Ryun headed until he left HSLDA endorsed Huckabee. Part of the dispute is that 1) the rest of the PAC leadership did not consult Ryun before endorsing Huckabee and 2) they did not tell Ryun until after the endorsement was announced. Those are valid complaints, but he has piled on much more "personal" stuff that calls his motives into question -- is it about whether or not the endorsement should have been made, or is it just a personal vendetta against Mike Farris, the HSLDA president? It probably doesn't matter to Spunky and her group. For now, Mr. Ryun is a useful idiot and he is serving Mitt Romney's purposes -- probably without even realizing it.

Obviously, Spunky has not read any of Huckabee's positions or consulted his record. It's sad that there are people out there so obsessed with keeping the Romney v.2 decption alive that they can't even see humor for what it is. Admittedly, some of Huckabee's jokes are silly, but come on, no candidate in his right mind is going to seriously encorage anyone to break the law.

Personally, I think the real story about Spunky is that she is probably a Ron Paul supporter who has put her tin foil hat in the closet long enough to pose as a Romney apologist.

NeoLibs like Spunky also seem to buy into the gag that a Huckabee staffer actually was stupid enough to trash Limbaugh. I'm all for a "flush Rush" campaign, but not because of his comments about Huckabee. I've done politics and I know anyone who's been in a campaign for more than 10 minutes knows you don't mess with people who buy paper on 5 ton rolls and ink in 55 gallon drums... Limbaugh is the radio equivilent. It is no accident that he "believes" the claims that Huckabee's campaign dissed him.

The more he rants about Huckabee and trumpets Romney's talking points, the more absurd Rush looks. He has a reputation for saying the most rediculous things as part of his communication technique of "illustrating absurdity by being absurd". I wouldn't be surprised to hear Rush get the last laugh by admitting he didn't believe for a minute that a Huckabee staffer was behind the slight. That won't change his support for Romney, but he's an honest player and when the time is right, he'll let his audience know what's really going on.

Bottom line: Ignore posers like Spunky and enjoy Rush for what he is: a brilliant commentator who is himself smart enough to know the "anti-Rush" stuff was probably planted in the name of the Huckabee campaign by someone else. He originally speculated it was McCain's campaign, but after the past month, I'm convinced it was some third rate blogger posing as a Huckabee supporter... who belches out Romney talking points everywhere else.

Now for the shocker: Could it be that the "unidentified blogger" who told the Atlantic all those crazy things posing as a Huckabee staffer also has a homeschool blog elsewhere on the Web? We'll never know. The Atlantic isn't going to reveal their sources and the unidentified libelogger isn't going to reveal himself as long as the story still has traction.

Posted by Quiverdaddy | January 2, 2008 8:09 PM

"Spunky is an operative from another campaign whose primary function is to quell the flood of homeschoolers switching to the Huckabee camp. She'll say anything to achieve her goal, and seems to use Mitt Romney's talking points to get her through."

Could you please provide documentation to support this assertion? I need the evidence so I can send this alleged campaign a bill for my services to their campaign. Thanks in advance!

As for this assertion, "He's feeding her anti-Huckabee and anti-HSLDA stuff to support her effort to turn homeschoolers. "

Again, I ask for documentation to support this assertion. Ned Ryun has provided NONE of the research for my posts on Huckabee. My posts are based on extensive research into homeschooling and ed. reform issues. I take it as quite a compliment that you thought he or someone else might have written it, that demonstrates to me the strength of my argument. Rather than refuting the evidence I have presented you have taken to claiming it belongs to other writers. Thank you for the compliment!

"Spunky has not read any of Huckabee's positions or consulted his record."

All of my posts are well documented using quotes from Huckabee's website, the state of Arkansas, the HSDLA, and other sources. If there are any factual errors in my posts I welcome the opportunity to correct the errors. So far, I've only had assertions of misrepresentation without any evidence to support this claim.

As for being a "poser" that's interesting given that I'm the one with the website that gives my name and contact information, and your an anonymous commenter on my blog and here without any contact information. But in any case, you have spent quite a bit of time with an alleged "poser" and that indicates to me that you feel that the truth of what I have written presents a real dilemma for those that support Huckabee. Thanks for your time and attention!

Posted by Spunky | January 2, 2008 9:54 PM

One only need dig into the "homeschool" site, spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com and compare it's homeschool content to the original site you abandoned in 2006. With the exception of an April, 2007 post to spunkyhomeschool.homeschoolblogger.com, you made no posts to the new site that have anything to do with homeschooling. All of your homeschool content was ported from the original site. Everything from Dec, 2007 when the site was resurrected is a running diatribe against Huckabee.

That's all fair and good -- you may be a person on a mission, and the term, "poser" doesn't mean the same thing in the blogosphere that it does in other contexts. Simply put, the spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com is a political site posing as a homeschool content site.

On your "blog", you admitted you received some info from Ned Ryun. Again, there's no shame in that. We all get our info from somewhere. People just need to be aware that there is bad blood between one of your sources and his former employer. I agree that HSLDA PAC jumped the gun by endorsing a candidate in the primaries, and it sure would have made sense for the PAC's head to get word of an endorsement by his organization before they went public with it. The point is, there is a context behind the Ned Ryun content on your blog.

I do owe you an apology for stating you were an "operative" of another campaign -- that was intended to be in the satirical light, but came across like a statement of fact. I did state in other posts that you have not (to my knowledge anyway) exposed yourself to be a supporter of a specific candidate, though I suspect based on your stridency you are a Ron Paul supporter. If I'm wrong, feel free to stake your claim :-)

All this points to the fact that the homeschool movement is not a monolith, though HSLDA does wield some clout. You are on one side of the Huckabee issue and I am on the other, and yet we share common values outside the political arena.

My wife is a subscriber to the MOMYS digest and I'm on the DADYS digest. We see posts from Ron Paul supporters that are just driping with hatred that I have never seen in the Full Quiver/Homeschool community before. Most of the Mitt Romney stuff I've seen out there just parrots the lies and distortion that have been the hallmark of his campaign. Aside from those two and Huckabee, most of the community seems to be genuinely searching for a candidate that shares their values.

Knowing that Mitt as recently as last year was pro-abortion, pro-ENDA/Gay marriage, pro-Tax Hike and against the Bush Iraq policy (including the surge), some people have a right to be skeptical of his positions (as of this week, pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, pro-gun and supports the war). Think about it, the NeoLib line right now is "Huck was for the negative ad before he was against it", calling to mind John Kerry's famous gaffe. Whatever fault we can find in that situation, isn't it better than what conservatives are saying about Mitt -- "Mitt was against all of his positions before he was for them."

As for claiming some blogger's stuff is well documented, one always should consider the source. Anyone here can go to your site, spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com and look up your sources. Maybe you could save them time and list the one or two that don't have an active dog in this fight or a beef with someone who does.

This is a hard fought and bitter campaign. However, we need to try not to burn bridges during the primaries that cannot be rebuilt before the real contest for American soverignty.

Unless you intend to support Hillary or Michael Bloomberg, your choice will be to support the eventual GOP nominee or sit on your hands come election day. I'm trying to prepare myself for the possibility that Mitt Romney, as mean spirited and deceptive as he may be is a better choice than Clinton or Bloomberg. I'll support any GOP nominee over Clinton except Giulani, since he's essentially the same ideology in a different package. Romney at least makes a pretense at having a conservative epiphany.

Even Rush Limbaugh, who has been dilligent to stay out of the fray (other than to comment that in his opinion, Huckabee is not a conservative) touts Mitt Romney's talking points. He has essentially indicated he will support anyone but Huckabee, and I guess that could mean supporting Bloomberg if the Huckster wins the GOP nomination (I know he wouldn't support Hillary).

We all take Rush at his word, since he has never declared for a candidate in the primaries (except to endorse Bill Clinton one year -- one of his better gags). Since his program is distributed through a company that is owned by Mitt Romney (ClearChannel/Bain Capital), he would be foolish to tell the truth about Huckabee while Mitt still has a shot at winning the nomination. Once Mitt's out of the picture, if it looks like Huckabee has a shot at winning the nomination, maybe Rush will discover some obscure source of facts that proves he is, after all, a conservative.

Question is, will people like Spunky accept Huckabee as an authentic conservative, or will they go with known quantities like Hillary or Bloomberg if Huckabee wins the nomination, or just stay home on election day.

Posted by Quiverdaddy | January 2, 2008 10:42 PM