Bob Novak: [1]
Who would respond to criticism from the Club for Growth [2] by calling the conservative, free-market campaign organization the “Club for Greed”? That sounds like Howard Dean, Dennis Kucinich [3] or John Edwards [4], all Democrats preaching the class struggle. In fact, the rejoinder comes from Mike Huckabee [5], who has broken out of the pack of second-tier Republican presidential candidates to become a serious contender — definitely in Iowa [6] and perhaps
nationally.
Huckabee is campaigning as a conservative, but serious Republicans know that he is a high-tax, protectionist advocate of big government and a strong hand in the Oval Office [7] directing the lives of Americans. Until now, they did not bother to expose the former governor of Arkansas [8] as a false conservative because he seemed an underfunded, unknown nuisance candidate.
We’ve posted [9] on [10] this subject [11] before. [12] All Novak has done, here, is confirm our previous postings on the subject. Frankly, Huckabee is less of a conservative than George Bush, who is at best a centerist. Which, as you’ll know if you’ve been reading here for any length of time, is a major problem…. the biggest problems Bush has ever faced was centered around his lack of conservative creds. Without question, he is still better than any of the Democrat candidates, but lord knows, it’s not by much.
Here’s a clue to Fred Thompson’s people; if you really want a start making some inroads in Iowa, start banging on Huckabee’s less than stellar, un-conservative record. Do it now.
To the rest: I’ll commend Novak’s column to you, but also, Don Surber’s [13], today, on the kind of leader America needs… IMV, Huckabee doesn’t quality.
There’s lots more discussion about this on Memeorandum.