Democrats finally find their man

By Weekly Archive On Dec 19, 2007

Democratic
voters face two challenges heading into 2008. The first is deciding
which Democratic candidate to support. The second is agreeing on
which Republican candidate they’d most like to run against.

Until
recently, the second task proved harder than the first, because all
the GOP candidates seemed such easy targets. Paint Mitt Romney the
Olympic flip-flopper. Remind Fred Thompson to set his alarm clock.
Force Rudy Giuliani to explain why he provided a police car and
driver for his wife, kids, mother and mistress — while he showed up
in drag at official city events. It was hard to believe anybody could
be easier to beat than one of the original three frontrunners, until
the spotlight turned on Mike Huckabee and the media started swooning
over a "Huckaboom."

At
first, for a conservative, he seemed like such a nice guy: "a
conservative without horns," they used to call him. But once
Mike Huckabee became the frontrunner in Iowa, we suddenly learned a
lot more about him, and his horns became all too apparent. The
Huckaboom has turned into a Huckabust.

First,
there’s that messy matter of an Arkansas state pardon for convicted
rapist Wayne Dumond — who went on to rape and murder another woman,
maybe two, after his release from prison. Apparently, Huckabee fell
for the nutty theory that since the 17-year-old girl Dumond raped was
a distant cousin of Bill Clinton’s, she couldn’t be telling the
truth. Conservative Christians rallied behind Dumond. Once elected
governor, Huckabee became Dumond’s public advocate, writing him a
personal letter of support and lobbying the state parole board for
his release.

If
Huckabee showed bad judgment in that case, he displayed appalling
ignorance in dealing with HIV/AIDS. Responding to a questionnaire for
Senate candidates in 1992, he supported a quarantine for all
HIV-positive persons, opposed federal funding for AIDS research —
suggesting Hollywood celebrities should pay for it, instead — and
warned that homosexuality alone could pose "a dangerous public
health risk." He made this statement years after the Centers for
Disease Control confirmed that AIDS could not be spread by casual
contact. In the same questionnaire, Huckabee also opposed gays in the
military, women in combat, and unmarried people living together.

As
troubling as were Huckabee’s actions as governor, his statements as
an ordained Baptist minister are even more disturbing. After
graduating from divinity school, Huckabee served as pastor for 12
years. When he traded the pulpit for politics, he took his religious
beliefs with him

—
often mixing politics with religion.

In
1998, for example, Gov. Huckabee was one of 131 signatories on a
full-page USA Today ad endorsing a controversial position on the role
of women in marriage adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention. The
SBC policy declared: "A wife is to submit herself graciously to
the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly
submits to the headship of Christ." In turn, the ad Huckabee
signed congratulated the SBC: "You are right because you called
wives to graciously submit to their husband’s sacrificial
leadership."

Were
Huckabee ever to become president, American women would have to
prepare to be treated as second-class citizens. But they’re not the
only ones. So would all non-Christians. In 1998, Gov. Huckabee also
told a gathering of pastors in Salt Lake City that, even though he
was involved in politics, he didn’t think government could solve our
problems. "The real answers lie in accepting Jesus Christ into
our lives," declared the self-described "Christian leader."
Our goal, said Huckabee, is clear: "I hope we answer the alarm
clock and take this nation back for Christ."

Take
this nation back for Christ? Take it back from whom? And give it to
whom? That call to Christian arms is scary enough, coming from a
Baptist pulpit. It’s downright un-American, coming from an elected
public official.

Which
raises another point: How can you possibly preserve the separation of
church and state by electing a pastor as president? You can’t. We
wouldn’t consider electing a priest, nun, rabbi, or mullah as
president. Why an ordained minister?

The
more we learn about the former governor of Arkansas, the more he
becomes the candidate Democrats would be most eager to run against in
2008. Mike Huckabee is just what Democrats were hoping to find under
the Christmas tree: an unelectable Republican frontrunner.

Bill
Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a
new book, "How
the Republicans Stole Religion." You
can hear "The Bill Press Show" at billpressshow.com. His
email address is: bill@billpress.com. His Web site is:
www.billpress.com.