if moderate corruption was the trump card for not voting for a politician we could not vote for anyone.

Huckabee's main political sin is that he did so while under the guise of a Christian banner - and they're something folks hate worse than a corrupt politician - a hypocritical one.

Huckabee should be shamed into falling into the easiest political trap - that of accepting the laud and favor of folk who most assuredly want something in return.

I've been in this business, have been good friends with many who've held office and this stuff is rampant. This doesn't excuse Huck, but to think that he's one of the few who's in this mess is akin to thinking that only those mention in the Mitchell report may have been using PEDs.

The unfortunate situation we?re all in (evangelical or not) is choosing who of this messed up lot may serve the country best in spite of themselves.

"The other problem is his pro big government stance, which in itself is not a moral issue, though most evangelicals in a one-on-one / completely off-the-record conversation, would admit that being an economic liberal is, to some degree, a moral issue for them."

Can you please explain what you mean by econmic liberal. I do not live in Arkansas but I am only 15 miles away. So I have followed Huckabee for a number of years. I saw done of this liberalism that people on conservative sites keep talking about

[quote]if moderate corruption was the trump card for not voting for a politician we could not vote for anyone.[/quote]

Are you saying this in general or with regards to this election. If it is about this election I have yet to see even a blemish on Ron Paul's record.

jh,
"On its annual governor's report card, Cato gave (GOP presidential candidate Mike) Huckabee an 'F' for fiscal policy during his final term, and an overall two-term grade of 'D.' Only four governors had worse scores, and 15 Democratic governors got higher grades, including well-known liberals like Ted Kulongoski of Oregon, Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, and Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.

"Huckabee has called for increased federal spending on a variety of programs from infrastructure to health care. He wants more energy subsidies, including, naturally, more subsidies for ethanol. In fact, he supports increased agricultural subsidies generally. He is the only Republican candidate who opposes President Bush's veto of the Democrats' proposed expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and he is skeptical of most conservative proposals for entitlement reform."

from here:
http://schansblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/huckabee-as-big-spender-whos-confused.html
Examples Are:
1. Support of SCHIP
2. Support for free college education for illegals while he was governor.
3. his support of p-16 (see my last post)
4. From factcheck.org http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/huckabees_fiscal_record.html
[quote]That turns out to be far from the whole story. The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration found that 90 tax cuts were enacted in legislative sessions from 1997 through 2005, while Huckabee was governor, and those cuts reduced tax revenues by $378 million. But Huckabee fails to mention the 21 tax increases that occurred under his watch and that raised revenues by substantially more. The total net tax increase under Huckabee's tenure was an estimated $505.1 million, says the Department of Finance and Administration's Whitney McLaughlin, adding that the figure has been adjusted for inflation.[/qoute]

At a minimum please check out the factcheck.org link.

That's good to hear about RP and perhaps it's true that he's avoided the tarnish that comes from exposure to the environ. But my pointing this out has nothing really to do with RP, I'm not anit-RP but I'm not for him either.

We're looking at a cacophony of candidates and while there are good points about many, there are few that I would find without a "blemish" - be that questionable gifts or otherwise.

I agree. I have really been thinking about running for office. I am so sick of the politicians we have to choose from.

I fnd the Cato and the CLub for Growth stuff that is being put out very misleading. They often through a very obvious sin of ommision fail to give context to that.

For instance part of that was a gas tax to build roads. Arkansas had a positive population growth and roads were very horrid. Cato might think it is unconservative to do a gas tax to build roads but I find most conservatives thin that is ok. THe other tax that also went in front of the voters was one dealing with fnding State parks that were very much in disarray. If you spend time in Arkansas you can see that the Arkansas State parks especially in the Ozark region is a major part of Arkansas tourism and a magnet for retirement communities.

Further what they do not note is that some taxes had to be raised in a hurried fashion because of a Supremne Court case that mandated immediate increases to Funding in Arkansas Schools. SOmething that Huckabee fought. In the back ground to this is that Arkansas has a balanced budget amendment which means they cannot run deficits. If Mike Huckabee fiscal policies were so bad I am astonished why the Arkansas economy is booming and so many people are moving there.

I think as to Cato That the Evangelical outpost had a very good response to these charges and put them in context.

Huckabee was Governor of Arkansas from July 1996 to January 2007. During that 10 1/2 year period, taxes that affected all citizens increased by the following amounts:

Increase in the income tax rates: 0 percent

Increase in the sales tax: 1 cent

Increase in the gas tax: 3 cents a gallon

Increase in diesel fuel tax: 4 cents a gallon

As suggest these posts
http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/004113.html

and especially this one

Great blog by the way

http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/archives/004053.html#more

Gid: Nice write up. It seemed well thought out and organized. Keep it up and we might see you in office one day!

JH: I appreciate your comments and I was hoping you could address a few questions that I have. Many of the facts that you cite in your previous post are clearly disputed on factCheck.org. For example, you say,
"For instance part of that was a gas tax to build roads. Arkansas had a positive population growth and roads were very horrid."

But according to FactCheck.org, "Huckabee is right that about 80 percent of Arkansas voters approved a referendum to increase funding for highway repair. But the referendum happened after the gas tax hike had already become law."

Also, for the three tax increases you list could you please provide the percentage increase each one of those represents, e.g. (Increase in the gas tax: 3 cents a gallon = X% increase)?

I look forward to your response.

Gid: Keep up the good work!

Christians seem to be prone to the Achilles' heel of being well-intentioned and gullible. And. . . that is my huge problem with Huckabee--he seems to lack the discernment needed for the political position he aspires to hold.

His defense of Kenneth Copeland and his laud of Bill Gothard are two ugly examples of what I mean.

(I'm not a Ron Paul fan, either. . . In the interest of self-disclosure.)

Can an evangelical be legitimately interested in Huckabee as a candidate in spite of Huck's religious affiliation? I hope so. At this point I'm in the truly undecided camp; this is made easier by gaggle of folks running in the various parties. Huckabee is intriguing, but probably so because I haven?t heard him use the Christian rhetoric much. If the odd Christian-speak video clips that are circulating are the norm I may need to reconsider ? trite does not make right.

I appreciate your blog and stumbled across it as an evangelical trying to cope with the Huckabee win in Iowa. Why do I feel that most Christians are more like lemmings than sheep? I'm so tired of wealthy mega-church leaders and million-selling authors that obviously cheapen the gospel. Now we have politicians using their religion to win. How many people voted for him because he was a pastor? Maybe because he made a statement about "taking back America for God"? How many people actually voted for him because his politics are best for the nation? The President has to serve all the people, not just the Christians. God help us all if he wins the nomination -- because we will surely lose the White House.