Huckabee Blows It.

Mike Huckabee would seem to be some sort of liar. Last month, he told Tim Russert that people who fear his religious convictions should note his record in Arkansas, where he didn't turn the capitol dome into a church steeple, nor did he hold tent revivals on the lawn of the governor's mansion. His message was that no one should assume that he intends to set up a theocracy as President. That message doesn't exactly square with what he said last night.

Did Huckabee think there was a constituency for such talk in Michigan? I guess there is -- 16% of the Republican electorate according to the latest returns. Fortunately, that's far from enough to get the nomination. It will be interesting now to see if he can get above 20% anywhere outside the South. He certainly doesn't deserve that anywhere after this outburst.

Does the Arkansan even realize that "God's standards" is almost perfectly synonymous with the rhetoric al-Qaeda uses, at least as it's translated into English, when they call for the imposition of sharia law in Muslim countries? That reminds me to ask: which standards, Mr. former governor? The Qur'an would seem to be more up to date, but even more up-to-date would be the books of syncretic faiths like Sikhism and Baha'i which incorporate elements of Judeo-Christian tradition? Voters should insist on a clarification before they send Huckabee up Salt River.

For some reason I've gone out of my way to defend Huckabee. He had me fooled for a while on his theocratic leanings, and he has definitely been treated unfairly by his rivals regarding his Foreign Affairs article. Since I'm interested in exposing the rhetorical thuggishness of Republican candidates, I may yet defend Huckabee from further unfair charges. But any notion that he'd somehow be the preferable Republican candidate in the general election is now quite dead.