Mike Huckabee and the Arkansas Times

There is some news and blog fodder floating around suggesting that Governor Mike Huckabee recently cut off the flow of information from his office to a "legitimate newspaper" called the Arkansas Times.

Not the case.

Those who are blindly and stupidly regurgitating this lie are doing so without investigating the facts. First, the Arkansas Times is not a legitimate newspaper. It is a local, free tabloid whose sole purpose is to entertain Arkansas' tiny population of far left wing liberals. The photo at left is their current cover story about gay tourism in Arkansas.

True, the free "newspaper" thinly masks its biases with some seemingly real reporting, but it always reverts back to poking, jabbing and ridiculing conservatives and Christians at every opportunity. This "legitimate newspaper," in fact, has no qualms about using the National Enquirer as a source. Don't believe it? Click HERE.

Secondly, the Arkansas Times has been denied nothing except the convenience of having information spoon-fed to them by the Governor's office. Every press release, every photo, every calendar event, every radio address and every schedule they whine about not having emailed to them is posted to the Governor's official state site where the entire world can access it.

One final note on the subject. One of the blogs that leaped at the opportunity to advance the cause of this anti-conservative, anti-Christian tabloid is The Club For Growth, an organization supposedly dedicated to conservative principles. Sadly, their willingness to parrot the false claims of the Arkansas Times, with no independent research into the matter, shows that The Club For Growth cannot be trusted by provide accurate information to its readers.

Hey, Club For Growth. Guess what? This "legitimate newspaper" you are defending used the National Enquirer as a source for a story suggesting that President Bush, whose tax cuts you support on a permanent basis, is an alcoholic who has fallen off the wagon since entering the White House.

Congratulations.

BSR

Housekeeping

Sorry for the lack of new posts recently. Returning visitors will notice some changes to our sidebar, where we are better-organizing information about Mike Huckabee. We'll be back to our regular posting schedule on Monday.

See you soon,

BSR

Urban Elephants

Urban Elephants, a blog run by New York City Young Republicans, conducted a straw poll recently in which Governor Mike Huckabee scored reasonably well (4th place, ahead of Giuliani interestingly enough) considering we've done nothing to promote him to young people in NY.

Heck, we didn't even know there were any Young Republicans in New York City!

Check it out HERE.

BSR

Other Bloggers On Mike Huckabee

Check out this powerful and well-researched and written piece about Mike Huckabee from The Cornell Review at Cornell University (Ithaca, NY):

Gov. Mike Huckabee

President Clinton once ended a speech by saying, “I believe in a place called Hope.” So do I, but not because of Bill or his lovely wife. For while Hope, Arkansas is best known as the birthplace of Bill Clinton – and by extension of everything wrong with American politics – another native son of Hope has the potential to redeem his town’s name.

This is Mike Huckabee, Republican governor of Arkansas. Huckabee is not yet as prominent on the national political scene as, say, a John McCain or a George Allen, nor has he been generating anywhere near their amount of presidential buzz. This, however, is sure to change once in the coming months.

Mike Huckabee served as Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas from 1993-1996, and was the only prominent Republican officeholder in the heavily Democratic state during his term. In 1996, Huckabee became Governor after corrupt Democratic Governor Jim Guy Tucker was found guilty on felony corruption charges stemming from the Whitewater Scandal. Since then, Huckabee, still one of the only significant elected Republicans in Arkansas, has achieved landslide victories in two gubernatorial elections. He is also currently President of the National Governors Association (NGA). Because of Arkansas term limits, though, Huckabee is prohibited from running again for governor – he has nowhere to go but up.

Unlike George Pataki or Rudy Giuliani, Huckabee does not water down conservative ideals to appeal to the largely-Democratic population of his state. Huckabee is strongly socially conservative, and has spoken against gay marriage and in favor of right-to-know legislation for women considering abortion. His tough-but-fair positions on drug-related and juvenile crime have proven effective and popular, and he favors small government and less spending – those traditional conservative values that the current administration seems to have forgotten. He tempers his strong position on the issues with a folksy charisma, and his speaking ability is unparalleled among the Republican presidential hopefuls.

His personal life is also an inspiring story – more than can be said of most Democratic contenders. Huckabee was a Southern Baptist minister and pastor before he got into the political game, which will endear him to people of faith. He was also dangerously overweight for much of his life; however, after developing diabetes he lost over 100 pounds and is now a prominent spokesman for healthy eating and exercise habits, especially for our nation’s children.

Mike Huckabee of Arkansas exhibits all the qualities Republicans should be looking for in a Presidential candidate. Charming, inspiring, and staunchly conservative, the GOP has no finer choice for the 2008 Presidential nomination. Now let’s just hope they realize it.

Huckabee, Romney Travel Together

Governor Mike Huckabee (AR) and Governor Mitt Romney (MA) plan on Friday to visit the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, where they'll tour the detention center, attend an intelligence briefing and meet with Defense Department officials. Both are considering running for president in 2008.

Wonder what they'll talk about?

See the whole story HERE.

BSR

Huckabee Delivers On Education

Among the things most important to Mike Huckabee when he became Governor of Arkansas was to address the poor condition of the state's educational system. For decades Arkansas had ranked near the bottom of all states in virtually every measure of education including test scores and graduation rates.

Over the years Huckabee implemented numerous education reforms, including the creation of programs to promote more aggressive curricula. Last summer, his efforts began to bear fruit.

We reported results that can only be described as spectacular -- from the adoption of one of the most rigorous high school curricula in the nation to dramatically improved test scores for Arkansas students.

Now, the natural result of these improvements has manifested itself in a dramatic improvement in Arkansas' high school graduation rate. According to news reported today, Arkansas' graduation rate has leaped to 74%, besting the national average of 70%. This puts Arkansas at number 25 in the national rankings.

Buried within the numbers is an even more exciting result for Arkansans. The state now ranks #2 in the nation for the graduation rate among black students.

Congratulations, Governor Huckabee!

BSR

Huckabee To New York For Health Push

The National Governors Association said Monday it is urging governors to coordinate efforts May 1-5 for Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s Healthy America initiative. One goal is to raise national awareness of the need for Americans to live healthier, more active lives. As part of the year-long initiative, governors are focusing on a range of issues, including: Educating the public about community health-related resources; improving access to healthy options in disadvantaged communities ; improving the health of state workplaces; encouraging parental engagement in student health; offering attractive, healthy options to students in lunchrooms; and aligning advisory groups across the public and private sector to encourage wellness.

Huckabee will promote the message in New York this week, then travel to Nashville, Tenn., to join Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen for a town hall meeting with Tennessee students to discuss improving student wellness. The governors also will visit a local job site to learn how Tennessee companies are helping their workers stay healthy.

This article from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Other Bloggers On Mike Huckabee

Here's a link to a nice post at blog Music for All mentioning Mike Huckabee and his committment to arts education. Check it out HERE.

BSR

Another Endorsement For Huckabee

It's still two years away, but Alaska Congressman Don Young has made it known that he endorses Governor Mike Huckabee for President in 2008. Check it out HERE.

Young says "Huckabee is very bright and articulate and has done an outstanding job as Governor of Arkansas."

BSR

Friday Funny: What Is Mike Huckabee?

Last week, a conservative group made news by calling Mike Huckabee a liberal. Funny how not everyone seems to agree. We found this bumper sticker for sale on cafepress.com.

The truth is, Mike Huckabee is neither a flaming liberal nor a right wing radical. He is a compassionate conservative, which makes him rather unappealing to either the far right or the far left.

The center, however, loves him.

BSR

Welcome Krusty Konservative Readers

A special welcome to readers of Krusty Konservative. In the finest of Southern tradition, we invite you to come on in and make yourself at home. Pour yourself a nice glass of tea and spend some time exploring information about Mike Huckabee.

Hint: The "Information Center" in our sidebar is a great place to start.

Special thanks to Krusty for the opportunity to guest post and the link!

BSR

Iowa Hearts Huckabee

A couple of weeks back, National Journal writer Chuck Todd called Governor Mike Huckabee a "lethal insurgent candidate" in Iowa's 2008 presidential primary. Then, last week ABC News predicted he will win the Iowa primary.

Now yet another writer, Marc Ambinder from National Journal's The Hotline, ranks Huckabee the #1 candidate to beat in Iowa saying:

"He is the race's only credible evangelical Protestant in a state where
Christian conservatives generally dominate the caucuses. And his outreach to
these activists and to key Iowa GOP insiders is more broad and deep than has
been reported."

There's more so check it out for yourself.

Of course we've been telling you this for more than a year now. Stay tuned!

BSR

Under Huckabee, Arkansas' Tax Burden Below National Average

UPDATE: Governor Mike Huckabee has just recommended a tax rebate to return the state's surplus to Arkansas' taxpayers (May, 2006).

Governor Mike Huckabee has been unfairly attacked recently by an anti-tax group over his record as Arkansas' Governor. The fact is, according to a new report issued by The Tax Foundation, Arkansas' per capita tax burden is BELOW the national average, making Arkansas one of the more tax-friendly states in the nation.

According to the report, Arkansas ranks 27th on the list with a per capita tax burden of 10.30%, below the national average of 10.60%.

Arkansas also has the second lowest property taxes in the nation (only Alabama is lower) and is one of only 16 states that offer tax breaks to seniors.

States with worse tax burdens than Arkansas' today are:

Maine
New York
District of Columbia
Ohio
Minnesota
Hawaii
Nebraska
Wisconsin
Rhode Island
Connecticut
Vermont
Louisiana
Indiana
Illinois
California
Washington
Michigan
New Jersey
Kentucky
Kansas
Maryland
West Virginia
North Carolina
Utah
Iowa
Georgia
Pennsylvania

Mike Huckabee is a fiscal and social conservative. He is, in fact, THE MOST conservative governor in the history of the state of Arkansas. Don't be fooled by half-truths and bald-faced lies from self-proclaimed tax "watch-dogs."

BSR

McCain Says Huckabee Will Be "Formidable Candidate"

Senator John McCain, in a town hall meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas yesterday, said that if Governor Mike Huckabee runs for president in 2008 he will be a "formidable candidate."

He's right.

BSR

Welcome Right Wing News Readers

A special thank you to Mr. John Hawkins of Right Wing News who has posted an terrific interview with Governor Mike Huckabee on his site today. You can check it out HERE.

BSR

Huckabee Climbing

When we started this blog 14 months ago, almost nobody outside of Arkansas and a relatively small group of reporters and Washington insiders even knew who Mike Huckabee was. The blog was getting about 10 hits a day, half of which were just blog surfers.

We were truly a loney voice crying in the darkness. We spent a lot of very frustrating time just trying to get someone-- anyone -- in the press to take Huckabee seriously. We emailed dozens of posts to reporters, dissected their stories about the "front-runners" and whined a lot (sorry about that!).

But over time our traffic slowly grew. A few really good guys helped us out with some links (thanks Ryan James and Mark Coffee, especially!). John Hawkins at Right Wing News was kind enough to link us a couple of times early on as well.

Then came Huckabee's national book tour, and his assumption of the chairmanship of the National Governor's Association, which raised his national profile significantly.

A turning point came when Patrick Ruffini started running polls on his site that included every conceivable possible candidate for the 2008 election, including Huckabee. Just getting listed was victory #1.

Then we (meaning you, kind readers) helped Huckabee perform at a better-than-expected level in Ruffini's next two polls.

Traffic to the blog continued to pick up steam. As a result of his chairmanship of the National Governor's Association, Huckabee had the chance to meet with David Broder, who was impressed to say the least.

After that Governor Huckabee began to receive more and more mentions in the MSM and is now included on almost all of the various polls we see out there. We stopped trying to influence these polls after Ruffini left and turned them over the Hugh Hewitt (who has done a really poor job with them if you ask us).

Most importantly, Huckabee is now regularly mentioned in the short lists of "likely candidates" by virtually every MSM reporter and blogger out there. And those who have done their homework realize that Huckabee is not just a contender, but a "lethal insurgent candidate."

So, in just 14 months, Governor Mike Huckabee has gone from almost total obscurity to being predicted to win the Iowa caucus by ABC News.

That ain't bad, folks.

And it gets better. Here's the latest example published just today.

Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post has been publishing a column called The Fix in which he periodically analyzes the 2008 election. He has boiled his list of likely Democratic and Republican candidates down to just 5 for each party, saying "just look at the way the nomination fight has evolved over the past two cycles. In both cases, the year before the presidential election year was decisive in winnowing the field down to a few candidates who would battle it out in the primaries for the nomination."

Here are Cillizza's five Republicans, which he lists in alphabetical order:

Sen. George Allen
Rudy Giuliani
Gov. Mike Huckabee
Sen. John McCain
Gov. Mitt Romney

See why we're pleased about that? If Cillizza turns out to be right about this being the list of contenders, we'd be in a very, very strong position.

Why?

First, historically, Senators just dont get elected president. They have far too much baggage from literally thousands of votes they've cast that cannot be hidden. This is very, very hard to overcome. You can pretty much scratch Allen and McCain for that reason alone. Add to that the facts that McCain is widely despised by the conservative base and Allen may not even succeed in getting relected to his Senate seat.

Secondly, Giuliani is on this list and others by name recognition alone. He's a famous figure and a 911 hero but no one who knows anything about GOP politics believes he has a chance to win the GOP nomination. He's pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, and anti-gun. Not. Gonna. Happen.

Finally, that leaves Huckabee and Mitt Romney. This sounds about right. Romney is a Governor, making him a historically viable candidate. He is also widely respected, charming, and charismatic, like Huckabee.

But if this battle truly comes down to Huckabee vs. Romney, we could not be more pleased. This would, in fact, be the ideal scenario for Huckabee.

You will agree. If you do your homework.

BSR

New Huckabee 2008 Group Created

We've created a group for Mike Huckabee President 2008 at Gather.com. This will be a place where Huckabee supporters can join, share messages and information with one another, and add their email addresses to a database that will become vitally important to Governor Huckabee's campaign in the future. Sometime in 2007, when the Huckabee campaign creates its official website and blog (we hope), we will transfer ownership of this group to them.

Please consider clicking on over HERE to join up!

BSR

Healthy America PAC

Here's a link to Governor Mike Huckabee's new website for his Healthy America Political Action Committee. Check it out HERE.

BSR

Huckabee 2008

Here's a picture of Governor Mike Huckabee at the finish line of the Little Rock Marathon back on March 6th (notice his number).

Run, Mike, Run!

Guest Post

From time to time we publish a post from a guest blogger. Today we have a guest post from The Uncompassionate Conservative, a member of Bloggers 4 Huckabee and creator of the Huckabee 08 campaign items at cafepress. The topic: illegal immigration. Read on...

Thanks, UC!

The Fight Between Idealism and Reality

By The Uncompassionate Conservative

The eruption over illegal immigration in this county has sparked a debate inside the Republican Party between the conservative wing and the moderate wing. On the one side you have the self-proclaimed descendants of the Reagan Revolution. On the other side of the cage, you have the more moderate elephant that drapes himself in the cloak of compassionate conservatism. Perhaps both have valid points. Perhaps neither have an adequate solution to the illegal immigration problem.

By some estimates, there are 11 million persons in this country illegally. Should our goal be to strictly enforce our immigration laws as many conservatives are urging? Absolutely. Is it possible to enforce those laws and deport all of the 11 million violators? Probably not.

Building a 2000 mile fence along the southern border and busing millions of illegals back to Mexico appeals to the law and order instincts among conservatives, but its idealistic undertaking cannot be squared with the practical and financial realities.

As a reader of this blog, I have noticed that its writers and Governor Huckabee have come under scrutiny for their stances on illegal immigration. I know because I have been one of the occasional skeptics.

This blog has previously reported that Governor Huckabee has advocated giving pre-natal care to pregnant immigrants. Some may see this as giving benefits to illegals. The Governor sees this as the right thing to do and consistent with his pro-life stance and our society’s Judeo-Christian commitment to protect the vulnerable.

“I believe that because it's a human life, then by our law and by our constitution even that unborn child is an Arkansas citizen because he or she is going to be born in this state. The prenatal care for the entire pregnancy costs less than one-third of what one day in the neonatal unit at Children's Hospital would cost if the child has complications at birth.”

Huckabee opposes giving welfare benefits and non-emergency healthcare to illegals. He supports allowing the children of illegals to attend public schools from K-12, but this isn’t controversial. The Supreme Court ruled in Plyler v Doe (1982) that elementary and secondary public education is a right that is extended to children of illegals because it would be punishing young children for the sins of their parents by denying them an education.

Those that believe they are made in the image of Ronald Reagan forget a major fact. Reagan was empathetic to the situation of illegals who were trying to establish a better life for their families by following the light leading them to the “shining city upon a hill.”

According to an article published in The American Conservative, the Reagan Administration made three recommendations to Congress in 1981:

1. Sanctions on employers who knowingly hired illegal aliens
2. A guest worker program that allowed up to 50,000 Mexicans to work in sectors of agriculture where it appeared that American labor was unavailable
3. A grant of amnesty for illegal aliens in the country prior to Jan. 1, 1980

A watered down version of the recommendations finally made it to President Reagan’s desk in 1986. He signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act which placed sanctions on employers and gave amnesty to illegal aliens already in the country.

While strict enforcement of our law is an ideal goal, that ideal was compromised long ago by lax enforcement. Major changes are needed to deal with the surging flow of illegals; whether this be increasing immigrant quotas from Mexico, expediting the process, or reducing the costs to legally enter our country.

Governor Huckabee sees illegal immigration as a legal problem, but also sees it as a humanitarian problem. While some of his solutions may not be perfect in the eyes of some conservatives, they are much better than the non-action that has existed for the last twenty years.

Editor's note: See our previous blog postings on the subject of illegal immigration HERE.

Huckabee For President Campaign Items

The Uncompassionate Conservative, a supporter of Governor Huckabee and a member of our Bloggers 4 Huckabee blogroll, has created a storefull of Huckabee for President campaign items at cafepress.com. Now you can show your support with T-shirts, coffee, cups, buttons, and tons of other stuff.

Check it out HERE and HERE and HERE.

Huckabee Writes Letter To The New York Times

We spend a lot of time here talking about Mike Huckabee's leadership in the areas of wellness and health care policy, his stance against abortion, his record as governor of Arkansas, and his progress down the long road toward his eventual nomination by the Republican party. As part of our descussions about his record, we have touched on his highly successful education reforms in Arkansas, but we have not talked specifically about one area of education that he is particularly passionate about -- the arts.

Governor Huckabee is, in fact, currently the chairman of the Education Commission of the States.

Today, we are reminded about his committment to continuing arts education in the public schools by a letter he wrote to The New York Times, published today. You can check it out HERE.

Because these links have a way of disappearing over time, we provide the text of the letter below:

April 2, 2006

Schools Need the Arts

To the Editor:

Re "Schools Cut Back Subjects to Push Reading and Math" (front page,
March 26):

Across the nation, schools are trimming back financing for music and
the arts in the name of "efficiency" and "core subjects." This is beyond
short-sighted. It's stupid.

In the name of No Child Left Behind, we are going to leave some of our
brightest students totally behind by never touching their talents to sing,
paint, act, dance or play an instrument. While experts and futurists warn that
the future economy will be driven by the "creative class," there are determined
efforts to diminish the value of the arts.

Numerous studies affirm that a student schooled in music improves his
or her SAT and ACT scores in math, foreign language or creative writing.
Creative students are better problem solvers; that is a trait the business world
begs for in its work force.

While the No Child Left Behind standards mandate arts as part of the
core curriculum (which is an admirable first at the federal level), many school
districts see the arts as expendable, extraneous or extracurricular. They are
essential.

Nine out of 10 parents surveyed opposed cuts to the arts in our
schools, yet many policy makers seem tone-deaf to this critical part of
educating our children. In my state, we by law now insist that every child
receive music and art instruction by a certified teacher. It's time that America
force the issue and finance it fully. No child should be left behind!

Mike Huckabee
Little Rock, Ark., March 31, 2006

The writer is the governor of Arkansas and chairman of both the Education Commission of the States and the National Governors Association.