Huckabee’s ‘Bully’ Pulpit

By Susan D. Harris

It’s bad enough that the Media Research Center found the media overwhelmingly blamed Republicans for the government shutdown. But when Republicans keep blaming Republicans, there’s nowhere to go but down.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee did just that when he took to the airwaves Saturday night to lambaste the “new recruits” of the Senate.

Without naming Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Iowa Senator Mike Lee, Huckabee proceeded to accuse them of blaming the establishment, the liberals, and their own team.

His rant began with the question, “Did the Republicans make a heroic stand as in the Alamo, or a poorly planned and executed assault like the Little Big Horn, which was led by a general who failed to calculate the risk, who ignored the scouting reports of the strength of the opposition, and who made assumptions about the battle that proved not to be true?”

Republicans, he said, lost “the fight that wasn’t the plan of the battle tested generals, but rather the plan of the newest recruits.” (The battle tested generals being those Sarah Palin recently called the “gutless and rudderless” permanent political class.)

He went on to say that the “new recruits” charged up the hill for a “great cause, but without following the counsel of Jesus — who admonished us to count the cost before starting a war.”

He then went on a confusing tirade about liberalism and legalism, supposedly lecturing us within the context of the church:

The liberal might abandon biblical truth, but the legalist abandons biblical love… Legalists fight for an artificial purity that they claim is based on the truth… It’s an arrogant and prideful self-righteousness that focuses on self; instead of a humble and broken righteousness that focuses on Christ.

We’re used to Huckabee’s “down home” deliveries, but his interjection of “Look, some eat their soup louder than others, but it doesn’t mean the soup tastes better,” left many people raising an eyebrow.

Cutting to the chase, he continued:

Political legalism in the Republican Party is declaring that the purity of conservatism is based on the following of a specific personality, or taking a very specific tactical pathway. The Republicans greatest threat is not from liberals, it’s from legalists in its ranks who would rather raise and spend vast amounts of money to defeat another Republican… than a Democrat. The arrogant and self-righteous indignation of those who elevate themselves to be superior in conservatism because they can cause a train wreck…

Let’s get this straight. According to Huckabee, Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have abandoned biblical love and are not following the directives of Jesus. They are also arrogant, prideful, self-righteous and trying to elevate themselves in conservatism as they purposely wreck the country for their own purposes. Jay Carney couldn’t have said it better, though he would be loath to mention Jesus.

So now we have an influential Baptist minister, well settled in the establishment of the day, preaching that the new kid on the block is trying to “elevate” himself as he goes against God’s teachings. Huckabee sounds more like the jealous Pharisees of Jesus’ day.

In his own train wreck of a monologue, his Obama-like attack continued as he named William Wilberforce and Dr. Martin Luther King as his “political heroes.”

He ended by saying that if Republicans really want to defeat the threat of liberalism and socialism, “they need to learn that their friends aren’t their enemies.” He received thunderous applause from an audience that looked star-struck,but doubtfully had time to digest the meandering diatribe they’d just heard.

Huckabee doesn’t care. Four days before his most recent remarks, he told his radio listeners to “get over it” — referring to his previous criticism of Senator Ted Cruz. He went on to knock Cruz’s filibuster on the Senate floor, pointing out once again that, “it wasn’t a filibuster” and that “he didn’t stop the progress or the flow of Senate business.” The only thing he didn’t do was put his hands on his hips and say, “So there!” while sticking his tongue out.

Huckabee is increasingly revealing himself as an entrenched establishment Republican who is willing to leave his principles checked in the cloakroom to make a deal. He is actively working against elected officials who have promised their constituents they would fight a corrupt administration bent on bringing the country to its knees.

He is also showing himself to be a bitter man, willing to use his ordained Christian pulpit to attack people he doesn’t like or agree with. And while I’m sure it wasn’t his intent, he single-handedly made the case for abandoning the Republican Party.

Originally published at:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2013/10/huckabees_bully_pulpit.html