Rolling politics thread...

by **jerseyhoya** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:06:25

2007-1998=9

by **dajafi** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:08:42

jerseyhoya wrote:2007-1998=9

That was how the math came out for me too. Huckabee was already governor of Arkansas by the time he spewed that garbage.

by **TenuredVulture** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:15:55

dajafi wrote:
jerseyhoya wrote:2007-1998=9

That was how the math came out for me too. Huckabee was already governor of Arkansas by the time he spewed that garbage.

For some reason, I thought that book came out in the early 90s.

by **TenuredVulture** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 14:16:30

If you're looking for a national Huckabee slide as people find out some of the less savory elements of his past, you'll be disappointed by the USA today poll that's out today. There's no change from two weeks ago in Huckabee's numbers. Now, it may be that the poll missed his peak, and the Dec 1 numbers show him on his way up and the Dec 15-17 numbers show him on the way down.

by **Monkeyboy** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 14:37:09

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPC-1iUrw2k&eurl=http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/[/youtube]

LOL

by **TenuredVulture** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 17:25:20

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007 ... -backlash/

I link this article because I don't understand why the Times called Janine and not me. I could have said the same thing.

by **Rococo4** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 18:18:33

dajafi wrote:My theory on why the institutional Republicans (National Review et al) so loathe Huckabee is that they realize that once the party nominates an authentic social reactionary who's more interested in banning abortion and gay marriage than cutting taxes for billionaires, it's very unlikely the party could ever again sell the social-reactionary base on the likes of Bush and Romney.

They've won for 30 years by dancing the Thomas Frank Two-Step: campaign on demonizing liberals and gays and whoever, govern by and for the hyper-rich, repeat and spice with wars. It's dumb, but it works. And Huckabee could queer (so to speak) the deal.

Maybe they just know he woukld get killed in the general. Which he would.

by **VoxOrion** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 18:22:54

Huckabee’s characterization of Iran is based on astonishing naivety, and the last time I heard such hackneyed metaphors deployed to describe international relations I was in a dorm room, and everyone was convinced the pizza should have been here because we ordered like six hours ago even though it was only 15 minutes. And then the pizza arrived 15 minutes later, and everyone was like, whoa: pizza!

by **TenuredVulture** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 18:30:43

VoxOrion wrote:
Huckabee’s characterization of Iran is based on astonishing naivety, and the last time I heard such hackneyed metaphors deployed to describe international relations I was in a dorm room, and everyone was convinced the pizza should have been here because we ordered like six hours ago even though it was only 15 minutes. And then the pizza arrived 15 minutes later, and everyone was like, whoa: pizza!

So, you're now accusing Huckabee of smoking marijuana? These baseless attacks must stop.

by **Trent Steele** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 18:35:58

Code: Select all: To some extent, newcomers to the Huckabee panic take their lead from the uber-conservative PAC known as the Club for Growth, which sees Mr. Huckabee as a tax-raising, regulation-imposing, anti-business populist governor who spent too much of his tenure dealing with the problems of poor people (a large constituency in Arkansas, it should be said.) The club has been buying ads in Iowa showing the former governor (in his 300-pound form, before he lost 110 pounds and became a marathon runner), signing legislation as governor to raise taxes on cigarettes and impose a surcharge on state income taxes.

LOL. Likes to help poor people, runs marathons, taxes smokes...stone him. The Club for Growth sounds like a great bunch of guys and gals. I'm sure they all love Jesus and hate gays.

Huckabee reminds me of President Logan from 24.

by **jerseyhoya** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 18:42:37

Trent Steele wrote:
Code: Select all
To some extent, newcomers to the Huckabee panic take their lead from the uber-conservative PAC known as the Club for Growth, which sees Mr. Huckabee as a tax-raising, regulation-imposing, anti-business populist governor who spent too much of his tenure dealing with the problems of poor people (a large constituency in Arkansas, it should be said.) The club has been buying ads in Iowa showing the former governor (in his 300-pound form, before he lost 110 pounds and became a marathon runner), signing legislation as governor to raise taxes on cigarettes and impose a surcharge on state income taxes.

LOL. Likes to help poor people, runs marathons, taxes smokes...stone him. The Club for Growth sounds like a great bunch of guys and gals. I'm sure they all love Jesus and hate gays.

Huckabee reminds me of President Logan from 24.

You can make a lot of criticisms of the Club for Growth. The part I bolded above isn't a particularly valid one. If that were the case, they'd probably be all about Mike Huckabee.

by **VoxOrion** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 19:29:28

This kind of vicious defense for an evolution lovin' cross waving Baptist minister is nothing but suspicious to me.

by **Phan In Phlorida** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 19:46:39

Trent Steele wrote:
Code: Select all
To some extent, newcomers to the Huckabee panic take their lead from the uber-conservative PAC known as the Club for Growth, which sees Mr. Huckabee as a tax-raising, regulation-imposing, anti-business populist governor who spent too much of his tenure dealing with the problems of poor people (a large constituency in Arkansas, it should be said.) The club has been buying ads in Iowa showing the former governor (in his 300-pound form, before he lost 110 pounds and became a marathon runner), signing legislation as governor to raise taxes on cigarettes and impose a surcharge on state income taxes.

LOL. Likes to help poor people, runs marathons, taxes smokes...stone him. The Club for Growth sounds like a great bunch of guys and gals. I'm sure they all love Jesus and hate gays.

Help the poor, bah. Poverty is an economic necessity...

"...to scare the #@*% out of the middle class, keep 'em showing up at those jobs." (Carlin)

by **dajafi** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 20:52:26

Trent Steele wrote:LOL. Likes to help poor people, runs marathons, taxes smokes...stone him. The Club for Growth sounds like a great bunch of guys and gals. I'm sure they all love Jesus and hate gays.

No, that's the God Wing. These guys are the Greed Wing. They couldn't care less about Jesus or gays; all they hate is taxes. They're the Marie Antoinette/Leona Helmsley "Screw you, I got mine" Republicans.

My favorite thing about Huckabee's fight with the Club for Greed (as he calls them, accurately) is that they ripped him for supporting a very small increase in a gas tax to pay for highway repairs. It evidently didn't occur to these economic geniuses that "growth" is a lot tougher when people can't drive on your roads.

On economic development, social policy and fiscal stewardship generally, Huckabee strikes me as sort of a pre-historic (the irony!) version of Mike Bloomberg; they both grasp that it takes investment in infrastructure and public services to attract and retain businesses, create jobs and improve job quality.

by **TenuredVulture** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 21:02:34

dajafi wrote:
Trent Steele wrote:LOL. Likes to help poor people, runs marathons, taxes smokes...stone him. The Club for Growth sounds like a great bunch of guys and gals. I'm sure they all love Jesus and hate gays.

No, that's the God Wing. These guys are the Greed Wing. They couldn't care less about Jesus or gays; all they hate is taxes. They're the Marie Antoinette/Leona Helmsley "Screw you, I got mine" Republicans.

My favorite thing about Huckabee's fight with the Club for Greed (as he calls them, accurately) is that they ripped him for supporting a very small increase in a gas tax to pay for highway repairs. It evidently didn't occur to these economic geniuses that "growth" is a lot tougher when people can't drive on your roads.

On economic development, social policy and fiscal stewardship generally, Huckabee strikes me as sort of a pre-historic (the irony!) version of Mike Bloomberg; they both grasp that it takes investment in infrastructure and public services to attract and retain businesses, create jobs and improve job quality.

One thing that no one ever mentions is that he did a very good job maintaining the fiscal health of the state. He never resorted to one-off budget gimmicks like using tobacco settlement money to plug budget holes, our state debt is very manageable, and when he left office, his successor had a surplus, which made some significant tax cuts possible. (Unlike say New Jersey).

While when I moved here, the road situation was in the process of being addressed, my understanding is that before Huckabee, the roads were in horrendous shape--the repairs were widely seen as necessary. While people in this state criticize Huckabee for lots of things, the road tax is not one of them. Indeed, few people here fault him for his fiscal policies.

by **dajafi** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 21:11:32

But... but... HE RAISED TAXES!!!!1 WAAAAAAH!!! I WANT MY REAGAN! (The beautiful Reagan of my right-wing mind, unlike the too-slick-by-half Real Reagan, never raised taxes.)

It should be kept in mind that the natural constituency of the Club for Growth are these folks:

On average, incomes for the top 1 percent of households rose by $465,700 each, or 42.6 percent after adjusting for inflation. The incomes of the poorest fifth rose by $200, or 1.3 percent, and the middle fifth increased by $2,400 or 4.3 percent.

The share of all federal taxes paid by the top 1 percent grew, but only slightly more than half the rate of their growth in incomes because of the tax rate cuts. The top 1 percent paid 27.6 percent of all federal taxes in 2005, up from 22.9 percent in 2003, while the share paid by the middle fifth of taxpayers declined to 9.3 percent from 10 percent in 2003.

The share of their income that the top 1 percent paid in all federal taxes and in income taxes fell. The total tax rate dropped 1.8 percentage points, to 31.2 percent, from 2003 to 2005 while their average income tax rate declined one percentage point, to 19.4 percent, largely because of the cuts in taxes on capital gains and dividends.

by **jerseyhoya** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 21:29:42

Huckabee down in the newest Iowa poll for the first time in a while

One poll does not a trend make, or something like that, but I think this is the first Iowa poll that was in the field the whole time Romney's negative ads were on the air. I think this is more indicative of whether the hits are working than the national poll reference from earlier today, since this is the place where the ads are actually on the air.

by **jerseyhoya** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 23:38:16

My best friend from high school has given $201 dollars to Ron Paul.* I was at his house the weekend the Phils clinched the division, went to check my gmail on his computer but it signed into his automatically, and a Paul email was on top. Since then I've mocked him thinking he sort of supported him, but not entirely. Now I'm confronted with the fact that he really, really likes Ron Paul, as we're recent college graduates and don't have tons of extra cash to throw around on things like candidates who don't stand a shot in hell of winning.

*Yes, I was so bored today that I started searching people I know on FEC.

by **pacino** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 00:18:29

jerseyhoya wrote:My best friend from high school has given $201 dollars to Ron Paul.* I was at his house the weekend the Phils clinched the division, went to check my gmail on his computer but it signed into his automatically, and a Paul email was on top. Since then I've mocked him thinking he sort of supported him, but not entirely. Now I'm confronted with the fact that he really, really likes Ron Paul, as we're recent college graduates and don't have tons of extra cash to throw around on things like candidates who don't stand a shot in hell of winning.

*Yes, I was so bored today that I started searching people I know on FEC.

where can you do that?

by **TenuredVulture** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 00:19:22

pacino wrote:
jerseyhoya wrote:My best friend from high school has given $201 dollars to Ron Paul.* I was at his house the weekend the Phils clinched the division, went to check my gmail on his computer but it signed into his automatically, and a Paul email was on top. Since then I've mocked him thinking he sort of supported him, but not entirely. Now I'm confronted with the fact that he really, really likes Ron Paul, as we're recent college graduates and don't have tons of extra cash to throw around on things like candidates who don't stand a shot in hell of winning.

*Yes, I was so bored today that I started searching people I know on FEC.

where can you do that?

www.fec.gov; www.opensecrets.org

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