Pining Away for the Fjords

Fred Thompson's "not just, just sleeping" presidential campaign shows some vague signs of life with anti-Huckabee leafletting:

Yes, Mike Huckabee governed the same state as Bill Clinton! Shocking stuff. No, the actual argument seems to be that Huckabee is a tax-raiser. This tells you about what you need to know about the modern GOP: As governor, Huckabee cut some taxes and raised some taxes, dealing with the vicissitudes of highly volatile state budgets during a very long time as governor. As a presidential candidate, he's espousing a lunatic regressive tax scheme. His rivals attack him for the former signs signs of pragmatism and reasonableness are poison to the GOP base, whereas signs of fanaticism and ignorance don't really trouble anyone.

Comments

Well, this post could use a proof-read.
I have no quarrel with the substance, however.

Posted by Chesser | December 7, 2007 12:02 PM

FYI, Matt, that's a misquote--there's no "away" in the original:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pining+for+the+fjords

I harbor suspicions that you are only be posing as a nerd, in order to be thought cool.

Posted by James Gary | December 7, 2007 12:10 PM

I'm surprised we haven't seen much coverage of Huckabee's tax plan - it really is nuts.

The most insidious claim of the plan is that it is "revenue neutral." It is not even close. If you want to get ahead of the game on his tax plan, this is the study to read (pdf):

http://www.fairtaxblog.com/pdf/gale-william-retail-tax-rate.pdf

Posted by Anonymous | December 7, 2007 12:20 PM

As a presidential candidate, he's espousing a lunatic regressive tax scheme. His rivals attack him for the former signs signs of pragmatism and reasonableness

Well it's a lot more work to explain why the "fair tax" is so ridiculous, so it's easier to just call him a tax-raiser. Different means to the same end.

Huckabee seems like a decent guy but that tax proposal is so nuts it him more terrifying than any of the other Republicans (except Giuliani, of course).

Posted by right | December 7, 2007 12:30 PM

It's not so much that Huckabee raised taxes as that Huckabee raised taxes to pay for unnecessary state programs that only he wanted--like the one a young woman complained about in the youtube debate. More recently, he (like another "compassionate conservative") promised to waste American wealth on a star trek to Mars.

Well it's a lot more work to explain why the "fair tax" is so ridiculous, so it's easier to just call him a tax-raiser. Different means to the same end.

Agreed. It takes much more than a thirty-second attack ad or a pamphlet to explain the creation and effects of black markets and the weird "fair tax" curve (down, up, down). Not to mention scientology and its war with the IRS.

Posted by Shinyk | December 7, 2007 2:02 PM

Yes, Mike Huckabee governed the same state as Bill Clinton!

Well, the Swift Boaters made a lot of hay out of their members who had "served on the same boat as John Kerry", just not at the same time, so it's an angle with a pedigree.

Posted by DonBoy | December 7, 2007 4:23 PM

Meanwhile, some people on both sides of the divide write of him as not really a fiscal conservative.

Some have claimed that makes him more of a threat to the Democrats than Rudy or Mitt would be.

As though he were a liberal on the money and class war stuff, as any Democrat would be, but also a social conservative, as no Democrat would be.

Perfect, supposedly, for Joe Sixpack who wants his values affirmed and his pension protected.

Posted by Gaius Gracchus | December 8, 2007 10:49 AM