Yes, the trouble is that he uses the preacher's trick of pandering to the perceived prejudices of the audience at hand without reference to the wider community. This is the opposite of the politics of triangulation.

When such remarks are interpreted as a call to political action, then he comes off sounding like more of an idiot than he really is.

For further reference see former presidential candidate Pat Robertson [Party of God].

Republicans are for states rights on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and for federal intervention on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

No one actually likes states' rights. It's just one of those things you have to talk about to let people know you're a "real" conservative.

It's like secret code. Thunder.... CLAP.

Ok, it's safe, he's on our side!

"You don't like people outside the state telling you how you ought to raise your kids."

Unless you're gay

"we'd tell 'em where to put the pole."

So, gay sex is out, animal sex is out, but sex with poles is goverment sanctioned

The Supreme Court did the presto-changeo federalism in Bush v. Gore in 2000 -- the case before Gore, they favored states' rights. Then came Gore, when they reversed their states' rights stand and gave Bush the Presidency. And the very next ruling, they were for states' rights again. Funny, that. They're shameless about it, but that's the way of the hardcore ideologue -- if a switcheroo brings a gain for your side, you make the switch. That's how they play it. Forget any notions of honor or consistency or integrity. Selective federalism is just another weapon in the GOP's mendacious ideological arsenal.

But War Room doesn't post an article about that.

But it bothers me a lot more when Republicans do it...

The more Huckleberry Hound opens his piehole, the more everyone outside of the batshit insane evangelical community realizes this guys is, well, batshit insane. That is why I will now do my best Brer Rabbit impression:

"Oh no, Mistah RNC, please don' throw me into dat dere briar patch ova dere, and please don' make Mistah Mike Huckabee da Republicacious nominee for President. No! Don' do it! Have mercy!"

Making this Dominionist hayseed the GOP choice for Resident would be the gosh-darn nicest gift thinking Americans have received since...ever, I guess. I tingle at the potential to bury the Repugnant party until about 2050.

Zip-ah-dee-doo-dah, motherfucker.

I can't think of a nicer sight than Huckabee being greated by a sea of proudly waving Confederate flags as he campaigns through the south. I sure hope it happens.

Hell, everybody's for state's rights, until the states don't do what they want. Then, they expect the Feds to step in. It's a vice that's pretty universal and knows no party boundary. Nor does hypocrisy on the issue.

But it would be more decorous if the Huckster would wait a day or so before switching sides of his mouth.

What Gomer (or is it Goober?) forgets is that for most of the country, and much of the rest of the world, the Confederate flag is the American equivalent of a swastika.

It deserves to be treated as such. The "noble heritage" the secessionists took up arms against their countrymen for consists in large part of owning other humans as property. Something to be proud of? Something to venerate? Something to memorialize?

Get over yourselves, Southerners, it's something to be consigned to the trash heap of long-gone bad ideas.

Post-WWII Germany had the right idea and made Nazi swastika displays illegal. They, at least, showed they could learn from their mistakes.

Be careful what you wish for. We've seen what a combination of strategically placed relatives, state officials with flagrant partisan conflicts of interests, the Diebold corporation, the U.S. Supreme Court, and Mafia-connected pols in Ohio can do with the will of the majority of the voters.

I do not support Huckabee in any way. But to be fair, the whole Right Wing is composed of fair weather federalists. Consider how many Federalist Society members have fought against allowing state courts to hear tort cases against big business, or fought for the federal government's right to spy, lock people away without trial, etc.

just how many of our politicians have actually bothered to read the Bill of Rights, one of the most radical documents ever published. Each of the amendments limits the power of governments and expands the rights of the individuals. Really, truly, honestly. Just read the damn document. And by the way, states don't have rights; states have powers. People have rights.

I caught Fred "I'd screw a donut and be angry if it gave me a hard way to go" Thompson in one of the debates asserting that the only rights the American people had were the ones enumerated in the Constitution. False. Fred should read (for the first time?) the ninth and tenth amendments.

The ninth: In addition, The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

The tenth: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Mike Huckabee is the logical culmination of the long history of Republican pandering to the religious right that dates back to Saint Ronnie. After all these years, the flat-earthers are no longer willing to give up their votes for nothing; now they want to put one of their own in charge of the party.

We should all be very, very quiet (maybe not in Salon, since so few of the Huckabites can read compound sentences) until after the convention.

I would like to call them at their bluff. Simply let each of the 50 states secede and do away with the nation formerly known as the United States.

SINNER!

While your busy telling others how to live biblically, you'd better brush up on the parts about cutting your beard and sideburns, ya fuckin pandering hypocrite.

The easiest thing to do in the morning is not shave, like the bible tells you. I guess that's one of the parts of the bible Huckabee believes he's exempt from.

You went out of your way to sin first thing this morning Mike.