Schlafly on Huckabee: Destroyed Conservatism in Ark.

If you've read this blog for long, or talked to me personally in recent weeks about presidential candidates, you know I'm not the adoring fan of Mike Huckabee that many of my "values voter" friends are.

Today, John Fund's Wall Street Journal column reveals more of why I am not:

But I also know he is not the "consistent conservative" he now claims to be.

Nor am I alone. Betsy Hagan, Arkansas director of the conservative Eagle Forum and a key backer of his early runs for office, was once "his No. 1 fan." She was bitterly disappointed with his record. "He was pro-life and pro-gun, but otherwise a liberal," she says. "Just like Bill Clinton he will charm you, but don't be surprised if he takes a completely different turn in office."

Phyllis Schlafly, president of the national Eagle Forum, is even more blunt. "He destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles," she says. "Yet some of the same evangelicals who sold us on George W. Bush as a 'compassionate conservative' are now trying to sell us on Mike Huckabee."

Phyllis Schlafly is a hero and icon in conservative circles; I saw powerful people stand in awe of her over the weekend at the Washington Briefing. I hope they will listen to her on this.

Also consider this:

"He has zero intellectual underpinnings in the conservative movement," says Blant Hurt, a former part owner of, and columnist for, Arkansas Business magazine. "He's hostile to free trade, hiked sales and grocery taxes, backed sales taxes on Internet purchases, and presided over state spending going up more than twice the inflation rate."

I'm not a big fan of "free trade" myself, preferring something like "fair trade" where American businesses and workers aren't left high and dry in the global market. But I most assuredly am not a tax-and-spender as Huckabee appears to be.

Even Rick Scarborough, who supports Huckabee, admits in the article: "Mike has always sought the validation of elites." I believe this adolescent tendency by many in politics is why the Left enjoys so much dominance--so many are seeking the approval of Leftist elites.

And finally:

Many Huckabee supporters have told me their man should be judged by what he's saying on the campaign trail today. Fair enough. Mr. Huckabee was the only GOP candidate to refuse to endorse President Bush's veto of the Democrats' bill to vastly expand the Schip health-care program. Only he and John McCain have endorsed the discredited cap-and-trade system to limit global-warming emissions that has proved a fiasco in Europe.

"What he's saying on the campaign trail today" is exactly what we SHOULDN'T be judging Huckabee on. Words are cheap; deeds are what count. For Huckabee to trash immigration controls in practice, then come on to values voters last weekend like he just arrived from a Minuteman seminar was not only disappointing, it ticked me off pretty good. I can stand disagreeing with someone, but if you lie and pander to me, that's a quick way to get on my bad side. (I told a friend Saturday night that, oddly, I walked away from Giuliani's speech with far more respect and good will than I did Huckabee's--but I still won't support Giuliani).

We've had far too much big-spending and Leftist compromise out of George Bush. It sounds like Huckabee is cut out of that mold, and then some. We don't need more of that. We need a candidate that's going to lead this nation in the right direction, and while Huckabee would undoubtedly be better than any of the Democrat candidates, are we really looking for a "better than so-and-so" candidate?

Or are we looking for someone who will lead the United States boldly back to the values and solid foundation of fiscal and personal responsibility that built the greatest nation on earth?