On Christmas Day in 800 A.D., Carolus Magnus knelt in prayer at St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. While he knelt, eyes closed in prayer, Pope Leo III placed upon his head a crown. The man known as Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, would later decry that, had he known Pope Leo's plan he never would have attended the service. By his actions, Pope Leo created the perception that Charlemagne's power was derived from the church, thus establishing a tradition whereby any future emperors could only attain the title with the blessings of the church.
As Mark Twain once said, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
Fast-forward 1,207 years and another man who would be king faces a very similar dilemma. Mike Huckabee would like to be President, but Pope Limbaugh I isn't impressed.
Huckabee is "moving to the middle," because he's moving to the middle, he's abandoning what? The right. He'll stick solid on certain things on the right because he knows that he is attracting a portion of the population based on religious and moral and ethical values, which is fine, but on some of these other areas that also define conservatism like taxes and so forth, he doesn't have the pedigree.
Huckabee's sin?
He was an absolute "disaster" on immigration as governor
I have nothing against Mike Huckabee personally other than he is for exercise, and I'm not.
When I raise questions about, say, about Governor Huckabee's positions on illegal aliens, tax increases, the release of hundreds of criminals via pardon and his rhetoric about our war effort, sorry, I'm trying to develop an understanding of the guy so I can determine for myself whether he is in fact the kind of conservative you and me want as our president?
it raised eyebrows among longtime school-choice advocates when the New Hampshire NEA endorsed Huckabee.
One can see why [Mike Huckabee] would appeal to evangelicals. He's a pro-life Southern Baptist minister with charm, wit and a good-ol'-boy, yuck-it-up style. Yet this resplendent exterior only serves to obscure the stain of liberal sin.
In other words
Huckabee's record was in Arkansas, there's a lot of liberalism in there. There certainly isn't a lot of Reaganism in there
Yes, my friends, you read that correctly. Mike Hucakbee's problem is that he's too liberal. Heavy is the head that would wear the crown.
And that more or less has to be the cherry atop the whipped cream of the sundae that is the GOPs primary nukular war. Fun though it is to call each other "sellouts" and "f*&kholes" for our chosen Democratic Presidential candidate, you should really take a moment to step back and marvel at how great it is NOT to be them. I mean, how hard can it be to find someone willing to be a complete dick both economically and socially?
And therein lies the problem. Guiliani and Romney fit the bill economically, but you've got to suspend a lot of social disbelief if you're a conservative (and God help you if you are). Romney fits the social bill, but looks more to conservatives like Jimmy Carter than Ronaldus Maximus. McCain "sold out" the GOP during the "Gang of 14" debacle, and Fred Thompson committed the cardinal sin of coming up empty on a Clinton investigation. Well, that and he can't seem to stay awake long enough to tell anybody where he stands socially and economically.
That makes this primary season less about candidate preference and more about who controls the soul of the GOP. If Guiliani wins, then the fiscal conservatives still steer the ship. If Huckabee wins, then the social fringe controls the party. And if Romney wins...well, then the Muppets control the party.
As recently as last week I would have said that the primary was over and that Huckabee was going to run away with it. That was before Rush's decree. Now, Huckabee can forget it. When the Pope tells you no, you can forget about being the Holy American Emperor.
How much power does this negative endorsement carry, you may ask? Consider this HI-larious exchange:
ALLER: Hey, I'm a Huckabee guy, but I'm thinking about switching.
RUSH: You're a Huckabee guy, but you're thinking about switching. Why?
Seriously, you will not believe this answer. You know how dittoheads get all apoplectic whenever people accuse them of being mind-numbed robots? How they bristle at the suggestion that they just do whatever the right-wing noise machine tells them to do?
Just tell them to click here next time they ask why you think that...
I don't know. All my people -- Ann Coulter, Peggy Noonan all those people -- are, I don't know, they don't like him, and I don't know. All the stuff is starting to come out against him. It's starting to make me nervous. (nervous laugh)
Yup. There it is. The transitive property of dittiotism - "Ann Coulter doesn't like 'x', Rush doesn't like 'x', I like Rush and Ann, therefore I must not like 'x'." Hearing someone preach the stereotype, Rush tells the caller not to let other people tell him what to think...by telling the caller what to think!
RUSH: Well, that's what campaigns are for: examining people's positions on things. But I would make up your own mind. I wouldn't listen to influential figures to shape and form your mind for you. It might send you in a direction your curiosity would take you, but I think maybe some people that you think and respect were not on board when you were caused to actually start looking, and that's why you know what some of these positions are that you now think, "Wow, I didn't know that." Right?
Right!? RIGHT!?!? We don't tell you what to think, RIGHT!?!?!?!?!?
CALLER: Right. I think some of it is like the last campaign where everybody bailed out on Howard Dean because they thought he was kooky -- well, he was kooky. They thought he was unelectable, and I don't want to do that. I don't want to just jump at somebody that I think can win but doesn't necessarily line up with what I believe.
There's another favorable comparison. "Huckabee is like Howard Dean." What's next, Ross Perot?
That's the light at the end of the tunnel, and I think identity politics was a fundamental feature of the Perot campaign as well. People really didn't even care what his policies were. He didn't even have to articulate policies. Remember that? So, I see some similarities here in the Huckabee campaign and Perot.
While we're at it, let's got for a crazy trifecta – show me "Huckabee is like Jimmy Carter!!!!"
If you look at Huckabee in an identity sense and yet at the same time you really think illegal immigration is destroying this country, then your identity association with Huckabee as a Christian likely will make you overlook the fact that he's opposite your belief on illegal immigration. Jimmy Carter was a Southern Baptist and he ran on that and he tried to capitalize on that. He ran on the religious identity, too.
So, there you have it. The current GOP front runner and media darling is like Ross Perot, Jimmy Carter, and Howard Dean. I can tell you this, you didn't hear Pope Leo III running around saying, "hey, I don't endorse Emperor's, but you've really got to take a look at this Charles guy before we appoint him Holy Roman Emperor. I mean, he's no Pippin the Short! Seriously, his idea of immigration reform was to dump Gerberga on Desiderata. And you don't even want to know where he stands on the Diet of Paderborn. And what about his parenting skills? Pippin the Hunchback, anyone?"
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What? ... Too soon? ... Too obscure? It's okay. Wiki it later. It's funny. Trust me.
Anyway, the point is that the tradition of the Pope bestowing power upon the Emperor continued until December 2nd, 1804 when Napoleon Bonaparte copied Charlemagne's coronation ceremony in every detail except one – when Pope Pious VII approached with the crown, Napoleon snatched it out of his hand. The message? "Authority is mine to take, not yours to give."
If Huckabee somehow manages to win the nomination without the 'establishment support' of the Limbaughs of the world then truly...Mike Huckabee is like Napoleon.