The Voice Of One Crying Out In Suburbia

Mike makes NRO mad part deux

More National Review attacks on Mike Huckabee. With an editorial disdainfully titled: "The Problem With Pastor Mike", Peter Wehner castigates Huckabee for his opinions in Foreign Affairs as being "fundamentally unserious":

The role of commander-in-chief is the most important one we look to in a president, particularly when America is at war. Governor Huckabee’s article in Foreign Affairs, while fine (if largely conventional) in some respects, is fundamentally unserious; on national security matters, he is likewise. And when the final votes are tallied in the GOP race, Mike Huckabee’s words, on these issues and others, will cost him.

Was President Bush "serious" about foreign policy? He could barely pronounce many of the names of their leaders.

Wehner's post is full of arrogant snippets that paint Huckabee as a foreign policy idiot: "Governor Huckabee also seems ignorant about the extent of cooperation that, on a daily basis, is garnered for the war against militant Islam. ", "Does he know (or care) that the United States won the unanimous approval of the U.N. Security Council for Resolution 1441" and "Is Huckabee unaware of all the other options on the table, which Iran has so far rejected?". The whole article is liberally (no pun intended) sprinkled with "Pastor Mike" as a pejorative. Odd that referring to someone as "Pastor" would be seen as an insult from an ostensibly conservative writer. His big concern seems to be that Huckabee recognizes that, rightly or wrongly, much of the world looks at the USA as arrogant, that the war in Iraq has been handled poorly (the cause is absolutely right, the execution has been not so much) and that we have made a myriad of mistakes in foreign policy. My hope would be that Huckabee or whichever Republican was elected would surround himself with a solid foreign policy team that will absolutely stand for American sovereignty but also recognize that there are other countries in the world. I personally am in favor of booting the UN out of New York, but I am also not running for Commander-in-Chief.

To jump on Wehner's hyperbole bandwagon, perhaps Hillary or even Bill Richardson would better suit him as a candidate, both being more "fundamentally serious" about foreign issues? Of course that is silly and unfair, but such assertions seem fair game for Mr. Whener, including this doozie: "Would Huckabee base his foreign-policy decisions on how our actions poll in Waziristan or Gaza under Hamas, or in madrasas throughout the Middle East? Based on his Foreign Affairs essay, it’s reasonable to believe he might." What ever happened the the 11th Commandment of the GOP? Those types of comments are just silly and unworthy of an august publication like National Review, and indicate that it may just be Wehner, not Huckabee, who is "fundamentally unserious".

I believe that President Bush is the source of much of the angst among the National Review crowd. They allowed us our candidate once and he was a disappointment in many areas they find important. Of course he is a disappointment to many of us as well. Spending is out of control and the war has been handled poorly. Most social conservative are also fiscal conservatives and we recognize that there need to be changes, and soon. But I quite frankly don't trust Rudy or Romney to nominate an acceptable nominee for the almost inevitable Supreme Court vacancies. We are very close to be able to overturn Roe V. Wade, and we are also on the tipping point of losing that chance if a conservative Justice retires or dies.

It seems to me that because Bush came across as a man of deep and open faith, perhaps not as savvy as some but a genuine person, Huckabee reminds old school conservative of him and that leads to distrust. Certainly being Governor of Arkansas is not the ideal training for a foreign policy leader, but if he will surround himself with the right advisers he should be fine. Better a man of honest and sincere social conservative values than a man who has either rejected those same values (Rudy) or has flip flopped on them when it was politically expedient (Romney)