The American Spectator

Rush, Sean, and Laura are busting a gut over McCain with an intensity I cannot feel for any politician. As Samuel Johnson said, “How small, of all that human hearts endure,/That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!” Still, McCain will have to attend to the conservative wing of the party if he is to be successful in the fall.

McCAIN IS THE PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE of the Republican Party, but one candidate still remains on the field.

I had never seriously considered supporting Governor Mike Huckabee even though I appreciated, still do, his general demeanor and good humor. I once heard Bill Clinton praise Huckabee, describing him as “conservative, but he’s not mad at anyone about it” or words to that effect. That’s about right. He is someone you can have over for dinner without worrying that he will smash the china or chew you out for deviationism.

The criticisms of Huckabee by the Club for Growth do not ring true to me. The Arkansas Governor does not look like a man dying to raise taxes, notwithstanding court orders and balanced-budget amendments at the state level that might have constrained him back home. Having worked in state governments for thirteen years, I can tell you that only the Feds can use deficit spending as an escape hatch. Indeed, McCain is more likely to roll over on the expiration of the Bush tax cuts than would Huckabee.

Huckabee is rock solid on social issues and speaks for that wing of the GOP with a clear voice, even for Catholics who might not share his biblical fundamentalism.

Governor Huckabee’s article in Foreign Affairs magazine struck me as a reasonable, responsible statement of a realistic, values-based foreign policy than anything I have heard from any of the other leading candidates to date. Huckabee claims that “…my administration recognizes that the United States’ main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists.” He embraced the Powell doctrine, praised the prophetic General Eric Shinseki, and argued for putting other options on the table with respect to Iran, not just the military one.

Governor Huckabee would make a fine vice president on the GOP ticket. Forgive my mixed metaphors, but he would add ballast to the ship and serve as a gyroscope for the dashing fighter pilot at the top of the ticket.