So the idea is an old one.
If one has a rep as Not Rush, or worse, as a Moderate Not Rush,
try to be More Conservative Than Rush.
Governor Mike Huckabee, whose much ballyhooed moderate talk
radio show challenge to Rush Limbaugh was widely presented
as the “safe, non-dangerous alternative” to Rush, has apparently
had some ratings trouble. Or, as we have noted, his success would
be promoted everywhere. This ratings problem, one suspects,
is something along the lines of the same way the Titanic
had an ice problem.
So… if the moderate, safe approach to Rush isn’t working — and
as noted in the link above there has been radio silence about the
Huck’s ratings — bailing faster while steering away from the
iceberg might appear as an alternative. To wit: Suddenly become
“non-safe” and “dangerous.”
In this case, Huckabee has abruptly changed course to stake all
by identifying with Chick-fil-A. The Chick-fil-A folks have run
afoul of the
same-sex marriage supporters.
The Huck has suddenly jumped into the fray. Calling for
everybody to eat at Chick-fil-A on August 1. And what happened in
response?
Yesssirrrreee. The Governor has found out just how faithful his
liberal fans are when he’s under fire.
Here’s a take down from the Washington Post’s Dana
Milbank
What is…ahhhh…curious here?
What is at issue in the Chick-fil-A dust up? Right —
gays. The company is being pictured as hostile to gays because of
its stance on gay marriage. So The Huck noisily jumps in to
defend them.
But wait!
What about that New York Times Magazine
interview with the Huck and Timsester Andrew Goldman that
we cited in our July 12th piece that is linked above?
While we focused on the section of the interview that was
relevant to the Huckabee challenge to Rush, there was something
else said in that interview that looks mighty curious in light of
the sudden Huckabee defense of Chick-fil-A. Here it is, from the
transcript, word for word:
Goldman: During the Republican primary debates,
audience members booed a question from an active serviceman who was
gay and shouted, “Let him die,” about a hypothetical gravely ill
patient without insurance. Is this different from the party that
you know and love?
Huckabee: Very much. It’s one of the reasons
that I did not think this was a good time to run. The atmosphere
was so toxic that it would not be an atmosphere in which I would
breathe well. There is almost a hyperorthodoxy that is gripping the
party that you have to go out and prove that you can be tougher,
meaner, more hard-line than anybody else on the stage. It may lead
to effective campaigning if the goal is to be the most ideological
puritan on the platform, but the ultimate goal is more of what I’d
call a true Reagan model. Not the Reagan model that has been
invoked — but Ronald Reagan who understood that governing is an
art.
Catch it?
Reporter Goldman paints a picture of the Republican Party as
viciously anti-gay. The predictable left-wing portrait of a group
of gay-baiting thugs. Precisely the image that is now being painted
of Chick-fil-A by its left-wing opponents.
And what was The Huck’s response? Did he rebuke the reporter?
Was there a staunch defense of the GOP as not anti-gay but simply
principled on the marriage issue? Did he defend the GOP and
conservatives as he is suddenly, loudly and on-air defending
Chick-fil-A?
Ah…um…no. Nope. Nada. Not a word.
Instead The Huck couldn’t agree fast enough to the question of
whether the GOP’s stance on same-sex marriage made the GOP
“different from the party that you know and love?” Again, he
said:
Very much. It’s one of the reasons that I did not think this was
a good time to run. The atmosphere was so toxic that it would not
be an atmosphere in which I would breathe well. There is almost a
hyperorthodoxy that is gripping the party that you have to go out
and prove that you can be tougher, meaner, more hard-line than
anybody else on the stage.
So.
The GOP — for opposing same-sex marriage — has a “toxic”
atmosphere. It is in the grip of a “hyperorthodoxy.” It takes
the stance it does to prove it can be “tougher, meaner, more
hard-line.”
But Chick-fil-A, for taking the exact same view as the GOP, is
now worthy of an all-out radio-noisy demand for support?
What is this?
Yes yes yes. It’s the old double-standard, sure.
But you know what I think?
I think the water is rapidly rising in the good talk radio ship
of the moderate Mike Huckabee.
And what this whole loud defense of Chick-fil-A is really all
about is a way, in the Huck mindset, to try and boost his ratings
with conservatives in his challenge to Rush.
He wouldn’t defend the GOP it when it would offend the
Times. But, the water rising on his radio show, he’ll do
it now for Chick-fil-A.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a small case study of just
how moderate Republicanism works.
And why millions of Americans listen to Rush Limbaugh — and not
Mike Huckabee.
Enough said.
