It was a short-lived love affair between me and Mike Huckabee. After one of my heroes and fellow Christians, Chuck Norris endorsed him for President, and seeing that he supports the Fairtax, I thought I’ll have to take a closer look. Well this slams that door shut.

Bryan Preston has a must read on Huckabee. Via Washington Post

After the Iowa poll showed that Republican voters like him but found him much less “presidential” and “electable” than Romney, Huckabee sought to build his foreign policy credentials, meeting with a group of retired generals who are in Des Moines to urge the 2008 candidates to commit to opposing torture. After the meeting, Huckabee joined Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in declaring his opposition to the interrogation procedure known as “waterboarding,” and said he would support closing the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a contrast with the other leading Republicans.

MIKE HUCKABEE: I’ve been to Guantanamo, I was there, I guess it’s been about a year and a half ago. I think the problem with Guantanamo is not in that its facilities are inadequate. It’s the symbol that it represents. It’s clearly become a symbol to the rest of the world as a place that has become problematic for us as a nation. I was quite frankly impressed with the quality of the facilities and even the attention to care that was given to the detainees, but that aside, it doesn’t alter that Guantanamo to the rest of the world is a symbol that is not in our best interests to continue pursuing.

Thought I have been critically observing Huckabee as his popularity rose, and found him lacking in many conservative areas, I was seriously considering giving him the benefit of the doubt on much of it. I was thinking that if it came to it I could pull the lever for him. Considering my own opinions on the war on terror and how it should be fought being the number one issue in my considerations, I will find that more difficult to do now.

Bryan Preston:

Ok, so now we know he wants to put the detainees at Leavenworth. If SCOTUS doesn’t grant them habeus corpus, that move is likely to as the nearest federal judge will have the ACLU camped out in his inbox. What then? And what happens when the Gitmo critics just move on to start criticizing us for holding the detainees at Leavenworth? The end result of Huckabee’s stance will be to grant the detainees full rights in US civilian courts, either that or freeing them, since he won’t take the stand that our detaining them at Gitmo is both lawful and humane and has established the precedent that he’ll retreat in the face of unfair and unreasonable criticism of the US.

Sorry, Governor, no sale here.

Ameripundit:

With any luck, this will be the end of Huck’s presidential chances.

Slublog:

Guantanamo is not a “symbol.” It’s a facility (and a relatively nice one, as far as detention centers go) where we keep people who have pledged to do us harm. If we close the facility and let these people go, some will keep their promises.

Flopping Aces:

He’s soft on immigration, soft on taxes, and apparently soft on our national security. How in the world is this guy rising in the polls?

Oh, and Gitmo has come to symoblize what’s gone wrong with the war on terror? Puhlease. If anything its come to symbolize that we treat those who should be shot better then how we treat our own criminals.

Paul at Powerline:

My main objection to Huckabee — the reason why he’s my fifth choice out of five — is that I lack confidence in his ability to fight terrorism. It’s not just that he lacks experience in this realm, though that’s certainly the case. The real problem is that he’s too moralistic (which is not the same thing as moral). My first clue came when he said during an early debate that we need to remain in Iraq because “we broke it.” Not because we need to defeat al Qaeda; not because we need to limit Iranian influence or avoid a devastating defeat at the hands of terrorists; but because we injured this formerly peaceful state. Huckabee’s exaltation of moralism (in this case dubious) over policy calculation was difficult to miss.

Now we learn (but are surprised) that Huckabee opposes waterboarding and would close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Huckabee reached this conclusion after meeting with a group of retired generals (the usual suspects, I assume) who are lobbying candidates to oppose Bush administration interrogation and detention policies.

Ace:

Huckabee is a smooth talker and charismatic. But I’d like to know why the Republican base is getting so enthusiastic over an unrepentant pro-amnesty guy and a dude who wants to shut down Guantanamo and outlaw waterboarding. And raise taxes, of course.

True enough, Giuliani, Romney, and McCain might split the party were they to gain the nomination. But wouldn’t Huckabee do so as well and perhaps much worse? I really can’t support a guy who takes the liberal position on several of my top issues.

The backlash begins! I agree. After combining all the liberal positions Huckabee is standing on…he won’t be getting much support from me either.

RWNH:

Fred Thompson is head and shoulders above Mike Huckabee when it comes to having a record of votes on fiscal policy that consistently prove his conservative beliefs. He has also fleshed out his positions on a number of issues with a tax plan and social security white paper that have been praised by conservatives across the country. Get past the charm, the unctuousness, and the corn pone manner and what you have in Huckabee is a big government conservative who looks suspiciously like George Bush did in 1999.

We don’t need another George Bush. We don’t need Mike Huckabee. What we need is someone who will fight for conservative principles in government and wear out a veto pen in nixing excessive spending and any increase in taxes proposed by a Democratic Congress.

Is that man Fred Thompson? I just don’t know about Fred. But I’m sure that if the GOP goes ahead and annoints Huckabee, the conservative movement in America will be set back as our once proud heritage of fiscal responsibility and support for smaller government will be trashed by another wolf in conservative raiment.

Jammie Wearin Fool:

Doesn’t sound like he will very tough on the terrorists now does it? At one time I thought Huck might be my man but in the last couple of weeks he has really shown his weaknesses. I am still holding onto Fred Thompson and I would like to learn more about Duncan Hunter. They may be the last chance of finding a conservative in this field of what appears to be RINO’s (Republican In Name Only)

Last chance? Haven’t they been they been the best chance all along?

X Posted at Stop the ACLU, written by Jay.