Mullets don’t grow on trees, ya know.
Of the last 10 or so amendments that were ratified, how many did the president play a “major role”? I know the last one where the president tried to play a major role (DOMA into the constitution) failed miserably.
I don’t know. I’ll admit I screwed up here: I forgot the president does not have a formal role in making amendments and can’t veto them. So at least in the most literal sense, Skammer’s right. Huckabee can’t amend the Constitution. That being said, his words were “we need […] to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards.” The fact that he doesn’t have a Constitutional role and could only do things like endorse the amendment, campaign for it, and try to win votes from the public and Congress doesn’t prove Huckabee does not actually support changing the Constitution so it better comport’s with “God’s standards.”
Just to be clear, I was only objecting your statement about the president playing a major role in amending the constitution. I don’t see much evidence that Huckabee was just pandering to the RR with that statement. I think he believes it. What it actually means, I don’t know. But I doubt I would agree with it.
Lincoln certainly used all the persuasive power of his office to ensure that the 13th Amendment passed both houses of Congress, and he actually signed it before the Secretary of State sent it to the states for consideration, the only amendment that the President signed. It had no legal or constitutional effect, of course, but it certainly helped the cause for ratification to show that the President was putting the full weight of his office in support of the amendment.
Let me be clear that I don’t support amending the Constitution for any reason that I have ever heard suggested, and I suspect that Huckabee is more conservative than I would be comfortable supporting. If he makes “change the constitution” a plank of his campaign platform, it’s a dealbreaker. But I don’t know how much weight to put in that one quote yet.
More to the point, on other issues lately he has seemed downright reasonable which has admittedly caught me off guard.
I fear I’m starting to think of Palin and her ilk as mainstream so that anyone smarter and kinder than she seems positively wonderful.
It’s a little dangerous.
I think I can speak for all of us native Texans here on the Boards in expressing our heartfelt encourgement as our Southern cousins progress, albeit feebly, in creating a cracker musical culture all their own, so that they need no longer envy the glow of Willy, Stevie Ray, and Townes.
The Stewart interview was kind of weird. Stewart takes Huckabee to task for the fact that Fox and other conservatives didn’t really report on the filibuster of the 9/11 responder bill the way they have for more silly 9-11 related outrage stories. Huckabee hems and haws for a bit, but then admits that they probably should report it more heavily.
But they both discuss it in the abstract, like its some decision by nameless conservative powers that be. Neither mention the fact that Huckabee actually has a show on Fox and a popular radio show as well. That the bill wasn’t being discussed on Fox was at least in part because Huckabee himself wasn’t discussing it. Or maybe he does, but then its bizarre that neither he or Stewart brought it up.
Also, I think he’s getting his weight back. Not a big deal, but given how much he made of his weightloss in the last set of primaries, you’d think if he were really planning on running again he’d make sure to keep the pounds off.
When Huckabee talks he its the right notes to reach out to some moderates, but his actions are another story. This is a guy who registered for wedding gifts years after getting married so that special interests groups could give him gifts; a guy who reliably pardoned prisoners if they claimed to find Christ (including someone who shot four police officers after his release), but did not pardon criminals who found salvation through other religions.
His cloaks some really ugly beliefs in folksy nonsense.
How much influence does the President really have over Constitutional amendments? I can understand the concern, but as long as the guy is willing to uphold and serve the Constitution as it is, rather than as he wants it to be, it’s pretty inconsequential really. Almost the equivalent of someone saying "A catholic would listen to what the Pope says, don’t be deceived by their folksy charm’. There’s a pretty big ‘so what?’ lurking in the statement…
He’s talking about amending the Constitution. That’s not incompatible with serving and upholding it.
It’s not remotely equivalent. ‘Kennedy will take orders from the Pope’ was a slur based on the candidate’s faith. With Huckabee, we’re talking about a candidate saying the Constitution should be amended. That’s a policy position. He doesn’t get very specific about how he would like it to be amended, but it’s not a comment on his faith, it’s a comment about something he said he wants to do if elected.He later said he meant he supports Constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage and outlawing abortion.
I have big problems with the amendments he apparently favors, but I don’t see how advocating to amend the Constitution is incompatible with serving and upholding it. After all, there is a legitimate amendment process spelled out within the Constitution.
And again, the President serves no role in the amendment process other than that of cheerleader.
Yes, but you should care what he would like to do with that amendment process. He’s on record as wanting to amend the Constitution so that it meets the standards of a fictional character. That should be cause for concern.
I did not say it was incompatible with upholding the Constitution. I meant was dangerous to amend the Constitution to favor the Christian religion. Christians may disagree, so it is probably a partisan objection.
Huckabee also defended Rev. Wright.
I’ll never forgive him for pardoning that cop-killing asshole. I hope the guilt keeps him up every night.
If you’re talking about Clemmons, Huckabee didn’t pardon him. He commuted his sentence from something like 100 years to 40 years, which made him eligible for parole. He was paroled soon after that. If you think Huckabee should be tormented about that, I won’t argue with you. But other people share responsibility for that decision.
Not so; Stewart specifically made the point that Huckabee had a Fox show and encouraged him (not particularly strongly or directly, admittedly) to go back to Fox and push for their support.
The entire population of the rest of the planet?