Huckabee Comes Out Against Torture
Mike Huckabee's Republican opponents might have found a new wedge issue they can use against him. The Washington Post notes that Huckabee came out of a recent meeting with John McCain and a group of retired generals, now firmly opposed to waterboarding and in favor of closing the prison camp at Guantanamo.
It's hardly the sort of position that would appeal to the dominant Jack Bauer sensibilities of the modern GOP. By contrast, Mitt Romney has denounced the idea of affording any Constitutional protections to terror detainees, praised the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" on Khalid Sheik Muhammad, and has even said he wants to "double Guantanamo."
Comments (7)
TheraP wrote on December 4, 2007 12:28 PM:Good. For whatever reason. Good!
DTM wrote on December 4, 2007 12:53 PM:Something tells me Huckabee's equation is:
Thompson supporters plus McCain supporters is greater than Giuliani supporters or Romney supporters.
Genghis wrote on December 4, 2007 2:39 PM:I dunno, DTM. Maybe it's all calculated, and Huckabee's just better at appearing principled than Romney, but this isn't the first un-Republican position he's taken, as opposed to Romney, who seems to have memorized the 2004 Republican Platform and spouts it like a proud schoolboy.
I don't know which is worse, a right-wing conservative who occasionally shows common sense or a moderate conservative who shamelessly panders to right wing senselessness. I suppose neither one is as bad as our current right-wing and common-sense-deprived president. Let's just keep hoping that it's none-of-the-above in 2008.
Genghis,
I don't know what Huckabee really believes, but at least on Gitmo this is a change of positions, and on waterboarding he has been equivocal. And it is a little too obvious to me that if he knocks out Romney in Iowa, the obvious beneficiary might be McCain in NH.
Michael A wrote on December 4, 2007 3:28 PM:It really, really is depressing that in the 21st century United States of America we are debating about torture and habeas corpus and secret prisons and not giving people a fair trial or any trial at all. I just can't believe it sometimes. Is this all a dream?
Genghis wrote on December 4, 2007 3:44 PM:Just seems to me that he stands little to gain and much to lose by appearing "soft on terror" to Republican voters. And McCain's getting thumped. I wouldn't count him out yet, but I wouldn't base on election strategy around a McCain comeback either.
As governors, neither Huckabee nor Romney toed the party line, but while Huckabee has, for the most part, stood by his choices, Romney has eschewed every moderate position he has ever taken.
Maybe it's all brilliantly subtle political calculation on Huckabee's part, but at least it's not demagoguery.
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