Republicans' Faith-Based Choice

The former Arkansas Governor, a Baptist minister, is becoming everybody’s favorite conservative, except for the Religious Right. Arguably the smartest and most personable of Republican Presidential contenders, Mike Huckabee is stuck in single digits and woeful campaign contribution numbers.

The reason may be his faith. After years of George Bush’s self-righteous religiosity, Republican true believers seem leery of Huckabee’s traditional approach to Christian values that calls for brotherhood and humility.

Unlike Bush, Huckabee grew up in poverty and embraced his religion from childhood, rather than as a middle-aged man grasping for salvation when his over-privileged life was falling apart.

Joe Klein of Time describes him as “a political inconvenience, a destroyer of stereotypes” with a new constituency of Second Commandment Christians who live by the Golden Rule and are “more interested in salvation than damnation.”

“I believe,” Huckabee told him, “that life begins at conception, but I don't believe it ends at birth. I believe we have a responsibility to feed the hungry, to provide a good education, a safe neighborhood, health care.”

In a recent Pew Center forum, moderated by Washington Post liberal columnist E. J. Dionne, he went beyond debate sound bites about evolution and explained his philosophy of governing.

“I was absolutely embarrassed and ashamed of my own government,” he said, “in the response to Katrina. I saw on TV people on the bridges of Interstate 10 stranded for days without water, and I thought...These were the neighbors just to the south of us in Louisiana...We were not going to allow them to be further traumatized, depersonalized and dehumanized by stacking them in some sports arena and calling that a rescue.”

Republican voters may still be too mesmerized by Bush’s fake piety to give Huckabee a fair hearing, but his showing in the Iowa straw poll suggests some are listening.

Back in January, Dionne called Huckabee “the brightest star among Republican presidential dark horses” who “has maintained what you might call loyal distance” from Bush’s Iraq disaster. Voters may begin to notice that, too.

Mitt Breaks Ranks

Among the minority of Americans who approve of George W. Bush and his Congressional allies are a lot of likely voters in Republican primaries, a fact that has kept the ’08 candidates toeing the party line. But this weekend, Mitt Romney is breaking ranks.

In a New Hampshire ad, he says, “Washington is busy pointing fingers, assigning blame, and spending too much money. There is too much talk and too little action.

"The blame, we must admit, does not belong to just one party. If we're going to change Washington, Republicans have to put our own house in order...We can't have ethical standards that are a punch line for Jay Leno."

In the Republican campaign thus far, Romney has been like the rich kid sent to a school where the tough guys steal your lunch money. Giuliani is head of the terrorist fighter gang, Fred Thompson is the cool one and McCain is leading what’s left of the Iraq warriors, so what’s an outsider to do?

In Michigan this weekend, Romney tried to rouse party activists with such criticisms as pointing out that, during the cleanup after Hurricane Katrina, “it didn't look like Republicans were in charge."

So far, his apostasy has failed to shake up the faithful who may see him as less of a savior than a scold. But, with a long way to go in the polls and lots of money for advertising, it will be interesting to see if the man who saved the Olympics can do the same for his campaign.