The lesson for today is: Never get on the Club for Growth's bad side.
Presidential candidate Gov. Mike Huckabee has been feuding all year with the Club for Growth, a tax-cuts and free-market group, over Huckabee's record during 10 years as governor of Arkansas.
Today, the Club fires its funniest shot yet -- a Web site devoted solely to blasting Huckabee's record on tax cuts and what they view as anti-economic growth stances.
The Huckabee-Club feud has spilled over into the presidential debates, the Iowa airwaves, Huckabee's own television appearances, local news coverage in Arkansas and the first of the Club's series of reports digging into candidates' economic records.
Huckabee deviates from the standard Republican message that the economy is booming and helping to raise everyone's boat, instead saying that he sees those who are being left behind. And he tells audiences he's lived it himself -- he delights in telling how he grew up so poor his family used Lava soap, and he says it wasn't until he was older that he realized taking a shower wasn't supposed to hurt.
But it doesn't appear to be hurting. Even as the fire from the economic right increases, so do Huckabee's polling numbers.
-- Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times
Comments (5)
Does anyone even take the Club for Growth seriously anymore? This latest gag is laughable, just like when they spent $100,000 on negative attack ads against Huckabee in Iowa, only to see him make headlines with his strong second-place finish in the Ames Straw Poll.
They don't even try to hide their irrational hatred for Huckabee. Back in January, when he was pulling just 1 percent in the polls, they released their very first white paper report attacking him.
Please, give me a break.
Posted by Joe | September 12, 2007 2:19 PM
Club for Growth comes across as an organization with an irrational grudge. They give credit to Giuliani and Romney for having to govern in a very liberal environment (New York City and Massachusetts), but give absolutely no credit to Huckabee for governing a state where nearly 9 out of 10 legislators were democrats. Grow up Club for Growth.
Posted by Jake Benson | September 12, 2007 3:53 PM
This is slightly off-topic, but people need to hear about it.
The Presidency is up for sale on eBay. Some clever hoaxter has taken Romney up on his challenge and listed the Presidency at a starting bid of $20,000,000:
VIEW EBAY LISTING HERE.
Remember the guy who tried to sell his soul on eBay? It was huge news. This could be same.
Keep Updated Here.
Posted by Jake Benson | September 12, 2007 7:50 PM
Instead of increasing taxes we need to decrease government. The economy has been doing pretty good for the past seven years without a functional Congress.
Posted by Larry Stone | September 13, 2007 2:30 AM
Maintaining high spending levels combined with low levels of taxation is irresponsible. The previous Republican Congress and this Republican president are both irresponsible on that count. The Reagan, Clinton and Bush II administrations all showed that the American public wants high levels of spending from government, but doesn't seem to connect this spending to any need to pay for it. Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Bush One tried to exercise fiscal restraint, and they were one - term presidents. So, the political lesson is clear. Supposedly this was why the founders wanted a Republican form of government, so that the passions of the people would not prevail over responsible government. Congress needs to make tough chcices about spending priorities instead of pretending to be Santa Claus 365 days a year. But if fiscal conservatism is political suicide, then government should at least pay for what it spends to avoid bankrupting the nation.
Posted by George Robertson | September 13, 2007 2:37 AM