Mike Huckabee is about as conservative as they come. But as a former governor of Arkansas, he knows a thing or two about governing and he blasted the intransigent Republicans who are holding the U.S. economy hostage – along with their enabling talk show hosts, such as Sean Hannity - with both barrels this weekend.
In the commentary part of his show last night (and reran tonight) Huckabee said:
Having run for office, served in office and been a talk show host talking about those who serve in office, I can tell you that the easiest of those is being a talk show host. You see, I get to take a stand, I get to fully control the debate and I can change the subject whenever I want to. I’ve got no responsibility for the outcome of my ideas should they be embraced and adopted. The solutions that I push for on radio and TV don’t have to work. I can be absolutely absolute about how right I am because no one gets to hold me accountable.
Huckabee went on to say that governing is “hard, very hard” and noted that he had had to work with a very large majority of Democrats in both the Arkansas House and Senate when he was governor. “I didn’t have a legislature that was looking for ways to make me look good,” he said. Therefore, he not only had to come up with good legislation, he also “had to sell it to people who did not have a natural interest in wanting to pass it.”
Huckabee continued:
This week, most of the Republican callers to my radio show supported the shutdown and the showdown. One of them said it best. He said, ‘We sent those guys to Washington to take a stand.’ That’s when I realized, Houston, we’ve got a problem.
Because, no, we didn’t send those guys to Washington to ‘take a stand.’ We sent them to govern. You see, it’s really easy to take a stand. Heck, you don’t even have to go to the trouble of running for office or serving as an elected official. On radio and TV, I take a stand every day. You can take a stand by raising your voice on the Capitol steps but to make a real change, you’ve got to get inside that building and have a vote.
I can raise Cain as a talk show host. But to raise up test scores, create jobs, or build roads and reform prisons, I had to govern. And unless the numbers are all on your side, you are not going to get everything you want.
…When I cook barbecue ribs, I cook them on low heat and I cook them slow to make them fall off the bone, real tender. ‘Cause good cooking is not done over an explosion but over a steady heat.
You know, we’ve seen people in Washington taking a stand, but the question is, are they governing? Most people don’t care about the process in the kitchen. They care about the finished product. Governing is about mastering the process so the product will nourish and not make us sick.
I’ve come to the conclusion that some of the politicians would be better as talk show hosts and some of the talk show hosts ought to run for office and find out what it’s really about.
Well said, Mr. Huckabee. Let's hope Senators Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, their House hostage taking BFFs and the likes of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh will listen.
At the same time, I’d also say that Huckabee is quite aware that Ted Cruz is potentially aiming for Huckabee’s position at Fox News, so this is also a preemptive shot to defuse that.
And the really bold move by Cruz and his friends to go after the GOP Senators who voted for cloture is the one that may be the petard that hoists him. The fact that Cruz was willing to turn on Republicans in a public and nasty fashion is the straw that is clearly too much for more centrist GOP members to stomach.
Rep. Steve King, Bernie Goldberg, and now Hucky have spoken up against that nut, Rafael and his radical followers.
Get ready folks. The GOP Civil War will get nastier in 2014. A house divided can not survive.
Purchase your popcorn in bulk. Showdown between the Tea Pots, conservatives and moderates will be a nasty battle.