The Nigh Seen Creeder

The Associated Press says Mike Huckabee is making waves with quite a few Iowa Republicans:

"[T]he former Arkansas governor has a message that resonates with many Iowans. He is an ordained Baptist minister whose opposition to abortion and gay rights appeals to social and religious conservatives, and he has a personal story of losing more than 100 pounds that has helped form his stand on health care."

I've never been all that impressed with Mike Huckabee. Oh, sure, he's pro-life and he plays a mean bass guitar, but he's strayed from the Republican ranch way, way too many times over the years (witness his hiring of a Friend o' Don Sundquist, Chip Saltsman, as campaign manager).

But don't just take my word about Mike Huckabee's deficiencies as a true Republican. Check out John Fund's devastating article from yesterday's Wall Street Journal:

"Mr. Huckabee attributes his support to the fact he is a 'hardworking, consistent conservative with some authenticity about those convictions.' He is certainly qualified for national office, having served nearly 11 years as a chief executive. I have known and liked him for years; on the stump he often tells the story of how we first met outside his boarded-up office in the state Capitol, which had been sealed by Arkansas Democrats who refused to accept he had won an upset election for lieutenant governor in 1993. But I also know he is not the 'consistent conservative' he now claims to be.

"Nor am I alone. Betsy Hagan, Arkansas director of the conservative Eagle Forum and a key backer of his early runs for office, was once 'his No. 1 fan.' She was bitterly disappointed with his record. "He was pro-life and pro-gun, but otherwise a liberal," she says. 'Just like Bill Clinton he will charm you, but don't be surprised if he takes a completely different turn in office.'

"Phyllis Schlafly, president of the national Eagle Forum, is even more blunt. 'He destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles,' she says. 'Yet some of the same evangelicals who sold us on George W. Bush as a compassionate conservative are now trying to sell us on Mike Huckabee.'

"The business community in Arkansas is split. Some praise Mr. Huckabee's efforts to raise taxes to repair roads and work with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature. Free-market advocates are skeptical. 'He has zero intellectual underpinnings in the conservative movement,' says Blant Hurt, a former part owner of, and columnist for, Arkansas Business magazine. 'He's hostile to free trade, hiked sales and grocery taxes, backed sales taxes on Internet purchases, and presided over state spending going up more than twice the inflation rate.'

"Mr. Huckabee told me yesterday he also cut some taxes, and has taken the Americans for Tax Reform no-tax pledge. Former GOP state Rep. Randy Minton is not impressed. In 1999, he was urged by the governor to back a gas-tax increase. 'I'd taken a pledge against higher taxes, but he sniffed that my constituents didn't understand what we have to do in state government to make it work,' Mr. Minton says. 'His support for taxes split the Republican Party, and damaged our name brand.' The Club for Growth notes that only a handful of the 33 current GOP state legislators back their former governor."

Read the rest here.