Huckabee Suddenly Comes To Jesus On Immigration

Great plan, I admit.

Anyone who doubts Mitt Romney's 11th-hour conversion to conservative positions on abortion and gay marriage must doubt even more Huckabee's sudden change off heart, clocking in, by my watch, at 11:57:22.

Let me quote the NYT:

As governor, he seemed like “a charitable Christian,” said Janine Parry, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas — not an antigovernment conservative, but one who felt that institutions could improve the lives of the underprivileged, especially when it came to immigration and health care.

Mr. Huckabee never abandoned his stances on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, but his efforts on these issues seemed more show than substance, some observers say.

“Typically in a legislative session he would put forward a primarily symbolic social issue for the session: a “choose life” license plate, for instance, Mr. Barth said. The bill would pass, social conservatives would be satisfied, and the governor would be free to do the health care and education work he was becoming increasingly passionate about.

...

Some other Christian conservatives have accused Mr. Huckabee of encouraging lawbreaking by supporting government social services for illegal immigrants. Mr. Huckabee defends himself on religious terms. He talks of a Bible-based injunction to care for illegal immigrants, just as he points to biblical admonitions to minister to the sick and protect the environment.

As his original position was based on religion, and the Christian ethic of compassion is what animates him, can he please explain to us all what new passage of the Bible he's discovered which recommends a tougher position on illegals?

Because -- see -- if he can't, then I'm sort of doubting this newest epiphany.

There's the saying I like: You can't reason someone out of a position he wasn't reasoned into in the first place. And if Huckabee's commitment to a kinder, gentler approach to illegals was never based on reason, or even venal politics, but on a deeply felt religious belief, I don't think I'm buying he's now on board with the plan. He cribbed the plan from Mark Krikorian on the fly, and didn't even do the basic homework to learn that INS no longer exists, but I'm expected to believe this represents a real conversion of thought?

If I buy that, then I'll also have to buy John McCain is now a tough-on-immigration candidate. After all, he said "I'll build the goddamned fence if they want it."

More... I especially don't buy his sudden refutation of his Christian obligations (as he believes them to be) given that he's attributing his rise in the polls to the All Mighty Himself.

When your entire candidacy is, it seems, being propelled by "the same power that helped a little boy with two fish and five loaves feed a crowd of five thousand people," you can't reverse your religiously-based positions lightly. After all, your main constituency is the Host of Heaven itself.

posted by Ace at 04:04 PM

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