The Man From Hope, 2.0

Big-daddy government goodies for all:

Small-government Republicans in Arkansas, who fought the governor over immigration, education spending and taxes, have long complained that he is really a closet welfare-liberal. As a presidential candidate, he has all but declared war on big-business Republicans, believing the standard GOP mantra of tax cuts and unfettered free markets has made the rich richer at the expense of ordinary Americans. At times he can sound like John Edwards, promising health care for low-income children and vowing to defend wage earners against Wall Street greed and runaway CEO pay.

Allah has video and analysis of Huckabee's appearance on Chris Wallace this morning. Needless to say he's unimpressed.

Most damaging is Allah's new stuff on Wayne DuMond, which Wallace didn't even get around to asking about. As had been thought, it appears the primary reason Huckabee sought to release DuMond was the fact that he had found Christ, though, it should be said, apparently he was still looking for Christ inside of the women he would later rape and kill.

Pastor Jay] Cole, meanwhile, was working to help DuMond. Cole said he talked to “probably a hundred people” about his hope of winning DuMond’s release, turning foremost to the evangelical community. He said many evangelicals were encouraged that DuMond had claimed a religious conversion, and that many joined Cole in writing to Huckabee about DuMond’s situation.

The clincher, he said, was their belief that DuMond had been “saved.”

What is this bullshit? Salvation has to do with your soul and the final judgment in the next life. Who decided it should come along with legal benefits in this life as well?

I'm finding this all a little creepy. I understand the injunction to lead a Christ-like life -- but does that apply to using the machinery of government (Caesar's thing, you know) to impose one's Christ-like impulses? Yes, Jesus says forgive, but does that mean that a Christian governor must forgive personally or impose that forgiveness via state action, forcing the public generally to "forgive"?

The same applies to his charitable/compassionate impulses. Is a Christian in elected office required to impose their Christian notions of charity and caring on the people they govern? Despite the fact that in doing so they rob the governed of the ability to show charity or compassion voluntarily?

I realize these are somewhat thorny questions. But Huckabee seems to think the state exists chiefly as a vehicle by which to enact his own personal good works on a grand scale with the public picking up the bill -- in terms of both money and victimization by supposedly "saved" criminals.

More Piling On: The victims of Huckabee's mercy aren't big fans.

posted by Ace at 05:41 PM

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