Justin,

There are many reasons to criticize Huckabee (e.g. the war, immigration, taxes, et al).  But to criticize Huckabee for invoking Christianity is straight out of the Cultural Marxist bogeyman playbook.

Yup and if you play that Huckabee advert backwards it says Paul is Dead.  We know this because Huckabee said so. ( It doesn’t. ) Misappropriating the generic symbol of Christianity to sell SnakeOil is a time honoured huckster’s technique. Not having the stones to stand up for what you supposedly believe when you are called on it is also.

I’m waiting for the follow-up to the chuck-huck ad featuring one of the archangels coming down from heaven and anointing him as the only real choice.

Divine Providence often uses what appears as mistakes (didn’t many early supporters wince when he didn’t fold when JulieAnnie said he never heard of anything like blowback?).

Huckabee is popular.  If it results in both Paul and him on the same stage even for a few minutes discussing issues, they will change places in the MSM polls.

I played this video several times for a
Christian friend of mine and he did NOT
notice the cross. Once I pointed it out
to him he felt embarassed at being fooled.
People(voters) don’t like being fooled.

@willb:

“Once I pointed it out to him he felt embarassed at being fooled.”

LOL!  That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in the last 48 hours.  If you had to point it out to him, then tell me--how exactly was he fooled?

Huckabee’s passive-aggressive use of the religion card has Rove written all over it...if not actually then at least by studied imitation.

Face it folks, the Former Republic experiences these kinds of giddy lapses into Religion and Government on a regular basis. The 1820’s, 1910-30’s and now. Every time they occur, they leave behind a kind of 1-2 punch where crime gets a windfall from their utopian agenda and government is left with a mindset whose closest equivalent is a battered wife.

The real thigh slapper is to think of all the righteous in Washington, pandering away while insuring that everything they do in response to the requests of special interests will ultimately make the faithful squirm in pain. EVERYTHING.

Prohibition left behind a vicious and durable organized crime which still haunts us. With the “Intelligent Design” wing of today, perhaps criminal stupidity will be whats left. Popular Religion will busy itself by reliably mortifying it’s flesh over the bankrupt tyranny they willingly obliged.

Listening to Huckabee say he does not pander to religion reminds me of that old routine where a fresh convict sits down at the cafeteria table for his first dinner in jail and claims his innocence while everybody laughs.

Religion and Government will rue the day they engaged in a relapse of this disease ....a self-inflicted disease that tarnishes both.

I find your comment Mr. Sabin quite disconcerting: “Religion and Government will rue the day they engaged in a relapse of this disease .

Really?  I thought Western Culture and Western Civilization was built on “Throne and Altar”?  I thought this saying “God and Country”, is a traditional saying of Christendom. Even the Roman Repulic was built on Res Divina and Res Publica---and we ought to be afraid of a confluence of Religion and State?  What was the Byzantine Empire? Fascism?

I find it sad that RP equates the “Flag and Cross” as Fascism.  Is that what Joan of Arc was?---a Fascist?

@ WLindsayWheeler
“I find it sad that RP equates the “Flag and Cross” as Fascism.”

He doesn’t. He’s makng the point that people who seek power at the expense of human freedom will often use patriotic and religious symbols to further their goals.

“...at the expense of human freedom...”

“Human Freedom” is not the basis of a society. It is not a principle of political thought in Classical Antiquity. It is not present in Christendom, or in traditional Western Culture or Civilization.

“Human freedom” is an Enlightenment concept and the authors of the Enlightenment were mostly Atheists; God-haters. And so RP quotes an Atheist, Sinclair Lewis, is par for the course. Why does Atheism get to write political philosophy? Libertarianism is not Christian, is not Western Culture.  The point of “human freedom” is used to abrogate, deny and nullify the effect of the Church, so in this regard, RP is equating Church with Fascism. Why shouldn’t a man stand four square on Christian tenets and principles?  Why should we be afraid of Jesus Christ?

For all this squabble points to a valid truth--there is NO such thing as “seperation of Church and State”.  All RP is doing is ensconcing Atheism and State.

With all due respect, Mr. Wheeler what mr. Paul did was point out a phoney not attack Christianity.Mr. Donohue is correct huck is using religion in a cynical way. Huckabee is a prowar end of times fanatic who would support the proabortion Rudy over the most articulite pro life spokesman to ever be elected to congress.Mr Paul believes the question of prayer in public places belongs to the states and has introduced legislation to ban federal interference.
Mr. Paul’s whole life has been one of a dedicated Christian.When he sees someone like Huck using ths Cross in a wrong way it made him say something that was rougher than he usually would.

“Catholic League president Bill Donahue, who is surely no militant secular humanist”

I’m not a political junkie and hence I don’t know much about Donahue or Huckabee, but I would caution Mr. Raimondo (whose work & writing-skill I greatly admire) about this assumption.

After all, a lot of people would probably make the same assumption about neojust war theorist Michael Novak.

The criticism of Huckabee applies to Donahue himself: there is an entire industry of Judases who make their living by working as intellectual (I use the term loosely) janissaries on behalf of the Regime—selling an unChristian agenda via use (or rather abuse) of Christian imagery and terminology.

In any event, while we should not trust politicians who invoke Christianity falsely, neither should we trust those who criticize such invocations qua invocations.

That’s the question.  Was Donahue criticizing Huckabee’s invocation of Christianity per se, or did he make a case for that invocation somehow being dishonest or misleading when contrasted to Huckabee’s actual stance and policies?

If the latter, OK.

If the former, there’s a problem.

If somebody is using symbols in an honest fashion, to express their actual orientation and aspirations and intentions, I’m not entirely certain what the problem is.

Just because a false patriot wraps himself up in a flag is no reason for a true patriot to hide his flags under the bed.

Of course realistically speaking, I expect Huckabee is a huckster, much like G.W. Bush… but to call people like Bush “fascist” is to commit an injustice to fascists. 

There’s far worst varmints in this world than Falangists—and most of those varmints occupy the NoVa-DC Beltway.

@Scott

Glad you were amused!
My friend wasn’t.

The advert is an obvious ploy.
Next time he should just use a nimbus and
leave the Savior of mankind out of it.

Ok, you are going to say “if he didn’t notice
it then it wasn’t an offense.” Perhaps, but
that is precisely the point; Huckster didn’t
intend that it be noticed and he has confirmed
this by denying the intention.

Yes, “FOOLED” is precisely how my friend felt
and Ron Paul was right on with his comment.

Regarding Paul’s quotation of Sinclair Lewis, I would argue that the fascism “wrapped in a flag” half of it has already occurred in America. To tick off just a few examples from the current Bush administration: Guantanamo, the Patriot Act, military tribunals, suspension of Habeas Corpus, wire tapping American citizens, renditions, the whole concept of “preemptive war”; the invasion of Iraq; threats to nuke Iran. As for the “wrapped in a cross” part of it, I would not say that has happened yet, but, of all the candidates, Huckabee is the most likely to bring us down the road to theocracy. Huckabee will give us big government with an evangelical Christian flavor. Maybe this is will better than big government from Hillary, Barak, or Rudy. Then again, maybe it won’t be.

@willb:

“Huckster didn’t intend that it be noticed and he has confirmed this by denying the intention.”

You’ve got me rolling on the floor here!  Seriously--think about what you just wrote.  If he didn’t intend for it to be noticed, then what the hell did he intend?  You think that he intentionally put a cross into his advertisement, but he didn’t want anyone to notice it.

What sense does that make?

‘As for the “wrapped in a cross” part of it, I would not say that has happened yet’

When Bush said that ‘God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq’, I was convinced that we are at the very least well on the way to the ‘wrapped in the cross’ bit. That was Bush stooping to an all new low quite frankly.

@Scott

See how it works?
It’s a circular argument and deliberately so.

You can fool some of the people some of the time…

Think of the millions who do not have your
intellect (me for one.)

@willb:

“See how it works?
It’s a circular argument and deliberately so.”

There’s a circular argument being made here, but you’re the one who’s making it.

Answer this one simple question: If Huckabee (or his handlers) did not intend the cross to be noticed (as you insist), then what was the point of putting it in the commercial?

@Scott

Ok, let’s see…
He put it there on purpose but didn’t
want me to notice that I noticed it.
I mean, he wants me to notice it and
make the association but he doesn’t want
me to notice that it’s noticable.
If I do notice it, he can deny that I
noticed it or at least deny that HE noticed it.
I could go on but it gets really boring from here.

Oh, by the way…
have you ever seen “Mr.Subliminal” on
Saturday Night Live? I think that may be
a good case study on this subject. It’s quite
scientific and it works. I’m using it right
now as a matter of fact.
Have you noticed?

@willb:

I thought that’s what you were getting at, but I was trying to get you to say it directly.  Thanks for clarifying.

@Scott
I appreciate your patience.
Merry(willbisthegreatest)Christmas
and a Happy(ifyouagreewithwillb)NewYear!

@willb:

Merry Christmas to you, too!

Do you notice that as the commercial goes on the “floating cross” is covered over by Huckabee’s head. Oh no. You realize what this means don’t you? It mean Huckabee is implying he is the second coming of Christ. The masses must be warned. I bet Huckabee is a Mason. And he must secretly be CFR? It’s all starting to come together now.

Red,

My best friend’s sister’s cousin told me that if you play the video with an infrared filter the cross, behind his head, turns into a swastika.  After all, as any of us well versed in Cultural Marxism knows, anyone who mentions Christ in public is a nasty fascist.  Feed him to the lions!

Ron Paul’s statement regarding the Huckabee ad can be understood in two opposing ways, probably more, and for that reason alone it was not only unwise but a sign that he really hadn’t thought the matter out.  He claims to have been tired when he made the statement, but in a radio interview he had two chances with a friendly interviewer to clarify his meaning and muffed them both, explaining instead his thought process in making the remarks rather than saying what he thought, after reflection, of the ad.

As for Huckabee, if he wants to introduce religion into political discussion, he should stick to words rather than symbols and subliminal suggestion. That way they, the words, can be dealt with on their own merits.

Quite frankly, I find most interjections of religion into politics embarrassing, inept, self-serving and, in a pluralistic society like ours, mostly preaching to one’s own particular choir.  It takes a special kind of genius to do this sort of thing honestly and well.  The country desperately needs it, but then it needs many things.

Meanwhile, with regard to Ron Paul, political campaigning is pretty much an on the job training proposition.

@Paul Velde:

“He claims to have been tired when he made the statement, but in a radio interview he had two chances with a friendly interviewer to clarify his meaning and muffed them both, explaining instead his thought process in making the remarks rather than saying what he thought, after reflection, of the ad.”

That’s a very good point.  Listening to the interview, I was uncomfortable with Paul’s answer, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why.  You’ve hit the nail on the head.

Let’s look at Mr. “I’m a good guy” Huckabee. Last week Huckabee was using the New York Times to attack Mitt Romney’s Mormonism--the infamous “Do Mormons really believe Jesus and the Devil are brothers” question. It’s was a cheap, and perhaps slanderous shot, not to mention a ridiculous interjection of religious subject matter into a presidential election campaign. But what is even worse is Huckster claimed to CNN later that he was supposedly forced into asking that question by the Times reporter covering him. Then, Huckster gives this phony-baloney apology to Romney, again claiming it was all just an innocent mistake, not a clever hit job to push the buttons of his anti-Mormon, evangelical followers. This week he comes out with a political commercial which doesn’t mention politics (except in a Masonic sense) where Huckster simply wishes everybody a Merry Christmas while a big cross floats back-and-forth in the background, obviously to implying to everyone watching that he is real or the best Christian in the race. Kinda sleazy, but to make it so much worse he has to lie to everybody that it is just our imagination; that the floating cross is just a white bookcase; that he has no idea what anybody is talking about; and then he jokes about the whole controversy to the media that if you play the commercial backward it says “Paul is dead.” Then yesterday Robert Novak reported “Huckabee’s base is reflected by sponsors of Tuesday’s fund-raising luncheon (requesting up to $4,600 a couple) at the Houston home of Dr. Steve Hotze, a leader in the highly conservative Christian Reconstruction movement.” For anyone who supports liberty and the Constitution, the possible links between the Huckabee campaign and the Christian Reconstruction is very, very ominous sign. The Christian Reconstruction movement is all about creating a Christian fundamentalist theocracy in America, and having the Bible as the law of the land as it were. To be fair, I would guess Huckabee is himself not an actual Christian Reconstructionist, but major figures in that movement are attending expensive fundraisers for Huckabee. Are there Christian Reconstructionists in the Huckabee campaign, particularly in positions of power? Will there be Christian Reconstructionists in high positions of power if Huckabee (God forbid!) wins the presidency? Does Huckabee disavow the ideology and agenda of Christian Reconstructionism?

Scott Reichiert, you are a disgrace, you now are polluting Justin’s column.Justin and Bill Donohue are obviously right.My hero Bill Donohue is attacking Huck as we speak for appearing Sunday on the pulpit of the vicious anti Catholic bigot John Hagee.A good Hagee Christian thats our Huck.Hagee, to apease his Israeli benefactors, is now denying that Jesus is the Messiah. I suppose Hagee isn’t a racist and a fascist as well.Justin please put out the word about these 2 fascists.