The Maverick Tribe

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is hard not to like.  There's an authenticity to him unequaled by any of the other major candidates, including Barack Obama.  And he seems genuinely passionate about particular causes not commonly discussed on the campaign trail:  rising obesity in America, for example.  A master communicator, Huckabee knows how to distill issues in terms that regular people can understand.  As he surges in the polls in Iowa, he's been proving that he's every bit as talented a politician as that other governor from Hope, Arkansas. 

Ideologically, I've got nothing in common with the guy:  he's a big-government conservative, I'm a small-government liberal.  But integrity and authenticity go a long way with me.  Then there's this comment he likes to repeat:

"I'm an evangelical Christian, I'm just not angry about it."

In my book, that's not a breath of fresh air, it's a lavendar-scented breeze on a dewey spring morning.  So forgive my disappointment when a deeper dive into the beneficent Christian's past reveals this turd blossom: 

"It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations—from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia."

At least Rick Santorum had the rhetorical restraint to stop short of corpse fuckers in describing us.  And then there's this:

"I believe to try to legitimize that which is inherently illegitimate would be a disgraceful act of government. I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."

Turns out Huck advocated quarantining AIDS patients as recently as 1992.

As Huckabee soars in the Iowa caucus polls on account of his charisma and cunning, I'm starting to get a bad taste in my mouth.  The release of this ad was the last straw:

The pundit class is all in agreement that this unconventional Christmas-themed ad is a brilliant political stroke for Huckabee.  They're probably right.  (Many of the other candidates have followed suit with their own holiday-themed ads.)

But I say bah, humbug.    Am I the only one out there who thinks this is nonsense, not to mention sickenly sinister?  Setting aside the phony-ness of it all, the politicizing the most significant holiday of his own faith, and the white bookcase in the background that some suggest is a subliminal cross, this guy spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of scarce campaign money to broadcast an ad that is flatly exclusionary.  Granted we're talking about Iowa Republicans here, none of whom, it's safe to say, are kneeling to Mecca five times a day.  But would Huckabee have run an ad like this in, say, New York City?  The message is clear:  Note to the non-Christians out there:  this cuddly little holiday greeting is not for you.  Huckabee wants to transmit his fealty to all those "celebrating the birth of Christ", and that's it, thank you.

It's appropriate for politicians to discuss how their faith informs their core principles, their guiding values.  But with this kind of infusion of politics with religion, the Huckster has gone too far.  Huckabee is indeed hard to dislike, but at this point I've managed.