Huckabee unleashes on GOP Establishment - Could he go rogue at RNC?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The only logical point that can derived from the first two is that Akin should get out of the race, not that the establishment should throw millions at a doomed cause and risk other seats as well. The man was done by Monday when he kept talking about it himself. He can't win this race and he isn't going to, because he couldn't possibly keep his mouth shut long enough to get his favorables back into a reasonable range to allow him to win that last seven percent (and that was in a very GOP sample I might remind you).

If Palin gets this, why doesn't Huckabee.

[BigSkyBob]

The only logical point that can derived from the first two is that Akin should get out of the race, not that the establishment should throw millions at a doomed cause and risk other seats as well. The man was done by Monday when he kept talking about it himself. He can't win this race and he isn't going to, because he couldn't possibly keep his mouth shut long enough to get his favorables back into a reasonable range to allow him to win that last seven percent (and that was in a very GOP sample I might remind you).

If Palin gets this, why doesn't Huckabee.

Whether, or not, a duly nominated candidate ought to drop out because his situation is hopeless is one question. Whether, or not, that duly nominated Republican candidate ought to have the right to hire Republican campaign consultants without the fear of retribution is another question.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

They retribution they would get would be brought upon themselves by virture of them association with such a baffoon and his statements. Or are other candidates and organizations obligated to hire consultants who have been associated with scandalous candidates?

[BigSkyBob]

They retribution they would get would be brought upon themselves by virtue of them association with such a buffoon and his statements. Or are other candidates and organizations obligated to hire consultants who have been associated with scandalous candidates?

Except your formulation misses the fact that consultants were threatened with being blacklisted by the national committees if they worked for Akin.  That not reserving the right not to hire anyone, they are positively threatening to blacklist people. Nor, do I see how a consultant whom advocates Akin apologize and repudiate his statements is somehow tarred by them.  Were any of the consultants whom worked with Bob Ney, Duke Cunningham or Tom DeLay blacklisted? They all ended in jail.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Maybe the national party could have been a bit more discrete on this whole thing. Now he's still in the race, but by making him persona non grata the GOP has made it even harder for him to win.

It was a very dumb statement, but for it to be the major news story of the past week is a bit much isn't it?  It must be because it's a swing state, which makes the party leaders care, which drives the news cycle. If he was running in OK or ID no one would have heard of him, much less care what he thinks.

Is there precedent for a party to so publicly pressure a candidate of theirs to forfeit his campaign on the basis of a comment made?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Which is again within their rights to determine whether or not who they hire has been tainted or not. Whether such was done in the past is irrelevant.

As for the GOP making this worse, I couldn't disagree more. Akin was doomed from the start of this controversy precisely for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Any attempts to encourage him to remove from the race could only help the situation.

If Huckabee creates a controversy over faux outrage over the treatment of this idiot, that is because he is still the same single leg of conservatism and narrow minded attention whore he has always been.

[Peeperkorn]

Huckabee is the hero that the GOP deserves.

[Keystone Phil]

I disagree with him on this but I like Huckabee and would love for him to "go rogue." That being said, this is one of those classic forced stories in the lead up to one of the most scripted events on the planet. We're all searching for even a chance of drama and it just won't happen (especially over this issue. I know Huckabee is a friend of Akin and dislikes the establishment/Romney but he had a chance to do something about the latter during the primaries and didn't).

[Torie]

Maybe the national party could have been a bit more discrete on this whole thing. Now he's still in the race, but by making him persona non grata the GOP has made it even harder for him to win.

It was a very dumb statement, but for it to be the major news story of the past week is a bit much isn't it?  It must be because it's a swing state, which makes the party leaders care, which drives the news cycle. If he was running in OK or ID no one would have heard of him, much less care what he thinks.

Is there precedent for a party to so publicly pressure a candidate of theirs to forfeit his campaign on the basis of a comment made?

Well, there is The Torch. Granted, he did more than just say something.

[anvi]

Yeah, I think at least one of the many takeaways from the last two election cycles is that runaway nutter candidates should not be permitted by the party to run for the Senate.  Not that runaway nutter candidates are ever any good, but still...

[Sbane]

Maybe the national party could have been a bit more discrete on this whole thing. Now he's still in the race, but by making him persona non grata the GOP has made it even harder for him to win.

It was a very dumb statement, but for it to be the major news story of the past week is a bit much isn't it?  It must be because it's a swing state, which makes the party leaders care, which drives the news cycle. If he was running in OK or ID no one would have heard of him, much less care what he thinks.

Is there precedent for a party to so publicly pressure a candidate of theirs to forfeit his campaign on the basis of a comment made?

Republicans know they can't get blown away in the women's vote and this is why we saw the visceral reaction. Romney's economic message is tailored towards the "waitress moms" and they could switch back to the Democrats if this comment seemed to be in the mainstream of the Republican party.

[BigSkyBob]

Yeah, I think at least one of the many takeaways from the last two election cycles is that runaway nutter candidates should not be permitted by the party to run for the Senate.  Not that runaway nutter candidates are ever any good, but still...

And, who shall decide whom is a "runaway nutter" and whom has the right to stand for office? In a democracy shouldn't that be the voters?

[Mechaman]

Considering how Huckabee handled the Republican Primaries (aka "not running for President) I severely doubt he would "go rogue".  Like someone else on here mentioned, he had ample opportunity to stand up to the "establishment" and he did nothing.  He decided that high cable ratings was more important than going against the Rombot.  Huckabee is merely saying what he said to drum up the necessary fifteen minutes of fame to get more ratings for the next few months during elections season.  At the very best he will tease the audience with possibilities and crazy scenarios, but he won't leave.  As much as Republicans truly despise each other they won't turn their backs on the national ticket whole hog when the Kenyan Muslim Socialist Atheist is still president.

As it regards Akin I would expect some blowback, but nothing that would exceed the usual "THAT'S NOT FAIR!" criticism from the 10% who aren't overjoyed with the decision.  Oh, and the liberals who WANT Akin to stay in the race, naturally.  Now it's just a waiting game of when Akin runs out of money and some MO Republican can run a write-in campaign (or if he drops out soon enough, replace him as the GOP candidate).  Hopefully for the GOP Akin runs out of money before October or the final month crunch or whatever you want to call it.  Heavens know that they wouldn't be too pleased about losing some votes to a compromised candidate.

As for the chances now, not so sure.  Whereas some more rational candidate would've performed better before, the GOP is still tainted.  The fact that the GOP DID nominate a candidate like Akin, even if they changed their minds after a few weeks, has got to be on the minds of a few Missourians.  This is like committing a grave offense to a person and then apologizing, expecting everything to suddenly be okay and them to totally forget what you did.  Things can't just be thrown under a bus, kicked to the curb, dropped off at the Cleaners, or left under the bridge.  The GOP needs to do more than just nominate a "polite" politician, they need one with a new image.  You can't keep Rachel Dawes and simply replace the actress, you need a Selina Kyle to keep things interesting.

As for blocking nutter candidates, where the hell was the RNC the past few election cycles?

EDIT: Yes, I did edit this post just to throw in a Batman analogy.

[BigSkyBob]

Maybe the national party could have been a bit more discrete on this whole thing. Now he's still in the race, but by making him persona non grata the GOP has made it even harder for him to win.

It was a very dumb statement, but for it to be the major news story of the past week is a bit much isn't it?  It must be because it's a swing state, which makes the party leaders care, which drives the news cycle. If he was running in OK or ID no one would have heard of him, much less care what he thinks.

Is there precedent for a party to so publicly pressure a candidate of theirs to forfeit his campaign on the basis of a comment made?

Republicans know they can't get blown away in the women's vote and this is why we saw the visceral reaction. Romney's economic message is tailored towards the "waitress moms" and they could switch back to the Democrats if this comment seemed to be in the mainstream of the Republican party.

And, the spectacle that a Todd Akin draws a "visceral reaction" while a Claire McCaskill does not must create the perception among some Republican that the folks running the party seem to consider conservatives to be the enemy. Liberal Democrats seem to merely be the competition to them. Claire McCaskill can vote for Obamacare, and evade taxes on her private jet and receive a pass from the RNC.

I can see why Mike Huckabee sees that as an odd position to take.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Which is again within their rights to determine whether or not who they hire has been tainted or not. Whether such was done in the past is irrelevant.

"who they hire"?  We are talking about a candidate who won a primary, and not an employee of the RNC, correct?   Whether such was done in the past is key to the story - this may signal a shift in the way at least one of the national parties deals with its candidates.

[5280]

Lets face it, I like Huckabee, he seems like a personable and nice guy, but I don't agree with him backing Todd Akin to the slightest or how he stands on social issues. He needs to take what he can get in the Republican party or else change his affiliation.  The GOP doesn't want to lose out on the women vote cause of some stupid gaffe.

[stegosaurus]

I've never cared for him much, but Huckabee makes a point; which is that, without the establishment GOP throwing a s***fit, Akin would still be in a position to fight it out and maybe win it.

The national GOP, for all intents and purposes, has endorsed Claire McCaskill's reelection.

Then again, the tone of Huckabee's letter suggests sour grapes. I'm sure he knows, in the back of his mind, that Brunner or Steelman would be cruising over McCaskill right now had he not gotten involved on Akin's behalf in the primary.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Which is again within their rights to determine whether or not who they hire has been tainted or not. Whether such was done in the past is irrelevant.

"who they hire"?  We are talking about a candidate who won a primary, and not an employee of the RNC, correct?   Whether such was done in the past is key to the story - this may signal a shift in the way at least one of the national parties deals with its candidates.

I was talking about his consultants, not about Akin, dude.

[Torie]

If Akin stays in he will lose and will deserve to lose, and I would be outraged if the national GOP spends a dime on him. I certainly would not vote for him.

[Likely Voter]

Huckabee continued his campaign against the GOP establishment in a conference call with pastors and Christian talk radio hosts on Friday. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/24/huckabee-rallies-missouri-pastors-to-akins-side-attacks-gop-establishment/

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Doesn't sound like Mike is calming down.

[Likely Voter]

And for more context, here is a direct quote from Huckabee from a recent (pre-Akin) interview which shows his resentment for the GOP establishment:

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So while the establishment is actively throwing his guy under the bus, is he really going to play good soldier and rally his followers for Mitt Romney?

Maybe. We will see if they reschedule Mike now that MOnday has been cancelled.

Source: Nation

[Keystone Phil]

Great comment by Huck. This party better learn to keep all three major ideological factions of the party together under one roof or we are in for some very dark days.

But, like usual, we will have to hear from those in the middle or even left leaning about how we have to be a "big tent party"...unless we're talking about social conservatives. They have to go and there shall be no discussion about it.

[BigSkyBob]

Huckabee continued his campaign against the GOP establishment in a conference call with pastors and Christian talk radio hosts on Friday. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/24/huckabee-rallies-missouri-pastors-to-akins-side-attacks-gop-establishment/

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Doesn't sound like Mike is calming down.

These are the two quotes I find most interesting:

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Either Huckabee or Walsh is lying, and, I don't think it is Huckabee.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Even though I think Huckabee's style of social conservatism is utterly crazy, he's certainly right about the "being used" comment. If you purport to believe in that social conservatism, have the bravery to implement it.

I want to see the backlash.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Great comment by Huck. This party better learn to keep all three major ideological factions of the party together under one roof or we are in for some very dark days.

But, like usual, we will have to hear from those in the middle or even left leaning about how we have to be a "big tent party"...unless we're talking about social conservatives. They have to go and there shall be no discussion about it.

Normally I would agree with this sentiment, but not when the idiot in question openly discussed expelling one of the three in his Presidential campaign. He is not for keeping the three together, he is for social con supremacy at the expense of the other three (and even at the expense of their destruction if necessary).