I Do NOT Heart Huckabees

I've been casually watching CNN's coverage of the Iowa presidential primary, and the station has now projected that Mike Huckabee will receive the state's Republican nomination and that Barack Obama will receive the state's Democratic nomination. I have mixed feelings about Barack Obama which I'll probably write about in the coming weeks, but that's not what this post is about. Instead I decided to look into a question to which I've paid little attention until today, and that is who exactly is this Mike Huckabee guy?

I am so, so glad I asked.

I'm sure you're all familiar with the expression, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." I by and large find this to be true. I am equal parts my mother and my father, as is my brother (although in vastly different configurations, which makes for enjoyably lively family dinners!). I believe that the good things I do and my accomplishments in life are greatly influenced by their parenting, which occurred both through example and through explicit communication (admittedly, often resented at the time). Equally powerful is their influence in the choices I have not made; in the mistakes I have avoided. My actions are guided by the ethical system I developed as a child under their care, and I'm proud of that fact.

I now make the following statement as the daughter of good parents and as a teacher who has had the heartbreaking experience of working with some pretty disturbed teenagers: When there is something really wrong with a kid, there's something really wrong at home. When I interact with a student who clearly lacks qualities such as empathy and good judgment and respect for living things, I surmise that there has been a significant breakdown in parenting to the immense detriment of the child (and to all with whom the child will interact throughout his or her lifetime).

It was through that lens which I approached a news story exploring the circumstances surrounding Mike Huckabee's son David getting fired from a job as a Boy Scout camp counselor due to having tortured and hanged a dog. Tortured a dog. Even writing it now makes me feel ill.

As if that fact alone weren't enough to leave me with a permanent distrust for all things Huckabee, I went on to read that then-Governor Mike Huckabee fired the Arkansas police chief, John Bailey, because Bailey wouldn't help him cover up the incident. According to former Little Rock FBI Chief I. C. Smith, "Without question, [Huckabee] was making a conscious attempt to keep the state police from investigating his son."

Since the incident was made public, Huckabee has asserted that his son did not engage in "intentional torture," and a campaign official said that he "'regrets' the incident." Oh, well, if he's SORRY, I guess it's all good. Huckabee, of course, also claims that he suddenly fired Bailey for reasons totally unrelated to his pesky ethics... reasons that apparently failed to manifest themselves until after Bailey refused to lie about the fact that David Huckabee hanged a dog. You'll be pleased to know that David Huckabee later made Eagle Scoute.

Lest you think that this clearly sociopathic behavior poor judgment was simply symptomatic of David's youth, consider the following: he was arrested for trying to get on a plane with a loaded gun this past April! (Detained terror suspects will be pleased to know that he was appropriately fined accordingly.) Guess he just forgot that he was carrying a loaded pistol in an airport. I may do crazy things like not eat chickens (or hang them), but I can definitely say I've never tried to board a plane with a Glock.

Good job with the bambino, Mr. Would-Be President.

I don't know what the people of Iowa were thinking, but I know what I think — a man who raises an animal killer and then fires an employee for refusing to compromise his own ethics has no place in the White House.