isn't it time that Huckabee explain how he plans to organize an effort to get two thirds of both Houses of Congress, which might include a whole bunch of Democrats, to achieve any of this?You know how I mistrust Constitutional Amendments (not that I'm absolutely against them, but generally supporting an amendment is a way for a legislator or executive to do nothing himself). I'm less keen on a Presidential candidate supporting a Constitutional Amendment than in telling me how he will use his executive power and bully pulpit to advance the culture of life. Like this. And this.
Nevertheless, though I think he's a bit short on a game plan for how he will advance the social issues agenda, I have had nothing but admiration for Governor Huckabee's rhetoric in these matters. If I were judging him solely by the way he bats reporters' "gotcha Christian" questions out of the park each time, I'd heart Huckabee too. Until now. An MSNBC reporter covering the Huckabee campaign quotes the governor last night:
[Some of my opponents] do not want to change the Constitution, but I believe it's a lot easier to change the constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God, and that's what we need to do is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards.This in response to a question about the Human Life Amendment and Federal Marriage Amendment.
If I work really hard, I can just barely defend that remark, but jiminy, if that quotation is accurate, it's a disaster. In one sentence he's just
- ceded the ground to those who would make the Constitution into anything they want (that's what he's doing after all);
- agreed with the Left that people who want to stick to the original meaning of the Constitution are elevating it to the level of a holy text;
- made the grounds of the defense of marriage and human life a matter of Revelation rather than reason and natural law;
- and arguably called for theocracy (that's how it will play in the attack ads should he be the nominee).
