Compassionate Conservatism: Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee shows his compassionate conservative side coming out against health care coverage for people with preexisting conditions.

"It sounds so good, and it's such a warm message to say we're not gonna deny anyone from a preexisting condition," Huckabee explained at a Values Voters Summit today. "Look, I think that sounds terrific, but I want to ask you something from a common sense perspective. Suppose we applied that principle [to] our property insurance. And you can call your insurance agent and say, 'I'd like to buy property insurance for my house.' He'd say, 'Tell me about your house." 'Well sir, it burned born yesterday, but I like to insure it today.' And he'll say 'I'm sorry, but we can't insure it after it's already burned.' Well, no preexisting conditions."

Is Huckabee aware of some wave of people whose homes burned down whom are trying to add to their debt by paying property insurance for a home they no longer have. I remember having to fight my All State agaent for three months to stop sending me the PIP insurance bill to a car I sold. If someone is going to burn their house down wouldn't they want to insure it before it burned down? Huckabee's bizarre scenario makes no sense.

Huckabee doesn't even seem to understand the health care bill. The mandate to buy private health insurance was party designed to prevent people from buying coverage after they have a preexisting condition. Huckabee's "no preexisting conditions" stance isn't fiscally consevative. This would force more patients to go on Medicaid or have emergency room visits. Hospitals and local, state and the federal government would eat up the cost.

Huckabee's most infamous health care proposal was to quarantine people with the AIDS virus.

"It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents."

It is difficult to understand how Huckabee can call himself a Christian and be so heartless towards the sick and needy. Isolating people who are HIV positive would be the legal equivalent of jailing people without due process. The USSR jailed people who had alcohol addiction. Imprisoning people because of their illnesses doesn't square with Huckabee's self-professed love of the Constitution. Huckabee is like many other Christian conservatives who pay lip service to compassion and the rule of law. What Huckabee was really saying is the profits of the health insurance industry are more important than giving health care to the nation's most sick people. The only God Huckabee is worshipping at the Values Voter Summit is money.

Roy Blunt Monkey Joke At Values Voters Summit

Congressman Roy Blunt spoke at the Values Voter Summit. Blunt decided to show his values by comparing Democrats to monkeys. Blunt explained the "monkey problem" the British had in India. I don't know if Blunt intended his metaphor to be racist. Blunt has been in politics long enough to know a monkey joke in the ear of the Obama presidency isn't the most astute thing to do politically.



You know, you can't control everything there is in life that you'd like to control. Supposedly, at the turn of the 19th Century, the end of the 19th Century - the beginning of the 20th Century, there was a group of British occupiers in a very lush, very quiet, very peaceful, very uneventful part of India. And this group of British soldiers who were occupying that part of India decided they'd carve a golf course put of the jungle of India. And there was really not that much else to do.

So for over a year, this was the biggest event, getting this golf course created. And they got the golf course done and almost from the day the first ball was hit on this golf course something happened they didn't anticipate. Monkeys would come running out of the jungle [faint audience laughter] and they'd grab the golf balls. And if it was in the fairway they might throw it in the rough. And [if] it was in the rough they might throw it... they might throw it back at you! And I could go into great and long detail about how many things they did to try and eliminate the 'monkey problem.' But they never got it done, so finally this golf course and this golf course only, they passed a rule and the rule was - you have to play the ball where the monkey throws it. [audience laughter swells] And that is the rule in Washington all the time. You know... [clapping from audience]


You know the world is turned upside down when Al Franken is in the United States Senate and Tom Delay is going on "Dancing With the Stars" - that's when you know that things have changed in ways that you would have never anticipated."



Read more at: Transcript of Blunt's opening remarks.

"You know, you can't control everything there is in life that you'd like to control. Supposedly, at the turn of the 19th Century, the end of the 19th Century - the beginning of the 20th Century, there was a group of British occupiers in a very lush, very quiet, very peaceful, very uneventful part of India. And this group of British soldiers who were occupying that part of India decided they'd carve a golf course put of the jungle of India. And there was really not that much else to do.

So for over a year, this was the biggest event, getting this golf course created. And they got the golf course done and almost from the day the first ball was hit on this golf course something happened they didn't anticipate. Monkeys would come running out of the jungle [faint audience laughter] and they'd grab the golf balls. And if it was in the fairway they might throw it in the rough. And [if] it was in the rough they might throw it... they might throw it back at you! And I could go into great and long detail about how many things they did to try and eliminate the 'monkey problem.' But they never got it done, so finally this golf course and this golf course only, they passed a rule and the rule was - you have to play the ball where the monkey throws it. [audience laughter swells] And that is the rule in Washington all the time. You know... [clapping from audience]

You know the world is turned upside down when Al Franken is in the United States Senate and Tom Delay is going on "Dancing With the Stars" - that's when you know that things have changed in ways that you would have never anticipated."