<<Home Niagara Falls Reporter Archive>>

MOUNTAIN VIEWS: HUCKSTER HUCKABEE GRABS SOME RAYS; SUPER-DELEGATES PLAN DEM STRATEGY

By John Hanchette

OLEAN -- After criticizing former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in this space a few weeks back and describing his status in seeking the Republican nomination for president as "toast," I promised myself I would write no more about this glib yet strange political charmer.

Well, I hereby renege on that internal vow, for two reasons: One, I've taken a considerable amount of guff over that column from Huckabee's unusually devout followers, and two, he continues to make somewhat peculiar and newsworthy campaign decisions. He is, of course, still toast -- burnt crumbs by this point -- in terms of his chances of prying away the GOP nod from Arizona senator John McCain in 2008, and he must, in his heart and mind, know it.

If not, why would Huckabee spend most of last weekend -- when a viable, functioning candidate would be furiously humping away in the snows of Wisconsin for today's (Feb. 19) Republican primary spoils -- basking in the Caribbean sun on Grand Cayman island?

Answer: It's all about the money.

Huckabee went to the Caymans last Friday in the homestretch of what could be his primary campaign's ultimate last-chance, faint glimmer-of-hope contest to make a paid keynote address at an annual black-tie awards ceremony conducted by the Young Caymanian Leadership Foundation. This man-of-the-people longshot, who keeps promising he will always level with American voters, acknowledged he was receiving a speaking fee but refused to say what it was. You can bet it's substantial.

The appearance drew some eyebrow-raising in the political media because one of Huckabee's favorite campaign rants has been to attack the Caymans as a notorious offshore tax shelter that drains about $10 trillion a year (Huckabee's estimate) from U.S. taxpayers. Once there, fresh from jogging seven miles in 85-degree heat, he told The New York Times on Saturday it might take "a SWAT team" to drag him from his hotel room and take him back to Wisconsin.

Huckabee and his aides were obviously prepared for questions about the whiff of hypocrisy that might waft toward voters. His campaign manager told the press, "If he does not do this from time to time, he can't pay his mortgage." (Huckabee owns a $525,000 home in Little Rock -- probably equivalent to about a $1.5 million dwelling in the toney suburbs of Washington.)

Huckabee himself fumed to the Times: "I'm the only person who doesn't get paid by the taxpayers to campaign. Sen. Obama, Sen. Clinton, Sen. McCain, they campaign every day and I'm paying for their campaigns. I'm paying because I'm a taxpayer, and I have to pay for their Senate salaries even if they are not on duty."

His point on hidden taxpayer support of American politicking is well-taken, but Huckabee wants to make such tax-exempt offshore investments illegal, shut down the Internal Revenue Service (not a bad idea, either, actually), eliminate income taxes, and fund the government with a sort of national sales tax. Isn't it sort of like taking money from the "enemy" to receive speaking fees from an entity he says is ruining the American taxpayer?

Maybe, maybe not, but the minor flap spawned all sorts of anger on the Internet from jilted bloggers. One wrote, "I've sent the man money, and my friends and family all sent the man money, and he goes on vacation? I feel as though I'm being ripped off."

Huckabee, like most politicians, likes free trips. The Arkansas Ethics Commission investigated him 14 times while he was governor, some for junkets like the all-expenses-paid sojourn he accepted to Las Vegas to see a prize fight. His chances are nil, and have been since last Thursday when Huckabee's fellow conservative Mitt Romney instructed his delegates to vote at the GOP convention for John McCain -- a man Romney had previously painted in some speeches as a little to the left of Lenin. That's hyperbole, but it illustrates what must have seemed to Huckabee a vile desertion of principles by Romney.

Huckabee will probably do more of this -- use his newfound fame to make lucrative speeches and promote upcoming books.

My friend the articulate David Shribman, once a western New Yorker and now editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, is much kinder in his assessment. Huckabee, he wrote over the weekend, is pressing on simply because he "is getting attention. His issues are getting aired. He's seeing the country. He's having some good meals (but watching those carbs). He has nothing else to do. It truly may not be any more complicated than that. ... Give the guy a break. He's having a good time. Someone should."

OK. But Huckabee is still toast.


While the Republican picture is clearing, the Democrats are locked in one of their typical go-for-the-jugular primary-season death matches between senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. This one might be decided by the super-delegates. What was that, you ask? What's a super-delegate?

Most American voters have no idea. These are Democratic members of the House and Senate, former party bigwigs, current party officials, state committee members, certain party officeholders on every level, Democratic governors, professional politicians, Democratic National Committee members, party leaders and elder statesmen (Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore) -- elite Democrats with pull and political muscle who don't have to get primary delegate votes to end up at the convention.

There are 796 of them, and in a year when the candidate is preordained (say, an incumbent president), their main job is to attend the convention, have fun and wear silly hats. This year they could decide who the candidate is. They could broker the convention.

In terms of political weight, they have much more power than the average delegate sent by the voters of his or her home state. In California, for instance, the Los Angeles Times figured out that 4.5 million Democrats on Super Tuesday sent 370 "regular" delegates to the convention from that state. There will be 66 super-delegates from California at the convention. If you do the theoretical arithmetic, that means that each elected delegate from California represents the residual will of about 12,200 Democratic primary voters at the convention. The super-delegate represents the will of one. Talk about weighted voting.

Do Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama know this? You betcha.

Many of these super-delegates have campaigns of their own to run this fall, and so far Hillary and Obama -- using their political action committees -- have contributed almost $900,000 of their own campaign funds to super-delegates.

The eagle-eyed and nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington says Obama has contributed about $695,000 to super-delegates in the last three years, and that Cllinton has given about $200,000 to super-delegates. Of the 81 elected officials supporting Obama so far, 34 have received contributions from him. Of the 109 supporting Hillary, 13 have received contributions from her. Legal, yes. But don't believe for a minute the presidential primary candidates don't hope to spur convention support with their largesse.

"It's anti-democratic," Craig Holden, a lobbyist for the good-government group Public Citizen, told the Los Angleles Times. "This is a device to try to reduce the influence of one person, one vote."

The super-delegate setup is, complained Holden, specifically designed "for the purpose of having insiders have some sort of final decision over who the nominee is going to be, regardless of what the voters want."

Gee, and they wonder why Americans stay away from the voting booth. Go figure.


John Hanchette, a professor of journalism at St. Bonaventure University, is a former editor of the Niagara Gazette and a Pulitzer Prize-winning national correspondent. He was a founding editor of USA Today and was recently named by Gannett as one of the Top 10 reporters of the past 25 years. He can be contacted via e-mail at Hanchette6@aol.com.

Niagara Falls Reporter www.niagarafallsreporter.com Feb. 19 2008