Despite his success in the Iowa polls, Mike Huckabee has had a rough week. News that he labored mightily to get a convicted rapist and soon-to-be murderer released from prison, news that he doesn’t follow the news, news that his views on AIDS are somewhat antiquated and news that maybe God isn’t entirely responsible for the previously mentioned hints of success in Iowa have all somewhat tarnished the glow. What’s a good Christian to do?
Attack his top opponent’s religion. According to the Associated Press, Huckabee will be using the New York Times Magazine this weekend to pose that eternal question, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”
A spokesperson for the Mormons told AP that “Huckabee’s question is usually raised by those who wish to smear the Mormon faith rather than clarify doctrine.”
No. Say it ain’t so.
Is this the most ridiculous GOP campaign ever? Is it possible to qualify them? Where the hell did Alan Keyes come from? and how does he feel about Satan?
In other news, I somehow stumbled a few months ago upon a Woodward and Bernstein story about Donald Segretti from October of 1972, and it’s been sitting in my browser ever since. I’m thinking it’ll be the centerpiece for my forthcoming essay, The Nixon Years: Age of Innocence?
Three attorneys have told The Washington Post that, as early as mid-1971, they were asked to work as agents provocateurs on behalf of the Nixon campaign. They said they were asked to undermine the primary campaigns of Democratic candidates by a man who has been identified in FBI reports as an operative of the Nixon re-election organization.
All three lawyers, including one who is an assistant attorney general of Tennessee, said they turned down the offers, which purportedly included the promise of “big jobs” in Washington after President Nixon’s re-election. They said the overtures were made by Donald H. Segretti, 31, a former Treasury Department lawyer who lives in Marina Del Ray, Calif.
Segretti denied making the offers and refused to answer a reporter’s questions.
One federal investigative official said that Segretti played the role of “just a small fish in a big pond.” According to FBI reports, at least 50 undercover Nixon operatives traveled throughout the country trying to disrupt and spy on Democratic campaigns.
Simpler times …
