Couldn’t Help But Notice (122407)

Caucus Cooler’s revelations (with at least one supporting document; HT Mark at Weapons of Mass Discussion) about Mike Huckabee’s financial dealings are stunning, and represent a Ben & Jerry’s-sized scoop that should embarrass Old Media:

The Cooler has obtained documents that show Mike Huckabee received $378,000 in consulting fees during 2006, while he was still governor of Arkansas.

Most noteworthy, $35,000 came from Novo Nordisk, one of the world’s largest embryonic stem cell researchers. It seems that when money is at stake Huckabee may be able to look past his supposedly fervent opposition to this procedure.

He also received speaking fees and honoraria from churches while Governor.

Absent a refutation that doesn’t seem possible, the fees represent a blatant BizzyBlog Dealbreaker. This means that his issue positions don’t matter; he doesn’t deserve anyone’s vote.

And to think I was tempted to give the guy a pass over the “wedding” registries used to collect gifts from “friends” last year when his time as governor had ended. You see, Poor Huck and his wife Janet were moving into a 7,000-foot house, and had to furnish it “somehow.” Gag me.

Besides being part of the Dealbreaker, the Nordisk fees, given what the company does (”Our primary research activities on embryonic stem cells from mice were recently expanded to include cells of human origin.”), either make a mockery of Huck’s supposedly ardent prolife views, or show that he will take money from anyone with no questions asked. Sort of reminds you of another former Arkansas governor, doesn’t it?

I’m insulted that Huckabee — take your pick — thought he could get all of this past the nation indefinitely, or that we wouldn’t care if it became known.

Also, a memo to the folks at the Arkansas Democrat Gazette — aren’t you using any of the money from your $59.40 a year online subscriptions for, like, reporting?

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I have a feeling Congressman and House Minority Leader John Boehner is quite pleased to be named Grinch of the Year by Progress Ohio. That he is so despised indicates just how good his year was, and how Nancy Pelosi’s performance was, in “three words that best describe her, and I quote: ‘Stink. Stank. Stunk.’”

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Excuse the local detour, but two local sports stories (”Crable Out at Moeller” and “Moeller Hires New Football Coach“) have me bent. But they do involve someone football fans nationally might recall. That person would be Bob Crable, who played at Notre Dame, and then in the NFL for the New York Jets.

After a few years as an entrepreneur, Crable became the head football coach at Cincinnati Moeller High School, his alma mater, in 2001.

A year ago, I commented at this Chuckoblog post:

I simply don’t get the idea that a Bob Crable would be worrying even one bit about his job if he continues to have 6-7-8-9 win seasons, esp as he seems to be a good person who approaches the good-person level of (Gerry) Faust, who’s a living saint.

As far as I’m concerned, Crable can keep cranking out good seasons, and eventually he’ll get his state championship.

The Big Moe booster types who based on what you’ve written have Crable under some pressure ….. have a total lack of perspective that’s appalling and embarrassing.

Moeller was 7-4 this year, and made the state football playoffs. But the out-of-control booster types had him sacked anyway.

To make it worse, Moeller had no qualms about hiring a job-hopping coach who left his previous school in the lurch after one season, and who had, according to some accounts, told his team about his future plans with them after he had committed to the Moeller job.

I’m not a big Bible-verse guy, but this sad sequence of events made me wish that a lot of these people would remember this. Crable, to his credit, is, at least for now, staying at the school and teaching religion; so you know on which side of that verse he resides.

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Bill Kristol’s skewering of Time (HT Jules Crittenden) on its “Putin of the Year” selection and simultaneous tribute to General Petraeus’s success with the Surge is a must-read. Key grafs:

Our liberal elites are so invested in a narrative of defeat and disaster in Iraq that to acknowledge the prospect of victory would be too head-wrenching and heart-rending. It would mean giving credit to George W. Bush, for one. And it would mean acknowledging American success in a war Time, and the Democratic party, and the liberal elites, had proclaimed lost.

The editors couldn’t acknowledge their mugging by reality. That’s fine. Nonetheless, reality exists. And the reality is that in Iraq, after mistakes and failures, thanks to the leadership of Bush, Petraeus, and General Ray Odierno–the day-to-day commander whose contributions shouldn’t be overlooked–we are winning.

The reality is also this: The counterinsurgency campaign that Petraeus and Odierno conceived and executed in 2007 was as comprehensive a counterinsurgency strategy as has ever been executed.

Time has selected some real clunkers in the past 20 years, but overlooking Petraeus may prove to be the most embarrassing oversight of them all.