Mike Huckabee vs. The First Amendment
In an interview on NPR, Mike Huckabee said that he wants to outlaw all independent speech in political campaigns:
Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee on Wednesday disavowed the use of a negative campaign tactic known as “push polling” being used on his behalf by an independent group ahead of the South Carolina primary.
Huckabee said he disagreed with the automated phone calls purporting to be part of a survey that instead disparage rival candidates. The “push polling” calls were being made by Colorado-based Common Sense Issues in support of the Huckabee campaign.
“We don’t know who these people are,” the former Arkansas governor told NPR’s Morning Edition. “I personally wish all of this were outlawed. I think that every candidate ought to speak for himself.”
More detail from the radio interview itself:
I personally wish that all of this were outlawed. I think that every candidate ought to speak for himself, and that everything that involves the candidate’s name or another candidate’s name should be authorized and approved by that candidate, otherwise it shouldn’t be spoken . . . The point is that candidates can’t force these special interest 527 groups to stop. I wish we could.
The Club for Growth’s Pat Toomey puts it best:
“Under a Mike Huckabee presidency, no individual or group would be allowed to criticize a politician’s policies without the politician’s approval. Which part of ‘Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech,’ is lost on Governor Huckabee?”
Maybe that’s one of the parts of the Constitution he wants to amend
