A Stitch in Haste

Two hasty stitches on Mike Huckabee:

--First, Huckabee vows to escalate the War on Visas:

Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee called Tuesday for suspending immigration from countries that sponsor or harbor terrorists.
...
"Every one of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 came here legally. Our government welcomed them in," Huckabee said.

Huckabee didn't mention the proposal at his second stop, a rally of about 250 in Sumter. Afterward, his new senior adviser, Jim Pinkerton, backed away from the proposal, saying that Huckabee really meant that wants a "thorough review" of immigration policies.

Melding War on Terror paranoia and anti-immigrant bigotry? Brilliant! Sorta kinda. I look forward to seeing that wall built along the U.S./Saudi border.

Of course, the 9/11 hijackers were not here on immigrant visas; was Huckabee suggesting (past tense is apparently warranted) that terror-nation tourist visas also be summarily blocked? And what does it say about six years of Bush Administration anti-terror, anti-privacy data mania if the best option is still, not particularized review of specific individuals trying to enter the country, but unsophisticated prophylactic blockades?

Furthermore, might not a good way to defuse anti-American fervor in terror-sponsoring nations be to allow more immigrants here? Immigrants who would hopefully assimilate, lay down roots and spread the good word about America and the West back to the Old Country?

(Incidentally, do you remember which other Republican candidate proposed a targeted terror-nation student visa ban?)

--Second: "preserve, protect and defend" or "proselytize, proscribe and amend"?

I have opponents in the race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the Word of the Living God and that's what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so its in God's standards rather than try to change God's standard so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family.

Who can really claim to be surprised by this latest holy-warmongering by Friar Huck? Recall: "I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ." And: "There's only one explanation for it, and it's not a human one."

The idea that this shameless shaman is a leading major-party candidate and not banished to the single-digit doldrums of the lunatic fringe is stupefying.