Asshole Of The Week

So, I've decided to write another weekly post.  Earlier yesterday, I wrote the first of a new weekly post titled "BAMF of the Week".  I figured, if I'm going to feature a bad ass once a week, it's only fair for me to feature an asshole.

Sadly, as much as I would have personally wanted the first ever "Asshole of the Week" to be Sarah Palin, this week was "Ignore Sarah Palin Week".  Over 118,000 people pledged on Facebook to turn the TV when Palin comes on, or click to another website when they see a news article about her.  Hundreds of websites and bloggers, including myself, agreed to not so much as mention her this week.  I have no idea if she's even still in the country.  Will someone please email me and tell me she isn't?

No, this week's asshole is Fox News host and potential 2012 Republican Presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee.

Mr. Huckabee was on New York's WOR radio Monday morning, speaking on the nationally syndicated 'Steve Malzberg Show'.  For some unknown reason, the topic of the supposed secrecy of Barack Obama's birth certificate came up.  Then, the following conversation followed:



Yeah, I can't believe it either.  Just to make sure I'm covering all the bases here, I'm going to show a transcript of the above conversation:

MALZBERG: Don't you think it's fair also to ask him, I know your stance on this. How come we don't have a health record, we don't have a college record, we don't have a birth cer - why Mr. Obama did you spend millions of dollars in courts all over this country to defend against having to present a birth certificate. It's one thing to say, I've -- you've seen it, goodbye. But why go to court and send lawyers to defend against having to show it? Don't you think we deserve to know more about this man?

HUCKABEE: I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American. When he gave the bust back to the Brits --

MALZBERG: Of Winston Churchill.

HUCKABEE: The bust of Winston Churchill, a great insult to the British. But then if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.

For those of you that are confused in regards to the reference of the but of Winston Churchill:  Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, the British government loaned a bronze bust of Winston Churchill to then President George W. Bush, to be displayed in the Oval Office.  The bust, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, has been sitting in the office since.  Approximately three weeks after being sworn into office, President Obama, requested that the bust be sent back to the British government art collection, and replaced with a bust of Abraham Lincoln.

Journalists eagerly awaited an explanation or clarification to the comments Huckabee made on the radio show.  If you notice, he didn't specifically say that Obama was born in Kenya, just that he grew up in Kenya.  He would have been able to deny spreading any "birther" rumors, while still fueling the controversy.  Keep in mind, he is speaking to his base.  72% of potential Republican primary voters think Obama may have been born in another country.

So how did Huckabee respond?  He "misspoke".  According to a statement released by a spokesman on Tuesday:

"Governor Huckabee simply misspoke when he alluded to President Obama growing up in 'Kenya.'  The Governor meant to say the President grew up in Indonesia. When the Governor mentioned he wanted to know more about the President, he wasn't talking about the President's place of birth - the Governor believes the President was born in Hawaii.  The Governor would however like to know more about where President Obama's liberal policies come from and what else the President plans to do to this country - as do most Americans." 

He didn't "misspeak".  If he did, he wouldn't have said that he "grew up in Kenya" twice.  And, probably most importantly, Obama didn't grow up "with" his Kenyan at all.  In fact, he only saw him once, when Obama was ten years old, according to his autobiography.  So his father had no influence in his life whatsoever.

If Obama grew up in Indonesia, and without the influence of his Kenyan father, it's hard to believe that he would have developed this "very different" view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya, with some brewing hatred pointed toward the British people.

The Mau Mau Revolution was a conflict in Kenya that took place between 1952 and 1960, between an anti-colonial group called the Mau Mau and the British Army.  It eventually became what amounted to a civil war and killed more than 50,000 citizens in the process.  Keep in mind, this happened in Kenya in the 8 years prior to the President's birth.  As a child, Obama lived Indonesia, primarily in the Jakarta area.  Indonesia is separated from Kenya by 3,000 miles of the Indian Ocean.  To think that he would have any view of the Mau Mau Revolution would be a stretch of the imagination.  It would be like saying a 9 year old boy in Portugal is deeply affected by what happened before his birth in Ohio.  It's a ludicrous notion, at best.  The only reason he said these things is just to rile up the "birthers" that are tuning in and remind them that "there's a crazy African Muslim in the White House, and he must be stopped at all costs".

You would think after that debacle, Huckabee would have kept his mouth shut for the rest of the week and  try to avoid any further negative press.  Not quite.

As many of you know, Natalie Portman won the Oscar last Sunday night for Best Actress, for her role in 'Black Swan'.  She is engaged to Benjamin Millepied, the choreographer of the film, and they are expecting their first child this summer.  Look at her.  Isn't she just beautiful?

Doesn't she look stunning?  Sexy even.  During her acceptance speech she thanked her fiancée, saying, "...and my beautiful love Benjamin Millepied, who choreographed the film and has now given me my most important role of my life.(referring to motherhood)"


What a simple, well written, and touching nod to her partner, right?  Not if you ask Mike Huckabee.


During the SAME radio interview Monday, he said the following about the media darling:




In case you missed it, here's a snippet of the bile that you just heard:

"You know Michael, one of the things that's troubling is that people see a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts of, 'Hey look, you know, we're having children, we're not married, but we're having these children, and they're doing just fine.' But there aren't really a lot of single moms out there who are making millions of dollars every year for being in a movie. And I think it gives a distorted image that yes, not everybody hires nannies, and caretakers, and nurses. Most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can't get a job, and if it weren't for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care. And that's the story that we're not seeing, and it's unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of children wedlock.

You know, right now, 75 percent of black kids in this country are born out of wedlock. 61 percent of Hispanic kids -- across the board, 41 percent of all live births in America are out of wedlock births. And the cost of that is simply staggering."

You know, for an "informal" interview, for two guys that were supposedly just "riffing", Huckabee had a shitload of statistics handy, didn't he?  

Where do I start on this one?  Natalie Portman is not going to be a single mother, first of all.  She's engaged, which, to me, means she's planning on marrying the father of her child.  And secondly, she thanked her fiancée and the father of her baby.  How is that "boasting"?  I don't see that.  She's not encouraging young girls to go out and get pregnant.  She's not "glamorizing" anything.

The reason why, in Huckabee's words, so many single mothers are "very poor, uneducated, and can't get a job", is because Republicans like him have eliminated funding for women's services and family services programs that single mothers around the country depend on.  If single parents still had state funded Head Start programs, government assisted day care programs, and funding for women's reproductive resources, there would be an opportunity for single mothers today to have the time to find a better job, have time to get an education, and have the ability to have access to health services for proper birth control and contraceptives.  It would also help if fathers today acted like fathers and not "baby daddies", but I digress.  This is a post for another time.

Back to Huckabee.  Do you know how many successful people were the result of a single parent household?  A single mother household?  George Washington was raised by his mom.  So was Bill Clinton.  As was Barack Obama for a large portion of his life...and those are just U.S. Presidents.  The notion that if you are not married to your children's "sperm donor", your life, and theirs, are automatically fucked, is ridiculous.  I can tell you from experience.  My father was present my entire life.  He is still with my mom.  They're celebrating their 39th wedding anniversary this month.  It would have been much easier for all of us if we were raised in a single parent house.  

Where was Mike Huckabee when Bristol Palin was on 'Dancing With The Stars'.  She never married Levi Johnston, her child's father.  She's raising her son as a single parent.  The only reason she was considered a "star" was because she got pregnant.  She's not an actress.  She doesn't sing.  We all saw that she couldn't dance.  She got knocked up.  That's it.  And now she's a celebrity.  Why isn't Huckabee ripping her a new one on the radio?  Hypothetical question.  We all know why.

Interesting fact I found.  Did you know that Ronald and Nancy Reagan got married on March 4, 1952.  Their first child, Patti, was born on October 21, 1952.  Do the math.  That's right, folks.  The lord and savior of the Republican party and his significant other had a bun in the oven when they got married, 50 years ago.  We're only talking a matter of weeks, so Nancy may or may not have known that she was pregnant at the time.  But it definitely shows that they weren't the holy/righteous figures that everyone on the right would like to paint them to be.  They're all hypocrites.

So Mike Huckabee, congratulations.  You're a fucking asshole, and the first ever Daily Twitch "Asshole of the Week".  It's well deserved.