Until we meet again...

Thank you to Governor Huckabee.

I am extraordinarily proud to have supported him, from beginning to end.

Supporting Mike Huckabee was the biggest political leap I have ever made in my life, and if I could do it all over again I would do the exact same thing.

Our politics in this country is dominated by ideologues who are unable to look beyond limited partisan boundaries. It happens in both parties, and it is not conducive to good public policy. Governing does not come from a play book, but from dealing with the practical realities of the current situation.

I never was a supporter of Governor Huckabee because of his positions on the hot button social issues that tend to get so many of my Republican friends fired up, but because beyond those issues Huckabee expresses the needed tone in America.

The current political reality is that all of the candidates could take a lesson from the tone of the Huckabee campaign. Campaigns are campaigns, and politics is politics, but beyond it we need to work together for the good of all.

America is America, and right or left, right or wrong, we all need to work together

I believe that Governor Huckabee worked toward that end during the entirety of his campaign. I am proud to have been a part of it, and until next time, I wish everyone I have been fortunante to meet, including most of the Huckabee family, best wishes, and Gods blessings.

Until next time-

Rick Malek

Dancing on the Fred?

We can only hope.

South Carolina Pics

South Carolina Pics

Mike Huckabee

South Carolina HQ

Clemson Rally

Chasing Fred around SC

FOX's Campaign Carl Cameron

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Iowa pictures

My Iowa pictures:

Colin and Michelle

Headquarters Bob

Sherwood Haistey

Rett Hatcher

Rett Hatcher and Mike HuckabeeSarah Huckabee

David Huckabee

John Mark Huckabee

Joe Klein

Jack Stanton uber allesFrank Luntz

Chip Saltsman

Ed Rollins

Upcoming

I just got back my pictures from Iowa and South Carolina and I'll be posting them in the next few days.

I'm also going to write a capstone piece about this campaign before I put this blog into hibernation until 2012. Thats coming in the next few weeks.

Hope.

Byron York Article

A great wrap up piece from Byron York in the National Review.

Check it out HERE.

Obama

There comes a time and place where it becomes clear what the right thing to do is.

For me, it was last April, when I decided to buck 10 years of activism in the Democratic party, exercise some political courage and support a man whose tone spoke to my frustration in the current political process.

I came out for Mike Huckabee when he was at 1% in the Republican polls, because I listened to every candidate, in both parties, speak. I really liked what Mike Huckabee said from day one. Huckabee understood that there is a genuine frustration among working people and tried to speak to it, but trying to be a change agent in the Republican party is obvious folly.

Now, as Democrats, we have two choices.

One choice is to choose the past, deception, dishonesty, untruth, division, race baiting and hate.

The other choice is hope. It is a smile. It is uplifting. It is genuine. It is ready to unite. It is ready to knock down boundaries I never imagined would be knocked down.

I'm for Obama.

Do You Speak Huckabee?

I liked this story on NPR about Governor Huckabee's integration of Biblical lessons in his speeches.

Two

This is now a two man race.

Despite Mr. Romney's self-funded, big spending campaign, the Republican race is now a two man race.

Romney outspent Huckabee 10-1 in the last month and failed to make any gains tonight. He's done!

Elections are not about money, they are about ideas and inspiration. Huck needs to fight on and get it down to a 1-1 against McCain.

We have a LOT of election to go!

Still in the fight

I could care less what the boobs in the national media are saying, we are still in this fight.

If we can steal 400 EV's on Super Tuesday we can glide into the second half of the race and win states one by one. Now that Rudy is out that is one less variable that gets eliminated.

It is not folly or for VP that Huck stays in after Super Tuesday. We still can win the nomination at the convention. Stay strong, people.

Fred is out

Thompson just dropped out, 1:20 CST.

We live to fight on Super Tuesday.

Fred Thompson's Libya Problem

Before Osama Bin Laden there was Muammar Kaddafi, who has been dictator of Libya since 1969. During that time, Kaddafi's Libya has financed many acts of terrorism around the world, against America, Israel and her allies.

Ronald Regan himself called the Libyan dictator an America murdering thug. He said

"Our evidence is direct;it is precise;it is irrefutable. We have solid evidence about other attacks Kaddafi has planned against the United States installations and diplomats and even American tourists. Thanks to the close cooperation with our friends, some of those have been prevented. With the help of French authorities, we recently aborted one such attack: a planned massacre, using hand grenades and small arms, of civilians waiting in line for visas at the American Embassy.

Colonel Kaddafi is not only the enemy of the United States, his record of subversion and aggression against his neighboring states in Africa is well documented and well known. He has ordered the murder of fellow Libyans in countless countries, and he has sanctioned acts of terror in Africa, Europe and the Middle East as well as the Western Hemisphere."

While Ronald Reagan was calling the Libyan dictator "an enemy of the United States, Fred Thompson was doing something else.

Fred signed on with the law firm of Arent Fox, a Washington DC based law firm, along with his "close friend", former Senator John Culver (D-IA).

"I have been 'Of Counsel' to Arent Fox since May of 1991"
(Fred D. Thompson, Letter to Phil Williams, Channel 2 Nashville, 9/3/93)


"Fred Thompson... is making a more permanent connection here. The Tennessee lawyer, who headed his own firm in Nashville and came here on an infrequent basis, has joined Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn, the Washington firm with which his close friend John Culver, the former senator, is also affiliated "
(Chuck Conconi, "Personalities" Washington Post 4/17/91)

While Fred served there, Arent Fox lobbied for "several foreign governments" with Fred Thompson himself becoming a "registered foreign agent".

"Before Fred Thompson became a celebrity in his biggest role ever- a hard nosed US Senator rooting out foreign influences in American politics-- he was just a little ol' lawyer with Arent Fox, a DC firm that at the time did legal and lobbying work for several foreign governments and various overseas corporations"
(Gabriel Snyder, :"Fund Raising Hearings; Whos Peddling Influence To Whom? Time 7/28/97)

"From 1991 to 1993 Fred Thompson himself was registered as a foreign agent for the Washington law firm of Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn, according to justice department records."
(Jill Lawrence, "Senator Style Is White House Next?" USA Today 2/14/97)

In February 1992, Thompson held "Discussions with Culver Regarding Libya"

"In advance of the 1994 Senate race, Thompson received a memo from his staff intended 'to familiarize us with our DC activities. These activities included a list of client development and A/F activities, including an entry marked "discussions with Culver RE: Libya."
(Bonnie Sansonetti memo to Fred Thompson, "Arent Fox Clients and Matters 9/27/93)

Around the same time that Fred was having "discussions with Culver regarding Libya", Culver TRAVELED TO LIBYA to discuss legal representation of Libyan agents accused of bombing Pan Am flight 103!

"For Plato Cacheris, it began when a Libyan businessman came to his Washington law office and asked him to visit Libya. For Jonathan D Schiller, it began when he was having dinner with a client and other lawyers at the hotel of Beau Rivage in Lausanne, Switzerland... In both cases, Libya used intermediaries to get Washington attorneys to discuss representing the two Libyan intelligence officials charged with planting the bomb that killed 270 people...In addition to Cacheris and Schiller, Brendan Sullivan, Thomas H Boggs Jr and former US Senator John Culver are among those that preliminary discussions about doing legal work... Cacheris and Culver went to Libya to discuss representing either the government or the two individuals, but did not take the case or were not retained."
(Sharon Walsh, "The Libyan Legal Connection" Washington Post 7/21/93)

Arent Fox was paid 833,960 for to work it did on behalf of Libya.

"The Districts Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn has received $833,960 in fees and expenses for work done on behalf of Ibrahim Legwell, the Libyan attorney for the two Pan Am bombing suspects, according to an article in todays National Law Journal that an Arent Fox official confirmed. The Law Journal obtained documents from the Treasury Department after filing requests under the Freedom of Information Act."
(Sharon Walsh, "US Grand Jury Probing Former State Department Aide" Washington Post 4/25/94)

Apparently to Libyans also circumvented American law in their attempts to clean up the mess.

"Meanwhile, the Libyans have tried a variety of ways to get the sanctions lifted and to get their frozen funds released without giving up the accused. They've even hired American lobbyists, in violation of US law, to float various plans to end the sanctions, including plans to compensate the victims families. Treasury Department documents show how the Libyans legally paid several American lawyers more than 3.5 million dollars to find a legal way settle the matter."
(CBS "60 Minutes 12/15/96)

What did Fred exactly do for the Libyans?

Did he receive money from the Libyan government for work on behalf of terrorists?

Did he travel to Libya?

Did he work on the case in any capacity?

Why is there a file that details Thompson's discussions regarding Libya?

Fred needs to answer these questions.

We fight on...

South Carolina was one hell of a battle and we did not finish on top. The truth is that a victory would have been better than second place, but the very close second place does offer some significant advantages going on from this point...

-- The target is now on McCains back. He will be the recipient of several million dollars of negative advertising in Florida via Mitt and Badda Bing over the next 9 days.

-- We get to play with lower expectations now, which is how MH operates at his best, as the little guy insurgent candidate.

-- Fred killed us today. Without Fred Thompson in the race, a guy who obviously had no chance of winning, MH wins hands down. In the next couple of days I "might" post an occasional tidbit of information about Fred to politely encourage him to go back home to Washington DC and quit the race.

-- Remember that Florida is a state that awards delegates by district and not winner take all. Mike Huckabee does not need to outright win Florida in order to make out like a thief in the delegate rich northern part of the state.

-- Remember that Indies can't vote in Florida. Closed primary. Torpedo in the water for Admiral McCain.

Even a strong third in Florida carries us on to Super Tuesday, where we score a pile of delegates and then have a chance to regroup for 4 weeks to fight the second half of this battle.

This thing is no where near over.

From the ground in South Carolina

Things look good.

I've been on the ground in South Carolina since Sunday afternoon and, like Iowa, the newsies and the pollsters seem to be a bit behind the eight ball as to what is happening on the ground.

The momentum seems to be breaking our way. Clearly this will not be an "Iowaesque" blowout but it smells like a win. Here is why...

I've attended 7 Huck events in the last three days on the advance team all across the state and I have noticed some interesting trends.

1) OUR CROWDS ARE HUGE

Every event we advance the crowd is always far more than we expect. There seems to be a groundswell for Mike Huckabee. Even in regular, daytime, non-college events we still get an overflow crowd.

2) OUR CROWDS ARE COMMITTED

Beyond the turnout the folks that show up actually listen to what Huckabee says.

The ability to capture an audience is a very difficult political skill to master, but Huck has it down pat. When I attend events I watch the audience pretty closely and it is extraordinary to watch how Huckabee gets 'em.

It is not that hard to get an older, more mature, audience to fall into line and listen closely to a speech, but I watched an audience of 2,500 college aged rowdies who were sitting in an very hot and overcrowded gym yesterday at Clemson University get sold on Mike Huckabee. He hit it out of the park. Huck always wins the audience.

3) OUR PEOPLE ARE BETTER

I have never seen campaign where so many people with significant political experience volunteer their life for free. Just because the Huckabee campaign is not a big money campaign does not mean that we don't have lots of folks who know this business.... We have a lot of pro's digging for us.

1-3-1

South Bound

I'm off to Columbia, SC in the morning. I will hopefully be able to update the blog in the next 24-36 hours.

We have just begun to fight!

1-3-1 Close enough.

For Democrat Consumption

Please note, that this is a departure from my regular blogging and is intended for my fellow Democrats. Republicans, read at your own risk.

It has come to my attention that over the course of the last several days that my blog has received a lot of traffic.

The hit count has gone up by 1000% and with it the hate mail has come at me too. I did a bunch of interviews in Des Moines with everyone from my local newspaper in Kentucky to Salon.com to South Korean broadcast TV, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the exposure.

What does surprise me is just how little time people have and nothing better than to send me hate mail for supporting Governor Mike Huckabee. I have gotten comments ranging from that I am "a phony Democrat" to a "disloyal dirtball" to that I should "kill myself, and soon."

All of this rage is based on the fact that I blog as a "Democrat for Huckabee" and have supported Governor Huckabee since last spring and continue to stand by him. The reason I do so is not because of his party affiliation but because of his message.

The Huckabee message has always been one that embraces the embattled working class in America, the small business owners of America, and the little people in America that all feel that the Washington politiocrats are the problem and that solutions for working people matter more than political party or rigid ideology.

He calls it "Vertical Politics".

In another cycle, it was called "People Powered Politics"

Before Huckabee, there was another guy who a small state governor. He had character, and class, and brains, and no Washington experience. He governed as a fiscal conservative. He balanced the budget every year of his 10 year reign as governor. He had an A+ rating from the NRA. He was a groundbreaking progressive on the issue of health care for children. He managed to marry one woman and actually stay married to her, and produce productive children.

I am talking about Howard Dean.

I was a VERY EARLY Dean supporter and blogger. I committed to Dean some 15 months before the primary, contributed to him, blogged for him and volunteered in New Hampshire for him for a couple of weeks in Concord before the New Hampshire primary. I froze my toes off, lost my voice and worked pretty damn hard for the right guy. After all was said and done and the primary process played itself out the party spoke and the overwhelming sentiment was this:

DATED DEAN, MARRIED KERRY.

Democrats, who ARE the party of working class people, who are the party of change, who are the party of a 50 state America, decided to nominate a rich, haughty, windsurfing wing nut over a family doctor and champion of little people.

Dating Dean and marrying Kerry gave us 4 more years of George Bush and got 3,000 American solders killed in Iraq. Bad move.

2004 isn't the only example of this.

In 2000 we had another smart and progressive candidate who was willing to challenge the Washington establishment and return the power to the hands of little people. His name was Bill Bradley, and Washington establishment Democrats screwed him too.

Don't you Democrats get tired of this shit? I did, and I decided some 10 months ago to get on board with:

A candidate that speaks the language of working people.
A candidate who is unafraid to challenge his party when they are wrong.
A candidate who is unafraid to embrace progressive solutions on issues like health care and education.
A candidate that who doesn't want to punish little children for the transgressions of their parents.
A candidate who can really bring liberals and conservatives together to govern, as he has done in the past.

That candidate is Mike Huckabee. Huck represents the change that Main Street America is looking for and that the moneyed establishment in our own party stonewalls with Washingtonians like John Kerry and Hillary Clinton.

Any Democrat that looks to our own party as a vehicle of change ought to think long and hard at the results of the New Hampshire primary last night, then go to www.mikehuckabee.com, sign up, and make REAL change happen.

SC roommate needed

I have a room booked for Tuesday-Saturday (5 nights) in Columbia, South Carolina.

The dates are Jan 15th check in and Jan 20th check out.

It is a studio deal with one bed and a kitchenette. I stayed in the same kind of place in Des Moines and it worked out great. One could spend the whole week in Columbia and eat every meal at the hotel or pack a lunch.

It is already paid for, but if I could find a bunkmate it would reduce my hotel costs by half, and save me enough money that I could probably go on to Florida or Michigan.

If your interested in being a bunkmate please e-mail me at rick.malek@gmail.com

Bloggers, please share this message.

1-2-1

Romneys Timed Withdrawl Policy

This is from ABC news, September 3rd, 2007.

Fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) predicted an '08 begin to the withdrawal of troops from Iraq on Monday. When questioned about the war in the Iraq, Gov. Romney described his three-staged vision for the war, namely, surge, support, and standby. According to Gov. Romney's plan, after the current surge phase is completed, a support phase (in which the United States supported Iraq through air surveillance, inteligence, etc.) can begin, followed by a standby phase in which US troops are pulled out of Iraq, stationed in nearby countries like Kuwait and Quatar.

After explaining his vision, Gov. Romney went on to declare the he sees the phases, "happening relatively soon. I think you're going to find sometime in '08 that by virtue of success of the surge militarily, we'll be able to move to the support role." As a result, the United State could then "bring our guys home as soon as we possibly can without igniting a regional conflict."

1-2-1

Three Iowa Observations

1) We won. Next.

There is no one that would like to take this occasion to scream a jihad of joy more than me. I want to brag about how we were right. I want to poke fun at all of the Neanderthals on Race 4 2008 that have talked about the "Huckabust" since September and they were all full of it.

We can't. We won. Great. I'm shocked, I never expected it when I signed on to even come in the top three, forget about winning. We can dance at the inauguration, but we need to work now. On to South Carolina!

2) The Media?

The national media doesn't have any idea about what is going on in these states. They show up and get thrown into work and get told what is going on and report it. They have no real clue about what is going on amongst real folks.

Until I got to Iowa I was sure we lost. It took me until Monday morning to see that almost every undecided was breaking toward us, yet you never heard that on TV until Wednesday.

3) Our Volunteers.

I would like to, in no particular order, give some props to all of the people who worked so hard in Iowa. First....BOB! They headquarters guy. Thanks Bob.

Sherwood Haisty, pastor of First Baptist Church of Fillmore, CA worked the phones harder than anyone! He killed it all week. Sherwood should get an ambassadorship to a Caribbean Island when Governor Huckabee wins.

My friend Colin Ashley and his wife Michelle worked the phones and won a LOT of people on Thursday.

The Spicegood family from Arkansas was a Huckamachine all week! Thanks!

Rett Hatcher made it happen all week too. Nice job bro.

The Huckabee family was awesome to be around all week at headquarters. It was always positive and upbeat with all of them, especially the kids, and their grace and character give an extra dash of credibility to Governor Huckabee.

The FRC lady worked her tail off all week and should get a lot of credit.

Jim Edwards from Texas, WKU grad from the 1950's, worked the phones all week for Governor Huckabee too.

Next up is South Carolina folks....

1-2-1

VICTORY TONIGHT

Once again I am coming to you from Huckabee HQ is downtown Des Moines. Folks, things are breaking 100% our way.

The undecideds seem to be breaking pretty strongly for Governor Huckabee. I spent 2 hours calling undecideds in Ames last night and only 1 indicated they were for any candidate other than Huckabee.

Romney was shooting his mouth off on one of the local TV stations, bragging about how his paid staff of phone bankers got out 12,000 phone calls yesterday.

We called 12,500. All volunteer generated calls from Des Moines HQ.

1-2-1. Victory tonight.

Boots on the ground

I made it alive to Des Moines, Iowa. I've been here since Sunday night and the momentum here on the ground is definantly in favor of Governor Huckabee.

When watching the national media coverage one would suspect that Huck is bleeding support here in Iowa, but the ground game here is definantly breaking our way.

Romney is running some nasty ads here in Iowa, but the folks see through Romney's ever shifting policy positions as the clown he is. The local media, especially the talk radio community here in Des Moines, were really taken aback by the trashing that Huckabee took at the hands of Tubby Timmy Russert. The direct contrast between the treatment of Huckabee and the kid gloves treatment of Obama the second half of the hour was a dramatic contrast. The mainstream media hatred of Huck is as obviouys as it is irrelevant, we are still winning!

Support at the headquarters here in Des Moines is HUGE. We have more volunteers than we have phone lines. The buzz up here is all Huckabee.

I'll try to update again tomorrow. Thanks to Rett Hatcher for use of his computer.

1-2-1 You gotta believe!

Iowa bound

I leave for Des Moines in the morning. I will try to update the blog as much as possible while I am there.

1-2-1

To the end.

Romney 3.0

Brownsox, over at the Daily Kos, has a pretty good look at the new, new, Mitt Romney.

I find it especially interesting that Romney invokes the grading system in Reagan 101. I never took the class myself, opting instead to take US History 210: It’s Always Clinton’s Fault. But I have to believe that Romney himself surely failed Introductory Reagan, given that he disavowed the legacy of Reagan-Bush when campaigning in 1994, taking particular pains to underscore the fact that he was an independent during the 1980s, not a Reagan Republican....

But I think

"I was an independent during Reagan-Bush...I'm not trying to return to Reagan-Bush"

is my favorite part.. Straight from the horse's mouth, too.

It’s worth remembering, too, that when Reagan’s handpicked successor, George Bush the Elder, was on the ballot in 1992, Romney opted to vote in the Democratic primary, for Paul Tsongas. He also donated that year to three Democrats (Dick Swett, John LaFalce, and Utah Senate candidate Doug Anderson).

So I’m having a very tough time accepting Mitt Romney as a committed Reaganite....

I do not think I have ever seen a candidate who has moved so far, so quickly, so shamelessly and so cynically across the political spectrum as Mitt Romney. I say "cynically" because that's what it is; it should be painfully obvious to anyone with clear political vision that Romney's political conversion was borne out of nothing so much as pure calculation. He thought he could win as a conservative, so he became one. If he thought he could win as a pirate, he would have become a pirate.

Read the whole thing HERE.

My Closing Argument

It is crunch time folks. We now have one week to go until the Iowa caucuses, with New Hampshire, South Carolina and the rest of the big primary states to follow shortly after.

All the political positioning and pontificating has been done by all of these folks. The candidates have debated over a dozen times and ALL the major candidates have been vetted thoroughly by the press. It is now time to pick the leader of our nation, and I stand by the same candidate I have been with all along:

Governor Mike Huckabee.

I'd like to take a few minutes to explore why I decided to support Mike Huckabee in May, why I have stood with him regardless of the attacks on him, and why I am traveling to Iowa, South Carolina and God knows where else, in support of him.

I believe in Mike Huckabee. Not his policy positions, but the man, the leader. For far, far too many people, their choice of candidate boils down to policy positions. I used to think like that, and still have strongly held beliefs about the issues of the day, but I have to say that I fundamentally fail to understand those that ONLY consider policy positions in their choice of candidate.

Is picking the next leader of the free world a flow chart? Is is a yeah vs nay list? Do you check yes and no on a big wall chart and find your man that way? I hope not, but apparently a lot of people do.

THATS STUPID. Why? Because the biggest issue is not what the candidate says on Iraq, or immigration, or abortion, it is the ability of that candidate to start a dialog with all of America, regardless of policy positions. It is time that America start talking again and stop fighting over the issues. It is time we find a leader with the right tone to bring us all together.

"Tone" IS the issue. Mike Huckabee has the right tone and nobody else does.

America does not need another President. We need a national leader. We need to find a person that can talk to all of us, and respect all of us.. We need a national leader that understands that our petty bickering is petty and is willing to set aside ideological differences for the sake of good policy.

Mike Huckabee has run a 100% positive campaign and the results are clear. People love it, and we are winning. Get on board!

Iowa road trip

Iowa.

We've been talking and blogging and working for the past year on this effort, and for us, it all comes down to Iowa. Like it or not, we have to win Iowa.

I can't sit here and watch for the next week, so, I am going to Iowa. I arrive on Sunday and I'll be there until the caucuses, doing whatever needs to be done.

So long as I can get to a computer I'll be regularly updating the blog from Iowa.