WWTD (What would Toomey do?)

Pat Toomey of the Club for Growth made headlines yesterday by announcing a major political advertising campaign, specifically targeting Republican voters in Iowa and South Carolina. His stated purpose? To attack Mike Huckabee.

Pulling out an old video which has been on the web for several weeks now, Toomey uses an out of context theme to try and persuade Republican voters that there is no kind of tax that Huckabee doesn’t like, that in fact, Huckabee is a wild-eyed, tax and spend liberal.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Huckabee about these accusations last month.

Here is Huck’s response:

“I was basically giving a put up or shut up speech to the legislature who had been saying we have got a $200 million deficit, and we don’t like any proposal the governor has to fix it,” he said. “What I was saying to them was, if you don’t like my proposals, give me yours, but let’s fix this deficit.

And we did.”

Contrary to Toomey’s claims, this is about responsible governance, not “tax-and-spend” bumper sticker politics.

Close to 90% of Arkansas’ general fund goes to fund public education, Medicaid, and TANF (temporary aid to needy families). Another 7% goes for Criminal Justice, which funds the State Police, Prisons, and the Crime Lab. The remainder goes for parks, tourism, and industrial development.

So, what would Toomey do?

What would the other candidates do?

If their criticism of Huckabee is to have any credibility, the most likely conclusion is that The Club for Growth would favor cutting money to Public Education and Medicaid: the two largest expenditures in the budget.

I don’t believe for a minute that any of the Republican field, would demand that the state budget be balanced on the backs of school teachers, single mothers, and health care for the poor.

But, that is EXACTLY what Pat Toomey and The Club for Growth are advocating.

Shame on them.

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The Rules are about to change………

UPDATE

MM uses the T-word “troubling”. I’m sure she’ll lose a lot of sleep over it.

AP says “worrisome”, but its just more of his fredneck crapola

NRO tries to spin it their way.  David Sanders trots out Steve Stephens as an exemplar.  Henh, good luck with ‘dat.