Mike Huckabee’s Passive-Aggressive Advertising Scam

In an earlier post I called Mike Huckabee “passive-aggressive”. It was kind of a throw-off that had just occurred to me, but the more I think about it, the more it seems incredibly fitting.

A few days ago, Huckabee called a press conference where he was going to unveil his Secret Weapon, an attack ad on Mitt Romney. It was supposed to be pretty vicious, so the MSM ran, pell-mell to the presser to see the “nice guy” Huckabee strap on his leather and put his campaign abord the big, bad Harley called Negative Campaigning. Well, when they got there, Huckabee got all meek and Christlike and said that he wouldn’t release the ad, but he’d show it to reporters so they could see just how he had pulled himself back from the brink of perdition. And so he did. Of course, the reporters, seeing an ineptly crass political move, giggled and winked and played along. They gave him what he wanted – the press coverage of a man who had barely yanked himself back from the edge. Of course, the ad loomed out there like the Death Star rounding the forest moon of Endor. And all of Mitt’s Ewoks cried foul but it was to no avail.

Basically, he decided to play aggressive tough-guy, then when it came time to pony up, he got all passive again. The MSM let him get away with his because he so darned cute, or some other inane reason.

But it didn’t stop there. Chapter Two in Huck’s Great Passive-Aggressive Advertising Ploy played out last night and today. Read on after the jump.

Last night, Huckabee’s Super Potent Ad of Evil appeared on Fox News’ “Hannity and Colmes” show. It also showed up tonight on “The O’Reilly Factor”, which happen to be two of the most-watched shows on cable news (if not the most watched altogether). They didn’t show some bootleg copy taped by a reporter at the presser. It was a pristine, ready-for-air copy that they got from…somewhere. So, basically, every voter in Iowa that watched those shows got to see the ad without Huckabee’s campaign paying a single dime. And Huckabee didn’t have to get his hands dirty.

That, folks is vile and dirty politics. Huckabee is as culpable for putting that ad in Fox’s hands as if he had handed it to them himself. If he really felt the ad was that terrible, he should have not mentioned it at all and destroyed it. Instead, he pulled the passive-aggressive trick and danced with the media, who put their cheek right next to his and danced with him.

For my Christian friends who are planning to vote for the Huckster, how does this make you feel? Do you think it was very Christian of him to play such a deceptive little game with the voters? Do you feel good about how he used the media to do his dirty work without taking credit for it for even a picosecond? Is that the example of your faith you want representing you?

Now, I don’t doubt that at some point he’ll apologize and admit fault and ask for forgiveness. He’ll do it after the caucuses, when he’s already reaped the benefits his foray into the muck will get him. He won’t volunteer to give back the votes his ad will gain him. He won’t surrender the results of the caucus to the second-place finisher because he violated his principles or his creed. He’ll be sorry when it’s not longer going to cost him anything to apologize ad then he’ll act all hurt when someone points out that fact.

Passive-aggressive. Is that really what we want in a President?