Oldie but goodie Rick article of the day...

A reader sends an email in response to a reference on Rick vs. Kay (link) about some Mike Huckabee supporters still holding a grudge against Rick about his insistence that Huckabee withdraw from the race...

I won't reprint the entire email, but there is an interesting article worth a read from more than a year ago (link).

As the governor of Texas, do you feel it is getting a little crowded there lately as the presidential candidates and their busloads of campaigners continue to descend in preparation for the primary on March 4? We tried to move our primary up, and it didn’t work. This is a very rare occurrence, to have a primary of national import in Texas.

You have reportedly asked Mike Huckabee to drop out of the race, in order for McCain to clinch the nomination. It is time for him to get out. We have a mercy rule in six-man football. After halftime, if you’re behind by more than 45 points, you can stop so it doesn’t get to be really ugly.

What do you think of Barack Obama? I think he is a very attractive, very intriguing and, to many, a very stimulating candidate. I think he is one step away from being a socialist.

You mean because he wants universal health care? So does Senator Clinton. Yeah, well I didn’t say she was that much further to the right.

As a Republican who is known to be more conservative than your predecessor as Texas governor, George W. Bush, what do you make of the deficit he has run up in Washington? George was never a fiscal conservative. The Texas Legislature spent a lot, and he signed the bill.

Did he send Texas into debt? You can’t in Texas. See, we are wiser than Washington. We can’t have deficit spending in Texas. You have to balance your budget every two years.

Let’s talk about your new book, “On My Honor,” which draws on your experience as an Eagle Scout and champions the values of the Boy Scouts of America, to whom you are donating your royalties. Yes, to their legal-defense fund.

Which has been fighting the A.C.L.U., to keep gays out of the scouts. Why do you see that as a worthy cause? I am pretty clear about this one. Scouting ought to be about building character, not about sex. Period. Precious few parents enroll their boys in the Scouts to get a crash course in sexual orientation.

Why do you think a homosexual would be more likely to bring the subject of sex into a conversation than a heterosexual? Well, the ban in scouting applies to scout leaders. When you have a clearly open homosexual scout leader, the scouts are going to talk about it. And they’re not there to learn about that. They’re there to learn about what it means to be loyal and trustworthy and thrifty.

But don’t you think that homosexuals might also be interested in being loyal and thrifty? The argument that gets made is that homosexuality is about sex. Do you agree?

No. Well, then why don’t they call it something else?

It’s a shame the Scouts are alienating so many American kids when they could be a force for equality and civic unity. What about the Boy Scout merit badges? Do they ever update them? Oh, yes, absolutely. I was looking at a young man’s sash the other day, and he had merit badges on there I didn’t know.

I was just looking at the hundred-plus merit badges online and was surprised that the Boy Scouts haven’t introduced more relevant projects than coin collecting. They’ve done that. They’ve reached out and included things like the environmental-science badge.

I know they have a dog-care merit badge, but why not a child-care badge? Why not teach scouts how to change a baby’s diaper and help out moms? I don’t have a problem with that.

How about a merit badge in vegetarianism? It’s out there. It’s your choice. We raise a lot of vegetables down here in Texas. We like for people to eat vegetables.

And instead of a shotgun-shooting merit badge, how about a gun-control badge? Now you’ve stepped across the line. Remember, you are talking to a Texan.

As I remember it, my vote in Texas did not really matter on the Republican side, just between Hillary and Obama. It was a done deal by that point for McCain. Maybe the Huckabee people saw it differently.