SHOULD MIKE HUCKABEE BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR LYING ON OBAMA?

MIKE  HUCKABEE IS A  LYING PROPOGANDA MONGERING RACE BAITING  RIGHT WINGER WHO, LIKE NEWT GINGRICH, WILL SAY OR DO ANYTHING FOR POLITICAL GAIN.

Ooops!  Did I say MIKE HUCKABEE IS A LYING PROPOGANDA MONGERING RACE BAITING RIGHT WINGER WHO, LIKE NEWT GINGRICH, WILL SAY OR DO ANYTRHING FOR POLITICAL GAIN?  I meant to say that Mike Huckabee is a nice guy.  Guess I misspoke! Ha! Ha!  Ha!

Normally, I’d feel horrible about such an egregious misspeaking.  But since it’s Mike Huckabee, I know that no one can appreciate how easy it is to misspeak more that Mike.   After all, good ole Mike repeatedly spoke about Barack Obama’s upbringing in Kenya, despite the fact that he meant to say Indonesia, but somehow… well, you know how the old tongue gets twisted up and “Indonesia” just comes out “Kenya.”  Newt Gingrich had the same problem a few months ago.

The political and racial back-lash to Obama’s presidency has raised a number of serious issues.  Chief among them is whether or not political figures can or should be held to any standards of truthfulness or whether any lies they may tell are protected by the First Amendment guarantee of Freedom of Speech.  Huckabee’s so called “gaff” is only one of the more recent in a series of plain old libelous lies perpetrated by the Right.  I’m not speaking about honest disagreements.  I’m talking about the Right coming out with out-and-out lies designed to stir up the fears of the already hysterical White folks who have been manipulated their entire lives to vote against their own best interests to the point that they actually fight to have the nation’s wealth redistributed away from themselves  to the rich!

Should our political leaders and media pundits be held to the same standards as our high school children?    A Florida kid was suspended for posting derogatory comments about her teacher on facebook.   The kid sued and the court ruled that she was within her First Amendment rights to post what she did.  But the child had been reprimanded for doing something that was, well, childish. But what about good ole Mike?  And where is the Moral Majority when a right winger blatantly lies?

The gist of our current debate is this:  Should there be a means of sanctioning this sort of lying by political officials or pundits?  We know Huckabee was lying, especially when he said he meant “Indonesia” because everything he said was predicated upon Obama being in Kenya.  (Of course Obama didn’t grow up in Indonesia either, he just lived there for a few years).  But is the greater good served by protecting Huckabee’s speech under the First Amendment, or by demanding a scintilla of decency from our so-called leaders? 

There are a few concepts that must be considered while crafting your responses:  First, Freedom of Speech is not an absolute freedom.  One cannot falsely shout fire in a crowded theater.  Freedom of Speech, like all freedoms, carries certain responsibilities.  Yet the arguments on the other side of the coin are virtually legion.  While Huckabee’s comments were clearly deceitful, in many more subtle cases how could we tell when someone really has made a mistake or told an absolute lie?  In a completely partisan society, who would be entrusted with the authority to make that decision?  Would we distinguish between lying about issues and personal attacks?  (Remember how end of life counseling in the healthcare bill was misrepresented as “death squads”)?  Even if no concrete measures can be implemented, can we, by the nature of our discourse here, impact the national conversation in a meaningful and positive way?

I look forward to your comments and feedback.  Without them, this blog will collapse in no time.  Since this is the first, I’ll leave it up for a bit to get feedback before moving on.  While I have a list of stuff to write about, please don’t hesitate to suggest topics.  This isn’t my blog.  It’s OURS!