Huckabee Explains
By Curt Levey Posted in GOP Presidential Candidates — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Fred Thompson and Quin rightfully criticize Mike Huckabee for saying the U.S. Constitution is “a living, breathing document.” While it was certainly a poor choice of words, it’s only fair to point out that Huckabee was talking about the amendment process, not judge-made constitutional evolution. The Committee for Justice asked Governor Huckabee to clarify and he explained that
[Changing the Constitution] is something for the people to decide through the democratically-established process of Constitutional revision – not unelected judges who are not accountable to the people.
That point is one opponents of judicial activism need to make more often. We are not against constitutional evolution; we just want it to be done the way the Founding Fathers intended. As I discussed in a 2005 National Review Online op-ed, the lack of any new substantive constitutional amendments for nearly four decades now is a testament to the seduction of judicial activism, not to any flaws in the legitimate method of constitutional evolution.
Huckabee's full statement to CFJ is below the fold.
Governor Huckabee’s Statement to the Committee for Justice
January 18, 2008
I believe there is a significant difference between liberal judicial activism which works to reinterpret the Constitution and collective action by the people to amend the Constitution. Over 221 years as a nation, we the people have joined together 27 times to amend our primary governing document. The Founders set up clear principles for this process – setting in place steps that make change difficult but not impossible for good reason. As a result, as a people together, we have been able to institute the Bill of Rights, abolish slavery, and grant voting rights to women through the Constitutional amendment process. I believe that a Human Life amendment to protect all human life, a Federal Marriage Amendment to protect the definition of marriage, and an amendment to repeal the 16th amendment’s authorization of the income tax are issues that need to be addressed at the Constitutional level. But this is something for the people to decide through the democratically-established process of Constitutional revision – not unelected judges who are not accountable to the people.
I like Huckabee, and I'm pretty certain that though he's made disturbing comments that sound like they've been ripped from the lef-wing taking point memos on things from foreign policy ("bunker mentality") to judges ("living breathing constitution"), for the most part he doesn't mean the same thing a lefty would by similar sounding things. But the fact that he continues to make those comments is disturbing, and the reason he's fallen from commpeting seriously for my vote to merely (and given what I feel are the over-the-top attacks everywhere from Club For Growth to RedState, "merely" is hardly so mere, I suppose) being acceptable as a nominee for me.