Libertarianism masked as conservatism

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1859539,00.html?xid=rss-politics

“In a chapter entitled "Faux-Cons: Worse than Liberalism,"Huckabee identifies what he calls the "real threat" to the Republican Party: "libertarianism masked as conservatism." He is not so much concerned with the libertarian candidate Ron Paul's Republican supporters, as he is with a strain of mainstream fiscal conservative thought that demands ideological purity, seeing any tax increase as apostasy and leaving little room for government-driven solutions to people's problems. "I don't take issue with what they believe, but the smugness with which they believe it," writes Huckabee, who raised some taxes as a governor and cut other deals with his state's Democratic legislature. "Faux-Cons aren't interested in spirited or thoughtful debate, because such an endeavor requires accountability for the logical conclusion of their argument." Among his targets is the Club For Growth, a group that tarred Huckabee as insufficiently conservative in the primaries and ran television ads with funding from one of Huckabee's longtime Arkansas political foes, Jackson T. Stephens Jr.

But for all the hits Huckabee takes at his fellow Republicans, score settling is not the major thrust of the book, Huckabee's sixth. Rather, Huckabee, who now hosts a weekend show on the Fox News network, spends most of the pages celebrating the grassroots success of his surprisingly successful campaign and laying out, again, his vision for the future of the Republican Party, which includes instituting a national sales tax to replace the income tax and renewed focus on health care prevention and education. He mentions John McCain only in passing, and with praise, calling him "a true statesman and a man of honor."