Courting birther nuts, Huckabee plays the Kenyan Mau Mau card against Obama

Where do Republicans find these guys? Now former Arkansas governor
current Fox News host and possible aspirant to be America’s president
Mike Huckabee dramatizes again why a majority of voters reject the
Republican far right and why the Republican field of presidential
candidates is so weak.

In the endless need to consider cranks, weirdos and haters a core part
of the Republican coalition, speaking on the radio, Huckabee said
(falsely) that the president grew up in Kenya, and said (incredibly)
that the president has a different view from most Americans of the Mau
Mau revolution in Kenya.

The Mau Maus? Was Huckabee having a senior moment, or a pander-to-hate moment? These are the comments of a buffoon, not someone who should be commander in chief. The Mau Maus? When the making-of-the-president books are written, Huckabee’s Mau Mau attack will appear in the section about a party in need of a serious candidate.

Huckabee, to his credit, has previously refused to support the birther nonsense. But to his vast discredit, he panders to them, sounding like a polyester birther, because this is what Republican candidates for president often feel they must do.

Now Huckabee’s spokesman is in full retreat, saying Huckabee misspoke. You bet he did, but he did more than misspeak. He tried to appeal to the darker angels of the spirit of a faction that should have no place at the center of any great political party.

Speaker Boehner should denounce the birthers clearly and unequivocally. All Republicans should denounce what Huckabee said, and renounce the dark political instincts that too often drive Republican Party politics far to the right of the American heartland.

Mike Huckabee is a basically decent guy, but anyone willing to stoop to this kind of low politics should never sit in the Oval Office as the president of the United States.