The New Exchange » Is That the Best We Can Do in America?

Goose · 6/27/2015 5:54 am

Charleston mayor: Huckabee’s call to arm churches ‘so nutty I can’t even talk’

The mayor of Charleston, South Carolina questions the sanity of Mike Huckabee’s argument that better-armed parishioners could have stopped a deadly, racist terrorist attack that took place last week inside a church.

“That is so insane. That is so nutty I can’t even talk,” Joseph Riley told radio host Alan Colmes on Wednesday. “It’s crazy. Absolutely crazy. We want everybody to carry a gun and then you have everybody carrying a gun and then somebody gets upset and pull it out because they got it handy and they got mad all of a sudden and rather than argue, or take a swing at somebody, they just kill them. It’s crazy, that is insane.”

Riley’s remarks came after Huckabee, who is currently running for the Republican presidential nomination, dismissed calls for tighter gun regulations in the wake of the June 17 terrorist attack at a church that killed nine people. The murders were racially motivated.

Huckabee told Fox News last Friday that, “the one thing that would have at least ameliorated the horrible situation in Charleston would have been that if somebody in that prayer meeting had a concealed carry or if there had been either an off-duty policeman or an on-duty policeman — somebody with a legal authority to carry a firearm that could have stopped the shooter.”

During a taping of Colmes’ Fox radio show, the network’s left-leaning talk host asked Riley, the Democratic mayor of Charleston since 1975, to respond to Huckabee’s remarks.

When Colmes pointed Huckabee’s remarks out to Riley, the 10-term mayor — who has been in office since 1975 — quickly called them “ridiculous”

“I mean I knew these people,” Riley said. “I’m looking that their pictures right now in front of me. They weren’t going to be carrying handguns. You want an 87-year old retired lady or you want a minister to be carrying a handgun or a 78-year old retired lady that used to work for the city of Charleston? … You want those elderly people carrying handguns? Is that the best we can do in America?”

http://www.rawstory.com/2015/06/charleston-mayor-huckabees-call-to-arm-churches-so-nutty-i-cant-even-talk/

TheLagerLad · 6/27/2015 11:01 am

I still believe Huckabee and other borderline presidential candidates will continue to make outrageous, headline grabbing statements until they know they made the top 10 candidates that can get into the debates.

Another example, Bobby Jinday said yesterday that Louisiana will defy the SOCTUS ruling andnot allow gay marriage in the state and that the entire Supreme Court should be dismantled.

This is why the debates shouldn't be limited to a pre-determined set of candidates. The early debates should be open to everyone so candidates are forced to embarrass themselves anymore than they already will.

tennyson · 6/27/2015 12:05 pm

Obviously some are not at all serious about what it takes to win a National election !

Goose · 6/27/2015 3:17 pm

You gotta wonder if the Huckster is just in this to sell books and get a better fox contract.

And Jindal? His love of the constitution is such that he would just rip it up if a SCOTUS decision goes against him. Does bobby hate America, or was he just absent the day they taught government in government class ?

Rongone · 6/27/2015 5:53 pm

Don't you think WashDC professional politicians like it this way?

Continually fueling the fires of emotional issues without having to do anything about them but complain to their base.

That way, they really don't have to address and act upon real issues that effect the majority of the population. It's a gutless way to govern. I'm tired of it.

Tarnation · 6/27/2015 7:20 pm

They may be outrageous at times, but it is fun (make) believing that we might actually have a real choice between a hard line conservative and an unmistakeable liberal unlike the homogenized Republocrat vs. Democan line up we've endured for the past 40 years as both parties vie for the "center".

Goose · 6/28/2015 5:05 am

Tarnation wrote:
They may be outrageous at times, but it is fun (make) believing that we might actually have a real choice between a hard line conservative and an unmistakeable liberal unlike the homogenized Republocrat vs. Democan line up we've endured for the past 40 years as both parties vie for the "center".

Well, for the moment we have candidates ranging from a socialist to a libertarian. That's a wide range of choices for Americans. Of course, most of the republican candidates are clustered on the far right of the spectrum, so there may not be as much choice as it appears.

I have to make an observation. So often the farther right candidates come off as rather nutty.
Huckabee, for instance spends most of his time holding forth on cultural issues - Beyonce's costumes and lyrics, the origin of gayness, reproduction & libido, the endorsemnt by government of christianity - that the Chief Executive really has nothing to do with. Huckabee gets so far out in the cultural weeds at times that I wonder if he doesn't think that the Presidency should be some sort of evangelical protestant Papacy.

Jindal has gone to near comical extremes to distinguish himself from other candidates with whom he really has no disagreement. Bobby is smart enough to know that he isn't going to get anywhere by chiming in with a "me too" on every issue. So, he has to one-up the other candidates. If they want a 20 foot border fence, he wants one that's 25 feet. If they are outraged by the Supreme Court, then, by golly, Bobby is double outraged.

So, Jindal isn't content to criticize the Court. No, he calls for it to be abolished. Outrageous.
Why is this outrageous? Let me count the ways.
Here's one:
Just google "Jindal and second Amendment" and you will see dozens of instances in which Bobby piously intones about the genius of the founding fathers, and the sacredness of the US Constitution. He rails about how Obama and democrats do not have the proper respect of of laws.
Then, in the wink of an eye, Bobby decides that he wants to rip Article III from that sacred text.
Bobby, you are off to a really bad start.

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6/27/2015 5:54 am #1

Is That the Best We Can Do in America?

6/27/2015 11:01 am #2

Re: Is That the Best We Can Do in America?

6/27/2015 12:05 pm #3

Re: Is That the Best We Can Do in America?

6/27/2015 3:17 pm #4

Re: Is That the Best We Can Do in America?

6/27/2015 5:53 pm #5

Re: Is That the Best We Can Do in America?

6/27/2015 7:20 pm #6

Re: Is That the Best We Can Do in America?

6/28/2015 5:05 am #7

Re: Is That the Best We Can Do in America?

Tarnation wrote:

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