Fiscal conservatives rallying against Huckabee

The dominant story of the past few weeks in the GOP race has been the Religious Right's crusade against Rudy Giuliani. But an equally interesting dynamic is developing around the candidacy of Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas. Business conservatives are very hostile to Huckabee and see in him an economic populist guilty of having raised taxes and hurting free trade while governor.

Naturally, Huckabee is still a long shot for the nomination. He is raising in state polls and some national polls, but he has absolutely no money and still remains far behind the frontrunners. But Huckabee is at the very top of vice-presidential prospects -- especially if the presidential nominee is Giuliani. Thus, business conservatives are stepping in to deflate Huckabee's momentum and portray him as unacceptable.

The Wall Street Journal's John Fund recently wrote a very negative piece on Huckabee, making the case that Huckabee is embracing liberal policies. Fund quotes an Arkansas businessman rehashing Huckabee's faults: "He's hostile to free trade, hiked sales and grocery taxes, backed sales taxes on Internet purchases, and presided over state spending going up more than twice the inflation rate."

Now, the Club for Growth has jumped in as well. Its very influential president Pat Toomey wrote an op-ed in the National Review exposing Huckabee's "stunning record of big-government liberalism," protectionism and support for unions. He explains that "the average Arkansan’s tax burden increased 47 percent" and that "state spending increased by 50 percent." Toomey concludes, "In 2006, Republicans paid a steep price for big-government conservatism’s record-setting domestic spending spree. That is a lesson we should take to heart as we consider the choices facing us in 2008."

The most threatening argument was voiced by leading RedState blogger Erick:

While the media has been filled with stories about the socons ready to bolt from the GOP if Rudy is the nominee, the real story and the untold story is that the business community is even more ready to bolt from the GOP. For the last eight years they've watched as the socons have scored every significant win on the right — stem cells, judges, etc. The fiscal guys see the writing on the wall. Huckabee breaks the coalition more than Giuliani because the socons fear Hillary more than the fiscalcons do.

How much would a Giuliani-Huckabee ticket calm all these concerns? By balancing an economically conservative social moderate with a socially conservative economic moderate, would it save the Republican coalition, or just anger everyone? Recent weeks have taught us that talk of breaking the coalition is mostly empty talk, and that social conservatives are not ready to bolt out of the GOP -- just as fiscal conservatives probably are not. Thus, a Giuliani-Huckabee ticket would outwardly satisfy everyone. But in an election where the GOP base is already depressed and disillusioned, it might drive everyone's enthusiasm even lower -- giving Democrats an invaluable motiation advantage.