I recall once seeing Mark Shields on television referring to the late Rowland Evans and Robert Novak(who collaborated on a column) as 'Errors and No Facts". Novak has purveyed a lot of hearsay over the years, amidst some genuine scoops. Along with you, Mr. Orr, I doubt that Huckabee will be a thorn in McCain's side this election season.

But remember, libref, Novak is a conservative. One of the keys to the conservative soul is the scapegoat. Something or someone else is always responsible for every apparent failure of a conservative person or idea. Conservatives and conservatism are never wrong or in any way less than perfect. Therefore, facing a difficult election, conservatives must brace their fragile psyches in advance with preemptive scapegoat theories.

Either McCain is not actually a conservative -- as many conservatives discovered of George W. Bush at exactly the same moment that they realized that his presidency had been an embarrassing failure -- or some other non-conservative is stabbing him in the back. And since movement conservatives have long held that Huckabee is not a true conservative, despite being exactly what they've been telling voters they are for decades, the idea that Huckabee is stabbing McCain in the back is irresistible.

Note how, for Novak, Huckabee's statements and actions in support of McCain are taken as possible evidence in favor of Huckabee's opposition to McCain. It's the perfect expression of the paranoid style, in which even contrary evidence is merely proof of the size and scope of the conspiracy. So just as God planted the dinosaur fossils to trick scientists, Huckabee campaigns for McCain to trick conservatives.

That Novak would write this kind of crap about Huckabee raises my esteem for the Huckster. Sometimes, making the right enemies is a virtue.

Beautiful rhubarbs.  Write a column, why dontcha?

Rhubarbs: Channeling Richard Hofstadter, I see? As for paranoia, since conservatism went mainstream, a smaller percentage of its adherents are paranoid. And the paranoid style is not confined to the right, as the examples of Jeremiah Wright and the 9/11 "truthers" demonstrate. No column, please.

I don't see a big faith speech being useful for Obama.  Why build up expectations (or give the Obama-is-Muslim smear crowd, or the Wrightmare machine, another excuse to gin up the rumor mill again)?  Romney's big faith speech is quite enough for one presidential campaign, isn't it?

The 9/11 "Truthers" are not confined to any one traditional political camp.  Fortunately or unfortunately.

libref, I notice that you do not actually challenge any assertions I make. Several questions:

1. Do you believe that Novak's use of Huckabee's stated and demonstrated support for McCain as evidence for the theory that Huckabee opposes McCain is a rational use of evidence to demonstrate a conclusion?

2. Have you actually talked to any conservatives about George W. Bush since 2005? I subject myself to conservative-dominated activities on a regular basis, and I can tell you it's not only the fringy crazies and YAFies who exhibit paranoid tendencies. In September 2005, basically every conservative I know spent the month mocking the idiots who didn't flee New Orleans when they had the chance and the Democratic state officials who whined about it and blah blah blah, and by the way George W. Bush's strong, conservative response to Katrina was exactly right. By November (after Katrina and Harriet Miers), basically every conservative I know had suddenly discovered that Bush had never been a real conservative, and had betrayed the Republican Party, and how could any self-respecting conservative ever have voted for such a charlatan, and they all saw through him from the beginning. It was like someone flipped a switch. I have often heard liberals admit that this or that liberal idea just didn't work, or this or that liberal politician just wasn't up to the job. I have never, not ever, not even once, heard a conservative say the same. Rather, failure is always the result of a lack of sincere conservative values or of betrayal by outside forces. It's not the John Birchers (are there even Birchers anymore?) who think like this; it's the entire self-identified conservative movement that thinks like this. To a man, in my personal experience.

3. As a mathematical matter, why would you expect an increase in the number of conservatives to lead to a reduction in the percentage of paranoid persons among the conservative ranks? If one-tenth of all people are crazy, and I increase membership in my club from 100 to 200, you wouldn't expect the percentage of crazy people in my club to go down, would you? Not if you're a non-crazy person, you wouldn't; you would expect my club to go from 10 crazy members to 20 crazy members. And what if something about my club happened to attract crazy people more than it attracted sane people? In that case, growing overall membership would lead to an increasing percentage of crazy people among the members, as the pool of potential members sorted themselves into crazy joiners and sane non-joiners.

Putting aside the issue of conservative bona fides for a moment...

Obama's role in the End Times?

And now this: according to AP, the Vatican just announced that they're totally cool with folks believing in extraterrestrial intelligent beings. So, for all of you who were waiting for Rome to give you permission to believe in Little Green Men, have at it.

Everything is starting to make sense now.

Okay. Well, then. I'd love to chat more, but seeing as I'm no longer a member in good standing in the Completely Out Of Our Fucking Minds Club, I'd better skedaddle down to Home Depot, Costco, and the gun shop before they close and pick up some supplies for my subterranean backyard bunker.

Rhubarbs: I didn't challenge any of your assertions because they are not challengeable. I protested your sweeping statement. I have a good friend who is a conservative columnist locally and he has detested Bush all along. There has been a lot of switch - flipping but this has nothing to do with paranoia. It is called "the rats are deserting the ship". When people's loyalty extends no further than their noses,  you don't need to hasten to your study to snag and furiously thumb through The Paranoid Style in American Politics for a political diagnosis.

In two days you will see a lot of "Obama is the antichrist" and "his plague-like presidency will bring about End Times" in pccostello's posts.