Huckenfreude

Schadenfreude is a German word that means taking delight in another's misfortune. With Huckabee leading in the polls in Iowa we now have Huckenfreude, the delight that the GOP might get stuck with this dude. For 30 years the general idea was that the GOP candidates were supposed to pander to the religious right, not come from there. The right was to be a bunch of cicadas -- rise up every 4 years, elect their guy, and go to sleep. And now they must contend with Huck:

But now the holy-rolling monster the GOP's Dr. Frankensteins have created has thrown off the shackles, fled the lab, and is currently leading in Iowa. And the party doesn't know what to do.

The columnists of the libertarian branch of the GOP, those who want to keep government out of the lives of citizens (and out of the way of business), have lots of outrage and hyperventilation about Huck being in the lead. Well, guys, you made your bed… Here's a summary in the Huffington Post of the weeping and wailing. Enjoy your Huckenfreude while you can.

This just might be a great season for quotes.

“Unless Moses comes down with two stone tablets from Brokeback Mountain to tell us something different, we need to keep that understanding of marriage."

-- Mike Huckabee

"Let's understand what sin means -- sin means missing the mark. … The mark is that we have marriage -- men and women, they marry, they create children, and they train their replacements and you have a future generation then that creates their replacements and trains them. That's the mark. If we didn't have that as the ideal, we wouldn't have a civilization that was able to perpetuate."

-- Mike Huckabee

Though not a formal part of any denomination (including Huckabee's own Southern Baptist) this second quote is a part of the heterosexual imperative, marriage imperative, and procreation imperative. And Huck believes them all. In summary: It is a sin to be non-Christian (well, duh! They get to define the term!). It is a sin to be homosexual. It is a sin to be single (in spite of St. Paul's urge to remain single if you can) unless you become a priest or nun, because otherwise your urges will lead you astray. Since you have to get married, it is a sin to not have as many children as God might choose to bless you with. And if everyone sins, everyone fails to do all these things, than we won't have any more babies and Western Civilization will collapse.

Scan into the comments and we get more of Huck's beliefs. Though the government has to maintain the separation of Church and State, the people don't have to. That means that morality and religious beliefs can be decided by the majority. No one may restrict the religious rights of the majority but the majority has every right to restrict the religious rights of any minority. Huck would make Bush look like a wimp. Tyranny of the Majority? Never heard of it.

Here's the first strip in a series in Doonesbury in which Bush and an aide talk about Huckabee.