For Assassination Joke, Huckabee Should Be Off TV

Having joked less than a year ago about killing Mitt Romney (and his supporters), former Republican candidate for president, Mike Huckabee, has now made light of assassinating Sen. Barack Obama.

According to CNN, during his recent speech at the NRA convention in Louisville Kentucky, the former presidential candidate offered the following joke in response to a loud noise off stage:

"That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak...Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor." (from CNN PoliticalTicker.com)

As Huckabee transitions from presidential candidate to media pundit, his habit of joking about political assassination leads many Americans to question the place of violent rhetoric in the speech of high-profile political pundits, as well as the consequences that should result from it.

Legal vs. Civic Questions
Many would argue that joking about assassinating a Presidential candidate falls well within the realm of free speech and should not merit any particular consequences--legal, moral or otherwise. Indeed, past court rulings on the question of jokes about assassinating a sitting president suggest that it is very difficult to establish any kind of legal culpability in these instances. The question, it seems, falls down to two factors: (1) the often 'vituperative, abusive, and inexact,' nature of political rhetoric and (2) the legal difficulty of establishing intent to bring about actual harm in these instances (see Eugene Volokh, 'Jokes About Killing the President' Apr 27, 2005).

Legal questions, of course, are only one aspect of this issue. In addition to what is permissible by law, Americans are also deeply concerned with whether or not certain kinds of speech tend to undermine the necessary pragmatic nature of our civic process -- our ability to turn to the media and to each other to learn what we need to learn in order to achieve our common goals. When we turn away from legal questions and begin to examine the kinds of rhetoric that may undermine our deliberative democracy, we start to see that Americans are by-and-large opposed to violent jokes and speech tossed out by political pundits.

And yet despite this opposition on the basis of maintaining a healthy, civic process, violent-rhetoric from high-profile pundits continues largely unchecked.

In 2006, for example, Ann Coulter joked about the need for someone to assassinate Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens:

We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee," Coulter said. "That's just a joke, for you in the media. (Coulter Jokes About Poisoning Supreme Court Justice, FOX News)

A trained Constitutional attorney, Coulter understood the legal precedents regarding jokes about political assassination -- meaning that she knew how to craft a joke about political assassination such that it would not land her in any kind of jeopardy. Nonetheless, it is clear that Coulter also knows that joking about assassinating a Supreme Court Justice would earn her a great deal of media coverage and have an impact on national debate on abortion.

In a political context where anti-abortion activists have assassinated medical practitioners on the excuse that they were stopping the doctors from performing further procedures, many interpreted Coulter's joke as having contributed to an atmosphere of violence and threat in American politics.

Citizen Outrage Ignored By Media Companies
Citizens' concerns over Coulter, however, were not in any way heeded by corporate media--both broadcast and publishing -- nor by political parties. Following her remarks, Coulter continued to earn huge book deals and continued to enjoy virtual open access to high-profile broadcast media.

What Coulter and Huckabee share in common is that they both used rhetoric that was legal, but nonetheless toxic to healthy political debate.

When a political pundit uses a high-profile political forum to joke about assassinating his or her political opposition, the result is that deliberative debate shuts down. Indeed, the response that violent rhetoric elicits in the minds of Americans is not the desire to censor speech in any way, but a call for violent-speech to be channeled towards entertainment where citizens are provided with the resources to make more informed choices about what they will and will not watch or hear.

In the meantime, Mike Huckabee's joke about an assassination attempt on Sen. Obama will lead to the same outcome as Coulter's joke about assassinating John Paul Stevens: disruption of deliberative debate followed by greater broadcast presence awarded to him by the media.

The outcome should be the opposite: media marginalization instead of aggrandizement.

For joking about the assassination of Sen. Obama, Mike Huckabee should be removed from the rosters of all the various cable and network stations on which he regularly appears.

Follow Jeffrey Feldman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JeffreyFeldman

Comments

[CarlyCorday]

Huckabee spawned a cruel, sadistic teenager who hanged and tortured a pitiful starving stray dog while holding a respected leadership role and position of great trust over young Boy Scouts. Huckabee to me is one thing only: a man who should keep his head down, stay humble, spend even more time than most of us asking God's pardon and praying for understanding. He's anything but humble, and I don't like him.

Google for a picture of Mike Huckabee's psycho son. He'll give you nightmares.

Arkansan
ex-Republican

[ICanHasDemocracy]

Put Huckabee in a padded cell with Hagee and Palfrey. First to see the rapture wins thorazine for life!

[robynuva]

I despise President Bush, I mean I really hate him, but I would never make a joke like that. I have called him many, many names, and have even hinted that his parents were never married, or that his anccestry includes canines, but never a comment like Mike Huckabee's.

Even if you can't respect the man, you MUST respect the office. Barak Obama is a sitting Senator of the United States of America, and as such deserves respect. Mike Huckabee should be ashamed of himself. (of course he is kind of a true nut-job, so who knows if he really gets why this was sooooo bad.)

R's just can't bring the funny. They try, but they always sound mean.

[AmandaRuth]

well shmuck's comment has disappeared from the the main stream media in less then 3 days. Now, what would have happened if Obama had made an assignation joke about McCain? No really, what would have happened?

[Dramaticlookcat]

It's nice to finally see Huckabee's true colors.

It's telling that Huckabee made another assasination joke a year prior re: Romney. Not so much of an aberration now, is it? I don't even think the NRA liked it when he made those remarks about Obama. It played into stereotypes that they don't like about themselves.

I agree with the person who said Huckabee should be banished from all cable and networks. What would he do without them?

[Shanti]

I think Hucks true colors are that he was not really joking, but was probably a freudian slip. Remember when another religious, right wing, wacko on the lunatic fringe called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez and Pat Robertson was serious!

[tsammani]

To the Rev. Huckabee via Ring Lardner, with American history in mind:

"Shut up," he explained.

[SaintZak]

What is even more alarming is that Huckabee is still being spoken of as a possible VP candidate.

[Stokes]

Because of the history of this Bush Republican crime family, I am very concerned for Obama. The remark made by gun-toting Huckabee should not be taken lightly. All of these neo-con so called Christians apologize after they get out the message of how they truly feel. In their perverted way of interpreting the words of Christ, they seem to find justification in anything that they do or say. I pray the Lord to send His Holy Angels to surround and protect our nominee, Obama and his family.

[gladys46]

If Obama were a "full" white man, Uncle Huckabee would have at least been detained by the law enforcement community for questioning!

[peter4263]

I'm white,blue collar,with half a brain and half a soul.

[peter4263]

I'm still not sure Sen Barack has what it takes. He seems to be. All the other alternative candidates are so scary, I'd vote for Oprah or Letterman. The Way this country works, behind the scenes,behind the media output, is appalling. If and when he gets the nonmination,he will need coverage from the government,from the kitchen government. No its no joke. Its not about race or gender, its about who gets the money. Most of the money.

[oldwiseone]

And a red poster with the words "stop him Now" doesn't belong here either.

[oldwiseone]

This is not a joke. The feelings among many of us is that given the way extremists have conducted themselves, and with the implicit approval of certain members of our government, it is very likely that someone or some organization will attempt to "stop" Obama the way they stopped Martin Luther King.
It was already mentioned that it would happen in West Virginia if he went there. The scary part is that it wouldn't be of any surprise if some deranged person or persons actually tried, and it wouldn't be of any surprise if such an event also murdered democarcy along with it. This nation would never recover.
Already a billionaire offered a million dollars for a video of Obama's wife denoucing whites, how much would be offered to "stop" Obama? The problem is that for every black supporting obama, there are two whites also supporting him.

[peter4263]

I know its not a joke. I've seen what happens to the unfavored. My comment was to the columnist,not the situation. The reality needs to be faced on. the threats are real and history has shown us they can carry through. But this columnists comments were merely attention getting and out of reality. the violent rhetoric comes from many seemingly innocuous places,not this poor man's lack of sense of humor.(ele­cted poor man). It's our lack that lets this go on. We vote for expedient solution,rather than solution. the comment was only to the columnist,for throwing gasoline on a spark,hoping to ignite to a pulitzer. oldwiseone no disrespect to the real world.

[peter4263]

The problem isn't politicians making bad or inappropriate jokes. Thats a given. The problem lies with columnists like you,who make a big jump from bad joke to violent rhetoric. From now on you and your ilk, should continue the rhythmic pushing and pulling of you pens,to yourselves.

[ernieson]

The Wright snippets played in the MSM for weeks and will play for many more.
The Huckabee idiocy got a few hours of airtime and poof- GONE. What does that tell you about who plays what and who hushes what?
And Huckabee wants to be vice president after a gaffe like that. What a gift of gaffe for the Dems.
The fact that murmurs were the only responses from the NRA members was noteable.
Sorry Mr. Huckleberry Hound, you may have barked the wrong bark.