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

[jayburd]

Governor Huckabee should get a visit from the Secret Service.

[carlgt1]

Isn't it hilarious that "pro-life" hypocrites such as Huckabee & Coulter are the ones with the kill/assassinate jokes?

[proudloudlib]

Thanks for that. I was getting all worked up, but you reminded me of what a JOKE these two idiots are. Hilarious, for sure. Also, more than a little sad. Anyway, I've solved the problem. I do not watch any show that either of them is appearing on. I see them, I change the channel, I count on Huffpo to let me know what fresh outrage they have visited upon us. Life is just too short to actually listen to their crap.

[rich3324]

Huckabee is just nuts, so he should get his on show on Fox News. He will fit right in.

[auramac]

Again, I'm completely amazed that the guy who "joked" about the first serious black contender to win the office of the presidency in history being shot at immediately declares his desire to be VP. That "joke" is unfunny and frightening no matter who it was made about- Hiilary, McCain, or Huckleberry himself.

McCain will verify his senilty if he takes him on. Both he and the Huckster were OK on SNL, but the two of them should get out of politics- please!

[robXdion]

Then this idiot has the temerity to go on TV and say he wants a to be on McCain's ticket for VP. . . . . . .after making a lame joke about the opposing party's candidate getting shot. . . . . . .given he's from the South with it's history of killing black men for even attempting to dignified. . . . . .this would be a good laughable fictional tale if it didn't really happen. And the South wonders why they can't get businesses to invest down there?

[JohnnyBuchwald]

Obama needs life insurance. By that, I mean he needs someone not unlike John Edwards in the second spot. Someone whom the corporations that run this government are even more afraid of than Obama himself. Change, if it comes, will rub a lot of powerful people the wrong way. These are the people Obama needs to be protected from. Huckabee is merely a harmless, racist animal whose got his hackles up. Spread the word. Get Obama life insurance.

[VivaZapata]

If you ban Huckabee, where does it end? Is his admittedly dangerous level of smartass jokester worse than the whole neocon contingent of actual murdering sociopath behavior? Panning, si; banning, no.

[longislandlol]

Huckabee-- hard to believe this joker was once considered a contender-- but McCain is the best they can do ( after Saturday Night Live- he was Saturday Night Lite''--- very lite on substance-- very tongue in cheek about not minding if the democrats go on to the convention in August and even beyond.....it was not a good performance

[julieeiluj]

"Oh, I was just joking." It is a well known fact that Obama needed secret service protection so soon because of all the death threats. I wonder if Jesus made Huckabee do it? Perhaps it was a Freudian slip as to what the republicans have planned for Obama to stop him. They are capable of murdering presidents and strong candidates that challenge their greed fueled agenda.

[McLaren]

Wow. Hate much?

[Boboday555]

Mr. Huckabee, when Senator Obama becomes President Obama, you should prepare yourself for the biggest IRS Audit of your hillbilly life...

[McLaren]

Ah yes. Obama will use the IRS to hurt his critics. How Clintonesque...

[Boboday555]

Now check me if I’m wrong but, using the AWOL Coward from Crawford’s own definition, shouldn’t Mike Huckabee now be considered a terrorist by this administration?

[dadw5boys]

no Repiblicans can't be both the SAVIORS AND THE TERRORIST can they?

Wow I guess they can look what Rumsfeld did. Sent to few troops to do a job and extend the war 5 more years. Then attack when the Generals all say no then pull the attack and have al Sadr hounding American troops for 3 years.

[veracity]

Wow. Over the years I have been banned and censored from some pretty good, "progressive" blogs - (mostly for pointing out that the New York Times' so-called "liberal" agenda has, on almost all "big ticket" issue - Iraq war, stolen election 2000, the impeachment of President Clinton, the denigration of Al Gore in 2000, while giving Texas Gov. George W. Bush a free-pass for his life-long train of scandals - echoed the agenda of Times' columnist & former Nixon Speechwriter William Safire, which is to say that 9 times out of 10 the Times is hawking the Joe Lieberman "Republican in Democrats' clothes" agenda)...

.....but nothing confirms my long-held analysis better than the "major media's" SUPPRESSION of the story that Republican presidential candidate - and Baptist (?) preacher! - Mike Huckabee has even CONTEMPLATED an assassination attempt on a rival presidential candidate.

How sad. How grotesque. How classless. HOW CENSORED! from the front pages and network 'news' leads of corporate America!

Can anyone IMAGINE the HOWLS of outrage if any Democratic Party official - anywhere, including Dog Catcher in the most remote town in Montana or Idaho - made a similar public "joke" about Mr. Bush, Mr: Cheney, or Mr. Mccain?

Well, thanks to Mr. Huckabee, for his textbook example of how someone can allegedly didicated his career to following the life of Christ, but could actually sound more like a Roman imperial soldier goading a captured prisoner on the way to a bloody end in the gladiator games.

[jayburd]

I'm actually relieved the story has been largely suppressed. Chris Matthews rightly refused to give the story more than a mention the other night stating that nut jobs watch everything and that stories like this can give them ideas. This one really needs to stay out of the spotlight.

[FCBarca]

Only karma resolution is to hope for Huckabee to fail to 'duck' when someone takes him out.

What an idiot, should be criminal for him to have said what he said

[NChooseK]

The people who should be handing Huckabee his head right now are the N.R.A. I've had conversations with serious members of this organization, and to them gun safety is no joke. If they really want to put themselves forward as anything other than a lobbying wing of the guns and ammo industry, it's time for them to say "Gov. Huckabee does not speak FOR us and he will not speak TO us either, for the foreseeable future."

[dadw5boys]

Now you Yankees need to know the KLAN has traditions before they burn a cross and sit down to a BBQ Dinner they have to tell a few hate filled jokes which are always followed by a prayer and some songs of worship.

Can't fight tradition!!!! lol.