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

[sbvpav]

for those of us old enough to have lived through the sixties, and i don't mean just the vietnam war, or berkley or kent state or birminham; i mean dallas, november 1963 and memphis 1968 and los angeles 1968; we find rev. huckabee's comments more than just offensive but dangerous. perhaps it is time, if rev. huckabee is a baptist minister first and a politician second, he should search his soul and give his(and the republican party)own speech about race in america. with any blunder also comes an opportunity and i am hoping rev. huckabee uses this opportunity to send more than just a written statement of apology; like sen. clinton, once a comment is made it is out there in the american psyche.

[Meah]

I was there too. I agree with you and I appreciate your thoughtful words. This came out of him and he represents a huge region of people who think just like he does. He needs to ask himself why he said this and perhaps some good can come out of it. Not to apologize, but to speak to like minds about his mistake and how such thinking needs to change in this country.

[MrsPeel]

Myself as well.

[WilliePilgrim]

Huckabee IS off TV, isn't he? I mean, whenever I see him, I turn him off pretty much as soon as I get the gist of what he's rambling on about. Or are you suggesting there should be some sort of censorship over which some body of august men and women would preside? And you don't see that as a greater danger? Dude, turn off the TV and read stuff. You feed the fear mongers and merchants of death with your unflinching attention by glueing your eyeballs on the TV. Every commercial that you watch empowers the owners of the media who have one interest only, increased profit, and censorship or free speech, 1st amendment or FCC decency, or whatever, as long as you continue to watch. Ha ha!

[KevinMast]

He is supposed to be a minister? Huckabee's comments send chills down my spine. I remember the assasaination of Bobby Kennedy & Martin Luther King as a small child and of course talk of the death of JFK.. Get him out of there & put a muzzle on Ann Coulter. These aren't things to be joked about.

[certainot]

fortunately this got some notice and replay but this happens every day on the GOP talk radio monopoly all over the country and progressives don't notice. for 50-70 MIL this kind of shit gets blowharded every day from your local talk radio station. unless Americans start boycotting and picketing the radio stations it will get much worse.

for instance, the way this works, in this particular case, is the blowhard will play the huckabee quote and make fun of those who criticize it and compare it, without evidence, to 'liberals who have said the 'same' and compare it to joe blow who said the same on such and such a blog. over and over and over all over the country as only rove's GOP radio can do.

[noamjunior]

great post

[Meah]

Sort of like that idiot who was on Matthews and just kept screaming about appeasement, but could not say why Chamberlain was called an appeaser. I guess there are many people who listen and watch every day to right wing pundents. Like everyone who live in the Applachians? This hatred and vile disgusting lies have got to stop. Most people have had it with all of that, and George Bush has shown true leadership in flushing our country down the toilet. I am old enough to remember politics that was conducted on a much more honorable playing field. Eisenhower was such a person, and would have contempt for these idiots. But there was old Dick Nixon in the fifties, talking about his wife's simple hairshirt coat and his dog, trying to make people feel sorry for him on national TV. That was the beginning of an era that must come to an end. Eisenhower did not want him on the ticket, but Nixon's words on radio and TV changed that, and he was put on the ticket anyway. My mother put Nixon's photograph on the inside lid of our toilet in 1955! In the long run, the Republican Party has made fools and idiots out of themselves, and are going to be thrown out of office. So the more they have to say on Rove's GOP radio etc, , the worse it wil be in the long run for them..

[Midnightrain]

Huckabee is a sick individual. But hey, so are most punidts and politicians. His recklessness needs to be checked, and he certainly doesn't need to go prime time.

At best, his comments give a clear view of those pitchforks and horns sticking out of his head.

[BigMike75]

What is it with ministers these days? It's like the pulpit has triggered some kind of "kook" factor that has never been seen like this. Joke or no joke, apology or no apology, that was a joke that should not have been told. Given the political climate, a historic candidate like Obama(an African American NEVER getting this far), and the audience the joke was presented to...it was just in very, very, poor taste.

[polaris12]

It was exactly the climate of hate created by the right wing that surrounded President Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. It is illegal to threaten the President, but there should be some kind of penalty for people who make these kinds of provocative remarks. It gives a signal to all the nut cases out there that, hey there is nothing wrong with killing someone you don't like. In Mike Huckabee's case, it's amazing how many of these so-called Christians want people to be killed - a la Pat Robertson and President Chavez of Venezuela. But with Huckabee, once a redneck always a redneck.

[oncesung]

The terrifying thing about Huckabee's comment is reality that America has a population of gun-toting, black-hating citizens out there who have already dreamed of having Obama in their sights. To hear one of their own - especially one who carries the credentials of "Reverend" - even suggest that someone might shoot Obama could sound to them like permission, even encouragement, to try to do that just that. Kind of like that line "Will no one rid me of this man?" that brought down Thomas Becket. Let's pray no trigger happy hillbilly ever gets near the next president.

[lunadove]

That's my fear as well.
It might not take much for an ignorant, angry, and fearful person to hear what they think is "a message of god" and act on it. I hope this does not manifest as a seed in a twisted mind, someone who believes they are doing "what is right", literally and figuratively.
There should be bigger repercussions than an apologie.

[Midnightrain]

You're right, what he said amounted to a silent agreement, a bond - permission to fulfill a prophecy. It was devilishly cunning and needs to be called out for what it was.

[Sundialsvc4]

"Assassination" is N-O-T a freakin' joke! It's a very, very real threat every day that any political candidate steps outside of his or her armored-car. Especially for the Presidency, and especially in these times.

There's more-than-a-little courage in the candidates, and a huge amount of courage in the Secret Service and other law-enforcement operatives who are willing to risk their lives to try to protect them.

Sure, there's a lot of anger here. But let's remember: this is a nation of law, not disorder, and that's a thing of principle that protects us all who live here. (That the current occupants of some high offices have forgotten this, doesn't change it.)

When the Germans lost World War II, they thought they knew what happened next. No, we gave 'em a trial. A real one.

You want a lawless man out of office? Yeah, me too. But you impeach that man, you give him the trial he never gave his enemies, you convict him and slam him in an orange jumpsuit for life. You don't shoot him. (He might wind up on a fifty-cent piece.) And you don't make JOKES about shooting him or anyone.

With great power (e.g. a firearm, or, being a citizen here) comes great responsibility.

[oncesung]

You have to understand that Mike Huckabee, with his past of being a minister - "God's man" - may well have an innate sense of being above mere "man's law". He doesn't give the impression of spending time reflecting on what he says or does, confident as he is in the overall correctness of his perspective.

[Sundialsvc4]

I shall leave you to your own understandings, of both God and men.

Our media is filled with a cacophony of divisive noise, whose only true purpose seems to be division, and I would place these comments (by Huckabee) in the same swill-bucket.

And in the quiet stillness of my "secret praying-place," I do daily lift-up this nation and implore the One "who is not mocked" that He will not tarry to rescue this nation from itself; from those who in their insolence willingly profane both His name and their own nation's. I know that these entreaties are heard. And I know that, in truth, He does not tarry. I know that He raises leaders up, or permits them to rise-up for a time, and then brings them down utterly.

But the ways of Justice are not the ways of Violence, and we should not give Violence a voice nor should we acknowledge the words of the fools among us (e.g. Huckabee) who do. That is not something we should accept or condone.

[CyrusBeaucephus]

Hey Mike it sure was a knee-slapper when that good-ole boy gunned down MLK? You Huckabees are such cut ups. That jokes about as hilarious as torturing a stray dog.

[liberalloons]

Wow, you are an idot.

[allwrite]

It must be true that Republicans as a group are infected with meanness, short on judgement, and disinterested in civil discourse. I can't otherwise make sense of how it is that Republican candidates for public office (at least at the national level) so often display these characteristics.

I suppose an alterantive theory is that they are just basically devoid of comedic talent. This theory is appealing, especially when you consider that so very little of what they have done this century is funny.

[Caringthinkingperson]

How can there be public outrage for the removal of Don Imus, and this not get at least as large a reaction? It is like saying "Bomb" as you get on an airplane. It out to be a federal offense.

[rmreddicks]

As a caveat: In no way do I agree with Jack Bauersox.

I am a bit tired of "federal offense(s)". I suggest it's an offense against humanity to say "Bomb, bomb, bomb. Bomb bomb Iran." The Huckster's "joke" will be understood as a crime (and that would be federal) should any deranged dittohead find a message in it.

Perhaps next time I get on an aeroplane (and have no pressing need to get anywhere) I'll raise my fists in a victory salute and shout out O-Bam-A! I'm fairly certain that the TSA and flight marshal's will hear only the middle syllable. As they shoot me I'll tell them it was merely a joke.

Obama gets my vote. The Huckster gets what I normally reserve for the murderous bush.

[bellecloche]

I completely agree, although unfortunately it is unsurprising that today's atmosphere of say-anything-extremist-about-the-left has led to this. While all of the left has to be forever careful about criticizing anything having to do with the U.S. lest they be accused of lacking patriotism, the extremist right has made no effort to distinguish between what they say on television or in print and what they say to their friends on a Saturday night at the bar. Huckabee's comment was horrific, and yet it can simply be added to the long list of offensive things that have failed to cost the speaker his or her political career when it should have. (For example, almost anything Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have said about gays or feminists, and almost anything Ann Coulter has said about John Edwards' deceased son, the New York Times, the 9/11 widows, non-Christians, and anyone of Middle Eastern or Arab descent.) As you say, under freedom of speech these things are legal. But under the rules of decency or professionalism, they belong on a piece of cardboard with the speaker ranting from a street corner.

[NetWeasel]

Personally, I think he got the joke wrong, just messed up.

Remember, this was an NRA event. I think the joke he was TRYING to use was something like this:

(NOISE)
"That was just Barack Obama -- he was on his way up to the stage to speak. He saw a gun and then dove for the floor."

At an NRA event. Still questionable taste, but the concept of "I went to talk to the NRA, and they had GUNS! GASP!" is funny.

[Shashi0224]

Nothing about this is funny. It amazes me how those who run on "values" have none. The Republicans pounce on any small word that could in any possible way be misconstrued by any Democrat - yet they simply excuse away and dismiss any idiotic, mean-spirited comment by a Republican.
Vote straight Democratic - for a better world.
Obama '08!!

[jeplanet]

It's not one bit funny; it was inflammatory and in extremely poor taste.
And yet, here you are playing it down and even getting the quote wrong.
Huckabee said; .."somebody AIMED a gun at him and he dove for the floor."
Watch the video, and stop making excuses for these right wing nutjobs.

[rmreddicks]

Remind me to never be near you when you're handling a weapon.

[hoodrat]

At least you sir, know the difference between a weapon and gun : )

[majorteddy]

Mike Huckabee has gotten a free ride from the press and the pundits because he is always cracking a joke. This primary season I saw him at least 20 times where he was asked atough question and never did answer it because he got away with avoiding it by saying something stupid of funny. If I want laughs, I'll tune in Chris Rock, Larry the cable guy, an old Red Green show. When I listen to politicians, I want serious answer. They are not running for national comedian. The press fell asleep on their watch concerning Huckabee this primary season. I don't have any idea what he actually stood for except he wanted to replace the Constitution with the Bible. He is a KOOK. As far as the NRA comment, I had a friend that got worked up and sent a nasty letter to George Wallace in 1968 and he got a visit from the Secret Service. He wasn't arrested, but he was warned very seriously. I heard the Secret Service was none too pleased. What was he thinking? I guess he wasn't. His brain must be clogged with cholesterol from all those squirrels fried in a popcorn popper. OOH! I'll bet that young stud picked up the chicks in college doing that. I wonder how much drugs and alcohol he had to do something like that? You know, the Republicans weren't too happy when Reagan was shot.