From Deacon at Powerlines:

My main objection to Huckabee — the reason why he’s my fifth choice out of five — is that I lack confidence in his ability to fight terrorism. It’s not just that he lacks experience in this realm, though that’s certainly the case. The real problem is that he’s too moralistic (which is not the same thing as moral). My first clue came when he said during an early debate that we need to remain in Iraq because “we broke it.” Not because we need to defeat al Qaeda; not because we need to limit Iranian influence or avoid a devastating defeat at the hands of terrorists; but because we injured this formerly peaceful state. Huckabee’s exaltation of moralism (in this case dubious) over policy calculation was difficult to miss.

Now we learn (but are surprised) that Huckabee opposes waterboarding and would close the Guantanamo Bay detention center. Huckabee reached this conclusion after meeting with a group of retired generals (the usual suspects, I assume) who are lobbying candidates to oppose Bush administration interrogation and detention policies.

I suspect that Huckabee required little lobbying. Waterboarding and long-term detention aren’t very “Christian”; they merely keep terrorists out of action and, in special circumstances enable us to find out where we’re going to be attacked next and/or where we can find those who are planning the next attacks. But if Huckabee actually did reach his position based on the views of a handful of generals, and without consulting the people actually charged with protecting this country from terrorists, then he’s even less qualified to be president than I suspect.

Huh? Moralistic is not moral. Torture and denial of justice is moral but not important to our nation’s security? And a handful of generals aren’t “the people actually charged with protecting this country from terrorists”??!!!??

I’m sure Deacon believes that Kool-Aid swilling bloggers lacking military leadership experience and neocon academics still asserting that they’ve found their special purpose are the people actually charged with protecting us against the Iraqis and Iranians and Pakistani lawyers and Dixie Chicks who attacked us on 9-11. And there’s just no gentle way to disabuse him of the notion.

The Minister of Arkansas can be legitimately be critiqued for his anti-science positions, but the Deacon of the Powerlines Pulpit can be legitimately snickered at. Not for being born with special needs, but for making the lifestyle choice to exist as a retard, flicking bloggy boogers in all directions and insisting that Professional Wrassling is really reality real.