Every four years, the citizens of the greatest democracy in the history of the world entrust the office of President to a newly elected head of state. In front of the entire world, this extraordinary person places his hand on the sacred Bible, and recites an oath. Commonly, we call it “the Oath of Office". An oath, for those unfamiliar, is much like a promise.

This oath reads, in part, "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

That constitution places above all else the voice and will of the people.  George Washington was the first to take this oath on April 30, 1789. Ronald Reagan took it first January 20, 1981. It is one of those moments when the people’s voice is reflected loudly in the simple words of the newly elected….”I do”. When taking this oath, the newly elected president is entrusted with the honor and the privilege to represent the people of the United States.

This year, a couple of candidates to this esteemed office have already taken an oath, and in so doing, provide at least some opportunity to evaluate how they have adjudicated under the terms of that promise. Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, each swore an oath to uphold the laws and protect the office of Governor in their respective states.  As Americans begin the process of selecting someone to fill this most powerful position and entrust him with the power to shape and change the lives of millions of our own citizens, and potentially millions of sons and daughters around the globe, it may be telling and instructive to know just how one of these candidates treated his oath as Governor.

Michael Huckabee took the oath of office as Governor of Arkansas more than once.  A brief look at how the governor did in honoring this privilege is revealing.  According to the Associated Press, the state Ethics Commission investigated 14 total complaints against Huckabee and validated five of them. Two of them pertained to unreported gifts - a $500 canoe and a $200 stadium blanket. Big deal, we might say. Should we really be concerned about two gifts of such insignificance? Perhaps not. A closer look reveals more interesting behaviors however.  Apparently, the governor or his wife received, but did not initially report these three gifts:

$43,150 from his 1994 lieutenant governor's campaign for use of his personal airplane,

$14,000 Janet Huckabee received from his 1992 U.S. Senate campaign, and

$23,500 from a tax-exempt organization he incorporated in 1994, but whose funding source isn't known. This agency, known Action America, according to Huckabee, was set up to coordinate parts of his private-sector speaking schedule during his three years as lieutenant governor. (This is, of course very similar to the actions of one Congressman John Doolittle, currently under investigation by federal investigators)

Mr. Huckabee successfully appealed the stadium blanket sanction and a judge threw out the $250 fine. Mr. Huckabee told the AP, "In all of these complaints and attacks, not one has resulted in it being found that I've done something illegal." Well, with all do respect, that’s not the point, Governor. Illegal action would or should result in impeachment. A violation of ethical behavior is not necessarily, by definition, illegal. But it is, nonetheless, a disloyal act against the people who put you in office.

In addition to these 5 citations, Mr. Huckabee is widely reported to have used his office as Gov to first request, and then to pressure and coerce members of the state Parole board into issuing a pardon to one Wayne Dumond. Mr. Dumond, of course, went on to commit the most heinous acts of violence. Mr. Huckabee denies this accusation of abuse of power, yet two members of that parole board maintain that they were contacted and pressured to approve the request to pardon.  Mr. Huckabee issued similar pardons and commutations to more than one thousand individuals while Arkansas’s governor. Now, one might make all sorts of defenses for this extraordinary behavior, but to overturn or modify the decisions of so many people, over 1000 court actions, requires tremendous disregard of the will of the citizens of Arkansas. To apply the Governor's standard of legality again, this was certainly legal. Yet, by any reasonable standard, to toss or modify so many judicial outcomes should be a clear sign to voters that this man does not regard the rule of law. What deep arrogance is needed to proclaim so many times in essence, “I know better than those juries and those justices”. Ethical? Moral? Surreal, for sure.

It does not end there. At the conclusion of their eleven year reign, as Arkansas’s' Governor, he ordered the computer hard drives erased on every unit, so that no one would ever have access to his papers.  Additionally, the AP reported, that the churches where he served as pastor refuse to release any of the sermons he delivered. What are you hiding, Mr. Huckabee? Ironic, that so many Iowans labeled him as the trustworthy candidate yesterday.
  
But it does not end there either. Upon departing the state house, the Huckabees set up wedding registries, so that "grateful" citizens could furnish their new house. If that sounds familiar, it is of course, exactly what the Clintons did when leaving the White House. 

So the skeptical reader may wonder, why Richard, do you attempt to make the good old boy from Arkansas look so much like Mr. Clinton? Alas, Mr. Huckabee appears to have done that all by himself.  The great irony of Mr. Huckabee’s victory in the Iowa caucus, and the resounding media bites that have followed, is that he claims that America wants change. It appears to me, that Mr. Huckabee is simply more of the same….maybe worse. 

So picture if you can, a cold day in January of 2009, and Mike Huckabee, hand on a Bible, taking the oath of office from Chief Justice Roberts…can you see it? If it comes to pass, we’ll all be wondering, "does he mean it this time around?"