Chuckles the Clown: Huckabee's F'd in History Class (March 2011)

As transcribed in today’s Wonkette, the following excerpt came from a radio interview with Mike “Chuckles” Huckabee...

HUCKABEE: I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American. When he gave the bust back to the Brits –

MALZBERG: Of Winston Churchill.

HUCKABEE: the bust of Winston Churchill, a great insult to the British. But then if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.

Now I know Chuckabee is catching all sorts of shit from commentators, reporters, and comedians about his factual errors:

• ·         Obama didn’t grow up in Kenya but did spend four years in Indonesia about 5,000 miles from Kenya.
• ·         He had almost no contact with his father since his parents separated when he was very young.

But what I haven’t heard addressed, is Chuckabee’s implication about Obama’s grandpa being a suspected Mau Mau terrorist.

First off, I could point out that Obama’s father and grandfather were from the Luo tribe which is ethnically distinct from the Kikuyu tribe which was the well-spring and focus of the Mau Mau Revolt.  Most combatants...and victims...of the Revolt were Kikuyu, some pro-Mau Mau, some anti-, and many innocent civilians. It’s estimated that nearly 20,000 black Africans died, along with 200 British soldiers and police officers.  European civilian deaths were 32.  Not to be cold-blooded about the deaths of innocent civilians, 58 deaths among a non-African population in Kenya of 155,000 in 1956 would suggest they were not specifically targeted by the Mau Mau.

By the way, the Kikuyu are Christians, Brothers in Christ, like Chuckabee, as are most Luo, though a minority is Muslim.  This is another likely disconnect between Obama’s Kenyan antecedents, the Revolt, and Chuckabee’s blathering.

Without knowing the grandfather’s story...which Chuckabee obviously does not...it’s just a likely Obama’s grandfather supported the British at least in terms of the security and stability they provided.  I’m certain, faced with violence in the countryside, many Kenyans felt the same.  As far as Chuckabee knows...

In actuality, Obama’s grandfather was imprisoned and tortured by the British who were looking to stamp out the Kenyan independence movement in the 1940s.  How much of this story Obama knew growing up is relevant, but apparently it wasn’t much.  His own biography lacks detail which has only recently come out through elderly Kenyan relatives.  So the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.  Good guess, Chuckles! 

But even if his grandfather was political, just as in India ten years earlier, one can be a vocal advocate of freedom, independence, and democracy without being an armed terrorist or revolutionary.  Or be in need of lengthy incarceration and torture.

So the way I see it:  (1) Chuckabee is an idiot; (2) Chuckabee’s memory is failing him; (3) Chuckabee’s high on Charlie Sheen; (4) Chuckabee’s research assistants at Fox are punking him; or (5) Chuckabee’s decided the best strategy is to make up shit, throw it up against the wall, and see what sticks best and stinks worst.  And I thought the controversy was about Obama growing up in Indonesia influenced by Muslims.  What happened to that attack vector?  Were the Mau Mau Muslim?  Sorry, no.  Damn, that sure would have helped string this all together.

Though I doubt this is the last word, one might question what childhood influences formed Chuckabee’s character and politics.  He is from Hope, Arkansas, after all, following the sticky paw prints of Bill Clinton.  The Antebellum South was still revered.  It was a secessionist state occupied by Federal Troops (Little Rock and Fort Smith) in the Civil War, followed by 100 years of  sharecropping, scalawags, carpetbaggers, The Klan, and Dick Morris.  Federalized guard troops and the 101^st Airborne supported forced integration in Little Rock when Chuckles was a precocious and impressionable two-year old.  What did his grand-dads tell little Chuckles about that?  These are just some historic or contemporary elements that might have made Chuckabee embittered toward Northerners and the Federal Government.  He just might not be who he says he is.

And lastly, I'm pissed Chuckabee thinks he knows what Americans feel about the friggin' Brits...

"...his (Obama's) view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American."

As an average American by definition and inclination, my view of the Brits is that they are effete, chinless, crooked-toothed, pasty, provincial, self-important hooligans and drunkards, who dwell in the past, survive on socialist welfare, and serve tasteless, over-cooked food.  Chuckles?  Are you with me on this?  Barack?

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