I come from a long line of old country storytellers; the Magyarok and the meztisos call us, taltos or cantadoras…

In our ethnic family, there’s an old, old story told by our grandmothers about the old bullfrog who tries to fool others into thinking he is naive instead of cunning and deliberate…

“Once there was a large old bullfrog, all spotted with bald forehead and bags under his eyes. This bullfrog really liked to eat mice most of all. But, most mice were too smart to come near him, with his big mouth and long tongue, and all.

“Thus, the old bullfrog had to be discontent to spend his days snapping bugs out of the air, and casting his mouth-net for minnows.

“But, one day, a furry fat mouse with little black eyes and thin white paws found its way to the water’s edge. As soon as the old bullfrog spied him, he said in a voice of innocence and whine…

“”Ah dear mouse, I have heard there is across this deep water, a feast of honor and endless treats awaiting both mice and bullfrogs, if only I can bring a mouse across with me. Consider the waiting feast, dear mouse, for surely if we remain as we are, we must both languish in poverty, eating whatever small dry things we can find.”

“The mouse was wary, but the bullfrog assured he would give the mouse a ride across the deep water ’so the mouse would be safe.’ “I am a strong and tested swimmer,” bragged the old bullfrog…

“”Just to make sure you are safe dear mouse,” the bullfrog continued, “I will tie one of your legs to my legs ’so you wont ‘go astray, or ‘get lost.’”

“And thus, the naive mouse assented to be taken across the water. And the old bullfrog bound one of the mouse’s slender legs to his fatter green leg.

“However, once in the water, the old bullfrog in all his cunning, dove down deep, dragging the mouse with him. The mouse struggled, then drowned.

“The old bullfrog was content to have bagged his prey.

“Thus, he surfaced with the now dead mouse still attached to his leg.

“But for all the bullfrog’s years in the swamp, he still did not realize that there is always a greater consciousness, a greater eye watching… from overhead… one who is wiser, one who sees every small motive and movement.

“So now, from the sky, a black shadow dove and raced across the green water, and suddenly talons opened and the eagle seized up both bullfrog and mouse, carrying them away…

“….These lost stories of our world are only to say there is knowledge about the ways of human beings that is older than steaming time, yet too often lost in the chrome-gilding of modern times…

“Yet, a wise person may find use in seeing that in the swamp, and in the pond, no matter how large or small… the one who thinks he is so smart and others so stupid, the one who thus sets the trap to attempt to confuse or deceive others, to gloss over true intent, to pretend innocence and unknowing, to mislead others … may well become the prey for the one with far more clear vision…the one who has, from a distance, been watching all along… and is far more perceptive.

“Thus go the patterns of human nature, the least and the best of it.
And, thus go the patterns set into the universe to be used by all, for ill or good.”

Mr. Huckabee represented himself as ‘unknowing and naive’ several times this week. One of Mr. Huckabee’s protestations of ‘not knowing, not realizing’ and ‘being unable to control matters under his control,’ came with regard to his showing a room full of reporters, and thereby broadcasting it far and wide, a negative commercial he said he’d decided to withdraw and not show on TV. The other protestation was regarding breaking a picket line to be on the Jay Leno show, Mr. Huckabee saying he thought the strike had been settled. But, there was more underlying both stories, it turns out. See below.

So which is Mr Huckabee? The mouse who is naive and doesn’t know the real world? Doesn’t know that media are professional people, who when given real facts, will report them accurately. Doesn’t know media will want to know his thinking about showing the thing he isn’t going to show, and then trying to explain away all negative posters set up around room as ‘didn’t have time to take them down?” Some might say these averrings alone, seem to portend poor management skills for a presidency.

Or is Mr. Huckabee more like the old spotted bullfrog who hopes others will not notice his lack of ace-straight veracity? Someone who seems to want the gig, and damn the Graces. We’ve seemed to have quite enough of crooked truth-ledgers in Washington already. Why this display of seeming ’same same same’ and hooded response?

Or is Mr. Huckabee really the eagle of clear sight, who watches and strikes and thence devours all the untested and the conniving?

In Iowa at least, a corn-rich state of mainly Anglo Americans, each registered person will decide, eagle, mouse, or bullfrog… with their votes by late tonight. The question may well be, can a frog or a mouse impersonate an eagle? At least for a while?

CODA

Mr. Huckabee’s Averrings This Week

1. –Why he pulled the ads: (25:25): “The television set (in Iowa) become virtually a cesspool … People keep saying that they want a positive campaign, and let’s give them an opportunity to prove that that’s exactly what they want.”

–On showing the ad to the press: (26:57): “Maybe in hindsight we’d have done it differently, but if we had said that we had an ad that we were going to run but now we’re not going to run it, the press would have said, ‘Oh yeah, right — where is the ad? You don’t have one.’”

See Gandelman story at The Moderate Voice: read/hear the rest of this article on blog-radio interview of Huckabee with Ed Morrissey

2. here“>Chad at Buzzflash, writes:

The difference between Democrats and Republicans: Hillary Clinton made a cameo on Letterman, who has a deal with his striking writers. Mike Huckabee crosses the picket line to be on Jay Leno’s show, which DOESN’T have a deal.

From Chicago Trib by Jason George:

Huckabee, a Republican locked in a tight battle with Mitt Romney, appeared confused when told that his visit to the Burbank, Calif., studios of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” would require him to cross a picket line of striking writers.

Clinton, a Democrat, did not face the same risk in delivering a taped cameo to kick off David Letterman’s show. Letterman’s firm reached its own deal with unionized writers.

Huckabee had said he thought the union had reached agreement with all late-night shows. But no deal was reached with Leno’s show.

From Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily who writes that Huckabee earlier in the day yesterday, averred absolute support for Writers Guild of America, and also this:

UPDATE: I’m tipped tonight that Huckabee used the non-picketed Telemundo gate on Olive just south of Alameda in Burbank to avoid the picketers… Assuming this is true, Huckabee went beyond trying to have it both ways, and went for a third way.

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Creative Commons Lic ©2007 Dr. C.P. Estés
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Disclosure: Dr. E. is a member and Advisory Board Member, of National Writers Union, a sublocal of the AFL-CIO, UAW (United Auto Workers) which supports the fair interests of periodical and freelance writers… and which stands in solidarity with Writers Guild America (which supports fair interests of television and other media writers).
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Compelling Fact: Many businessmen I’ve spoken with today, from New York to Missouri to California, are far more interested in the outcome of the Orange Bowl tonight, than the outcome of the Iowa caucus. Sic semper futbolicus.