Florida resident and potential GOP 2012 presidential contender Mike Huckabee went on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show last night to talk about his new book, A Simple Government. What he got instead from host Jon Stewart was a discussion about the separation of church and state and his support for and defense of David Barton, an evangelical Christian minister and political activist, as a great historian that he wishes all Americans would be forced to listen to at gunpoint.
“You spoke right after him at an event, and you called him the greatest historian in America,” Stewart said. “And I don’t know if everybody’s familiar with David Barton, but he doesn’t seem like a historian, he seems almost like a theologian whose thrust is, ‘I want this country to be Christian and go by the Bible.’”
Huckabee responded, saying, “No, David is, I think, very much a historian. I love his stuff, because he documents everything with source material and is very specific about dates and time, and he has a lot of original documents: Federalist Papers, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence. … He doesn’t just say, ‘I think, I believe, I hope.’ He says, ‘Here it it. Here’s the page number.’ If people want to dispute it, they are certainly welcome to do it.”
Here’s the first of three segments of the interview:
Stewart went on to press Huckabee on how he can credibly call Barton a great historian who should teach history in public schools when Barton contends that Jesus made arguments against the estate tax and minimum wage laws — documented by Right Wing Watch in March — and while Barton uses the Bible to justify gaining political leverage.
Part two:
Huckabee went on to say he wishes more people would read up on Barton and then make up their own minds. Stewart counters that people can’t if that’s the curriculum the president or presidential hopefuls are advocating.
“What makes me uncomfortable about these Texas curriculum changes … is that they’re not looking at it from a historical perspective, they are looking at it as a way to justify their religious beliefs with in the context of the country,” Stewart said.
Part three:
Hat tip: Right Wing Watch.
