Posts on Chuck Norris

Mike Huckabee is hoping to pick up Fred Thompson’s leftovers, but that doesn’t seem to be going so well. Aside from Gary Bauer and other religious-right leaders who still don’t like Huckabee, a number of Thompson’s backers have switched to Mitt Romney. And now an embittered former Thompson staffer has started his own campaign hitting Huckabee where it hurts most: his sidekick, Chuck Norris.

Huckabee may joke about his action-hero endorsement, but as we’ve noted before, he’s made Norris a very serious part of his campaign. And not just in terms of livening up his stage shows: Norris is aggressively raising money, hoping to provide $10 million for the cash-strapped candidate (one recent fundraiser netted $250,000).

Dennis Ng, founder of BoycottChuckNorris.com, says that makes Norris “fair game”:

Saying he's 'kicking Chuck Norris where it hurts – his wallet,' Ng explains he's starting the boycott because Norris endorsed a presidential candidate and supports ideas "far out of the mainstream."

Ng singles out Norris' endorsement of Huckabee – "a candidate who says that he does not believe in evolution," and "who called for the isolation of AIDS patients – long after the Centers for Disease Control determined that the virus was not spread by casual contact." …

Ng is asking visitors to his site to join him in boycotting products Norris endorses and companies that purchase advertising on reruns of his long-running CBS television series, "Walker, Texas Ranger." In the first category, Ng lists exercise-equipment manufacturer Total Gym, endorsed by the actor. Sponsors listed are KFC, Payless Shoes, Nutrisystem, Tylenol and Geico Insurance.

“Republicans long decried celebrities telling us how to vote,” says Ng. So, uh, is that why Ng’s own candidate, famous actor Fred Dalton Thompson, had to drop out?

“Barbra loves Hillary, Oprah loves Obama,” led a news article in Monday ’s Washington Times. “But does America care? Splashy celebrity endorsements may backfire on White House hopefuls as they face canny voters weary of Hollywood hubbub.” Reporter Jennifer Harper may or may not have a point about the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements, but the right-wing newspaper neglected to mention the candidate who has made his collection of washed-up superstars the cornerstone of his endorsement strategy: Mike Huckabee.

We’ve already mentioned Huckabee campaigning with 1980s pro wrestler Ric Flair; to “Nature Boy” we can add “Motor City Madman” Ted Nugent and, of course, Chuck Norris. In fact, Huckabee’s first television ad featured the candidate sitting down with Norris in the actor’s living room. If it’s a joke, Huckabee is stretching it to the limit: He’s deployed Norris at press conferences and campaign stops, and made the kooky martial artist his media point-man after the last presidential debate. According to Newsweek, Norris and his wife are part of Huckabee’s “inner circle.”

Huckabee’s dalliance with stars of a bygone (and not exactly wholesome) era may seem like a humorous quirk, but in a way, it serves a significant purpose: The fawning press coverage of Huckabee’s ironic endorsements means less coverage of Huckabee’s serious endorsements: far-right activists like American Family Association founder Don Wildmon, Rick Scarborough, Mat Staver, the LaHayes, Jerry Falwell, Jr., and so on.

As we noted earlier this week, Huckabee is campaigning more privately with these extreme activists in Iowa, and Scarborough’s “Patriot Pastors” machine is ramping up in Iowa, with the help of Christian Coalition and Redeem the Vote organizer Randy Brinson. And by the way, where did Brinson get his mailing list of “about 71 million contacts”—“one of the most coveted lists in Republican politics”? We’re back to entertainment, reports the Washington Post:

Of course, fringe-right activist Janet Folger isn’t the only Mike Huckabee booster. Just days after releasing a TV ad—his first—featuring Chuck Norris, the Republican presidential candidate announced an endorsement from professional wrestler Ric Flair, otherwise known as “The Nature Boy”:

Former Arkansas Governor and Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee announced today the endorsement of professional wrestling legend "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, the former 16-time World Heavyweight Champion known worldwide for his "stylin' and profilin'" personality and his signature "Whooooooo" with which he ends interviews. …

"It's a tremendous honor to offer my support to such an outstanding leader as Mike Huckabee" Flair said.  "His authentic conservative qualifications and level of executive leadership experience are unmatched by his opponents.  And like I always say, to be the man, you've got to beat the man and Mike Huckabee is the man.  Whoooooooo!"

Perhaps Huckabee is seeking to bolster his foreign policy credentials, given Flair’s experience fighting “The Iron Sheik.” Or maybe Huckabee is trying to counter the efforts by the Club for Growth to paint him as an economic populist:

In other entertainment news, Huckabee also garnered endorsements from motivational speaker Zig Ziglar and “Left Behind” co-author (and former “Gil Thorpe” writer) Jerry Jenkins.

Actor and fighting machine Chuck Norris compares him to King David.

In his latest column, Chuck Norris launches into a familiar gripe of the Right, warning parents that college campuses today into hotbeds of “liberal bias” and “indoctrination.” One example employed by the Right is the recent failure of an Iowa State professor to be granted tenure, supposedly due to his advocacy of “Intelligent Design” creationism. (That’s leaving aside a more obvious explanation: Perhaps if he spent more time on astronomy than creationism, he would have been able to bring in more outside grant money.)

It seems at least one creationist is fighting back – and apparently threatening to use Chuck Norris methods.

An anti-evolution activist who has been targeting biology professors at the University of Colorado at Boulder is implicated in distributing threatening letters two weeks ago, calling teachers of evolution “child molesters” and “terrorists” and repeating the line “every true Christian should be ready and willing to take up arms to kill the enemies of Christian society”:

Last weekend more than a dozen envelopes bearing the image of skull and crossbones and containing letters threatening the lives of CU-Boulder evolutionary biology professors were slipped under the doors of CU-Boulder buildings. …

“EBIO (evolutionary biology) professors are terrorists against America and … intellectual and spiritual child abusers of their young and impressionable students … the EBIO department not only blasphemes God, who is invisible, but it blasphemes His Only Begotten Son and our Messiah, Jesus Christ, which is more unforgivable … for all these reason all God-fearing and Truth-loving persons must say, They must go!”

The evolution blog Panda’s Thumb has more information, including excerpts from the letters.

There have been a range of responses from the Right to the tragic shootings last week at Virginia Tech. Some were moderate and respectful, while others were … less so. Among those seeking to lay blame, they have managed to fault everything from the Devil to evolution and the lack of school prayer.

For his part, Chuck Norris declares that the victims of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech were “martyrs” in the culture war, “caught in a head-on clash with our culture's values, denials and degradation.”

Though one can point to Cho's own psychotic behavior and our graphic slasher media as potential contributors to his deplorable murder spree, we must also hesitate to consider how we as a society are possibly contributing to the growth of these academic killing fields.

Norris singles out ““those who wield the baton of the secular progressive agenda” and “our graphic slasher media,” which must not include the more wholesome and uplifting violence of the Norris oeuvre, such as “Missing in Action,” “The Hitman,” “Forced Vengeance”  and “Lone Wolf McQuade”

And praises right-wing legal groups. Also: Media Research Center makes a list, and ADF writes letters.

Chuck Norris, star of TV’s “Walker, Texas Ranger” as well as films including “Missing in Action” and “Delta Force 2,” and his wife Gena have joined the board of directors of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (NCBCPS):

“We receive a lot of requests to get behind a lot of things, but it took us only a few minutes to know that we were to stand behind this important work,” the Norrises said.  Mr. and Mrs. Norris are featured in a popular television public service announcement that encourages citizens to bring the Bible back to America’s public schools as an available elective course of study.  The announcements are aired on several national networks.

The Norris announcements inform viewers that they can call the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (NCBCPS) to receive information on how any citizen can help their local school board implement the NCBCPS curriculum. 

As People For the American Way Foundation’s research has revealed, the goal of NCBCPS is not to improve students’ understanding of history and literature, but to promote Christian doctrine in public schools – unlike other Bible curricula such as the Bible Literacy Project. In fact, a Florida court found that NCBCPS taught religious matters – such as miracles and Jesus’ resurrection – as historical fact, and held its New Testament section in violation of the separation of church and state.

However, fans of the First Amendment should be advised that Norris has not lost a fight since 1968.