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At least that is the way I read it. Donald Trump just re-upped with NBC for $160 million. The two parties were most certainly negotiating over a sum that large for quite some time overlapping trump’s flirtation with seeking the republican nomination for president. He was going through the motions solely as a bargaining tactic. NBC called his bluff and told him he would be replaced on The Celebrity Apprentice if he did not take the offer and instead sought the white House. He gave in millions richer than before.

Joe Scarborough tried the same tactic a few months ago shortly before his contract with MSNBC was up. You may recall he lightly hinted interest in running for office again. You can be assured his deal was not as sweet as trump’s, but the strategy of threatening to leave a media career for public office has a decent track record.

More specifically, long shot White House bids can net big bucks. Pat Buchanan, Al Gore, Mike Huckabee, Jesse Jackson, and Alan Keyes come immediately to mind. Sarah Palin has proven a run at the veep can be lucrative. Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain are banking--literally--on it for their future. As Trump has just shown, you do not even have to have any legitimacy to cash in, either. Anyone over the age of 35 whose fifteen minutes of fame have not yet been exhausted should take note.

I do not mean that I have to review Star Trek: Voyager instead, though that does qualify as a sort of journey into perdition.

First, Tim Chaotes is killedd in a motorcycle accident. Then Richard Biggs dies from an aortic tear. Andreas Katsulas succumbs to lung cancers. Now Jeff Conaway has apparently overdosed on drugs. He has survived, but is in critical condition.

Playing a role on Babylon 5 is even more dangerous than being one of The Little Rascals.

I have made no secret I do not like Mike Huckabee. He is a big government Republican with more than a little snake handling Christianity in him. The guy literally thinks he is a rock star by playing guitar and hanging out the increasingly conspiracy minded Chuck Norris. I am quite certain his star in the south will quickly fade. It is my contention is current popularity below the Mason-Dixon is because “he is on teevee just like our favorite wrassfers! Yee haw!” if you catch my drift. Norris’ Walker: Texas Ranger has not exactly faded from memory, either.

But let us get back to more concrete reasons Huckabee is not presidential material. He exercises very poor discernment in who he casts his judgmental eye upon. Namely this time, Natalie Portman, whom he has criticized for glamorizing out of wedlock children. Nearly twenty years ago, Dan Quayle ruined his political career by critiquing the out of wedlock pregnancy of fictional Murphy brown. Not only has Huckabee not learned from Quayle’s actions, he escalated it by attacking an actual person.

To set a few things straight, I do not advocate pre-marital sex. I think it does cheapen the institution of marriage by making sex solely a recreational activity. I also think getting pregnant without being married breaks down the integrity of the family unit. Both effects are a detriment to our culture. Nevertheless, it happens. It is what comes after that is important once it does.

I will be frank. Portman has made a mistake getting pregnant out of wedlock. We all make mistakes. We often make very big ones. But she is making the right choices now. She is not going to abort her baby. She is going to put her baby above her acting career, which is a big risk considering the short shelf life a pretty young actresses in Hollywood. Her child is going to be loved, too. What Huckabee called glamorizing out of wedlock children was a genuine display of happiness. Portman is a woman who thanked the lowest ranking technicians on Black Sawn by name in her Oscar acceptance speech. How rare do you think that is among arrogant Hollywood stars?

There is a more important underlying issue with Huckabee’s attitude beyond anything he said about portman. That is an underlying contempt for women who have made the mistake of getting pregnant outside of marriage. If Christians do not embrace such women, then we are pushing them towards the abortion clinic. Even a woman who keeps her baby can become a pariah. Those things happen not because a star like portman glamorizes her mistake, but judgmental Christians like Huckabee are not willing to forgive and offer help after the deed is done.

UPDATE: Huckabee is backtracking, but has not changed his mind.

UPDATE II: Was Huckabee taking a jab at Sarah Palin over her daughter Bristol, another young lady who has made all the right decisions after a mistake, for her out of wedlock baby?