Michael Scherer, writing in Salon puts it this way:
The not-so-mysterious case of the coy candidate
Who's paying for those ads attacking Mike Huckabee? Everybody in Arkansas seems to know -- except Huckabee.
By Michael Scherer
As political whodunits go, it was a remarkably easy case to crack.
In late August, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee went on Fox News Sunday to ask a nation of amateur sleuths for help. A conservative low-tax group, the Club for Growth, had just spent $85,000 on a television attack ad in Iowa, accusing the former Arkansas governor of "raising taxes like there was no tomorrow" while flashing his portrait next to a picture of Bill Clinton. Huckabee, who claims to be a fiscal conservative in the tradition of Ronald Reagan, said he just didn't know who was behind the attacks.
"You have to wonder: Where did that money come from? Who gave them that money in order to run those ads? And I think that would be a great question for somebody to dig to the bottom of," Huckabee said of the largest attack ad campaigns thus far in the Republican primary. Then to sweeten the pot, the presidential candidate ominously suggested dirty tricks from one of his political rivals. "I have to think it may be one of the other candidates," he said.
"Coy" is a polite way to put it, when you consider that he's impugning the character of other candidates.
Some people in Northwest Arkansas are less charitable:
Huckabee Walks The Line
Division Between Tacky, Crooked Thin
This article was published on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 6:42 PM CST in Columns
By John Brummett
THE MORNING NEWS
While people in father away Washington put together a nice summary of Huckabee's life experiences, in which this statement grabbed my attention:
Huckabee believes he had a "calling" to both the ministry and to politics. Holding public office is a part of his faith - not a separate path, he explained.
"I am ultimately responsible to a creator who knows everything I do," he told the students at XM.
Just what we need--another politician who doesn't understand that the Constitution and the will of the American people are what count.
But, none of this accounts for my title. What raised that question was finding that our own New Hampshire Executive Council seems to have been hijacked by the Huckabee campaign on the web. You'll see what I mean, if you scroll down the page of NHExecutivecouncil.com The links on the left lead to their official state page, but the stuff after the headline that
Mike Huckabee to Eliminate The I.R.S.
is original.
Though I could not get most of the red and yellow links to streaming video to work, there are a number of interesting questions and answers here, including a lengthy one from Judd Gregg.
Mike Huckabee is another Man from Hope. His wife, Janet McCain Huckabee, born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, also comes from a Hope family connected to a grocery store and, like the Clintons, the Huckabees have been married to each other since they were young. The "tacky" characterization is probably connected to this:
Gifts solicited for Gov. Huckabee
Housewarming to ease "transition," spokesman says.
Warwick Sabin
Updated: 11/11/2006
Gov. Mike Huckabee and his wife, Janet, are registered for home furnishing gifts at Target and Dillard's department stores as they prepare to leave the Governor's Mansion in January and move into a house they recently purchased in North Little Rock.
Gifts requested at Dillard's for Janet and Mike Huckabee include 24 place settings of Lenox "Holiday Nouveau" china and stemware (from $14 to $40 a piece), Biddeford bed linens (king and queen bed skirts from $89 to $99), an oval pot rack ($60), an asparagus pot ($30), a KitchenAid mixer ($300) and a Jack LaLanne power juicer ($100).
The Jack LaLanne juicer is also on the Target list, along with a Kitchen Essentials 12-piece cookware set ($250) and cookie sheet ($20), Fieldcrest bed linens (from $30 to $144), rugs (from $25 to $150), and table linens, potholders and kitchen towels (from $2 to $13) and more.
Target's registry also notes: "Message from the couple: Target GiftCards are welcome." They can be purchased in amounts from $10 to $1,000.
The story broke Friday on our Arkansas Daily Blog (www.arkansasblog.com). We requested, but did not receive, a comment from the Huckabees. For one thing, though registries seemed to be set up for the governor and his wife, nothing on the registries said so explicitly.
Stephens Media followed our story that day and confirmed through the governor's press spokesperson that the registries were indeed for the Huckabees, reportedly set up by "friends" of the first lady to help her make the "transition" to private life. The Stephens account said:
The term-limited governor leaves office in January, and friends of Janet Huckabee created the registries at Dillard's and Target stores to help facilitate their transition to private life, Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart said Friday.
The Huckabees purchased a 7,000-square-foot home in North Little Rock this year.
[...]
And, for a more detailed historical perspective on how things work in Stephens land (note that the Stephens Media Group which is responsible for the particulars of the wedding registry story is an off-shoot of the Stephens Group, the family brokerage enterprise) you might look here. Even a bit of news about Al Gore you might not have known.
What could be better than a show-down between Huckabee and Clinton in November?
|
