From The Road
December 26, 2007 12:20 PM

Huckabee's New Language

By
Joy Lin
Topics
Mike Huckabee
(CBS)
From CBS News' Joy Lin:

OSCEOLA, IOWA – A lot can change between now and Jan. 3, Mike Huckabee said while pheasant hunting today.

Out in the brittle, snowy fields, Huckabee shot the third of three pheasants killed by his hunting group. Reporters watched from a distance and circled around him when he came back with the dead birds.

One reporter said, "Governor, you like to speak in metaphors. What's the metaphor here?"

"Don't get in my way," he said.

She asked if the birds had "names like Romney, Thompson…"

Huckabee: "No I'll let you decide that."

With a firing shot, Huckabee launched into the final stretch of campaigning in Iowa with a photo op. Less than twelve hours after Christmas, reporters were already asking Huckabee about his rival opponents and the effect negative campaigning will have against his did.

Huckabee said he wasn't sure what effect would be but said Iowan caucus goers were seasoned enough to "see through" the negative campaigning.

"The magician plays the game of keeping your focus over here on this hand while he's doing something with the other one," said Huckabee. "And I think people understand that slight of hand is not why you elect a president."

A journalist jumped in and said Huckabee just accused Romney of being a magician.

"No I didn't," said Huckabee to a group of laughing gaggle. "There you go again, you guys are always putting words in my mouth. I'm going to load this thing up right here," he said looking down at his gun.

"Just speaking Huckabese," joked another reporter.

"Is that a new language?" asked Huckabee, chuckling. "Must be."


Add a Comment See all 22 Comments
by jmazzotti-2009 December 27, 2007 2:43 PM EST
JBREWSTER7... Mitt romney is calling you and your Computer with the Google Search engine and wants you to be the Dirt Digger Executive director of his team! Again bud it is obvious your not a huckabee fan! we know all politicians have their issues! the more human you make this guy out to be the more Im going to like him! Oh and by the way, Who are you supporting? let us sling some dirt in your face too! if you stand for someone, put up his game statistics!
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by jbrewster7 December 27, 2007 1:48 PM EST
MIKE HUCKABEE TOUGH ON CRIME....

FACT: Mike Huckabee granted 1,033 pardons and commutations, including 12 convicted murderers, one of which "Wayne DuMond" shortly after his release moved to Missouri where he raped and murdered Carol Sue Shields. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in Clay County, Mo., in 2003. He died in prison in 2005.
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by jbrewster7 December 27, 2007 1:47 PM EST
MIKE HUCKABEE THE REAL "CHRISTIAN LEADER"....

FACT: Mike Huckabee stole over $70,000 worth of furniture from the Arkansas governors mansion.

Google: Counting the furniture Huckabee takes his office furniture; a conflict on Mansion gift. (Source: Arkansas Times 12/14/06 Leslie Newell Peacock)

FACT: Mike Huckabee set up a nonprofit entity so he could give paid ``inspirational'''''''' speeches without having to disclose the donors.

Google: Huckabee''''s Boom May Be About Ready to Bust: Margaret Carlson (SOURCE: Bloomberg Dec 12, 2007 Margaret Carlson)

FACT: Arkansas lawmakers criticized the registries, which were listed as "wedding" registries, even though the Huckabees have been married since 1974.
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by jbrewster7 December 27, 2007 1:46 PM EST
MIKE HUCKABEE ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION....

FACT: Mike Huckabee supported in-state higher education benefits for children of illegal immigrants.

FACT: Mike Huckabee opposed a federal raid of 119 illegal immigrants at an Arkansas Tyson poultry plant, 107 of whom left the country either voluntarily or through deportation.

(SOURCE: Melissa Nelson, "Huckabee Risks Political Fortunes To Denounce Immigration Raid," Associated Press, 8/5/05)
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by jbrewster7 December 27, 2007 1:46 PM EST
MIKE HUCKABEE A GOLD DIGGER......

FACT: The ethics commission fined Huckabee $1,000 for failing to report that he paid himself $14,000 from his 1992 U.S. Senate campaign and $43,000 from his 1994 lieutenant governor''''s campaign.

FACT: Huckabee accepted more than 300 gifts worth at least $130,000, ranging from $3,700 cowboy boots to a $600 chainsaw.

Google: Huckabee rivals unearth ethics complaints (Source: POLITICO Kenneth P. Vogel Nov 21, 2007)

Look through his "Awe Schucks" act and see him for what he really is. Mike Huckabee is a wolf in sheep''''s clothing that uses the religion card to push his own agenda.
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by giantrobot2 December 27, 2007 9:45 AM EST
Mike Huckabee is blazing the trails everywhere he goes. Everyone sees how honest, humble, trustworthy and down to earth man he is. He is out their earning everyone''s respect the good old fashion way.

Mike Huckabee is so exciting he even has the college students out there making cool songs for him. This is the type of guy college students love to rally behind. College students this is your moment in history to make a change in America... Go Go Go Vote for Mike Huckabee!!!

Watch this cool video these college students made for Mike Huckabee!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA4kr5-pU5k

Mike is waving from his Huck-a-Bus saying "All Aboard!!!", let''s jump on the Huck-a-Bus and take a ride at Huck-a-Boom speed!

GO MIKE GO!!!
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by jbrewster7 December 27, 2007 2:07 AM EST
The reporters and their cameras just happened to be there...coincidence or planned?

It''''s all a part of his pathetic act to pander to the gun-slinging, evangelical hicks in Iowa and South Carolina.

Look thru is con-job, take a look at his record and see him for who he really is....
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by jbrewster7 December 27, 2007 2:06 AM EST
Huckabee''s critics, however, have done some exaggerating of their own. That press release from former Tennessee Sen. Thompson accuses Huckabee of more than doubling state spending, from $6.6 billion to $16.1 billion at the end of 2006. But those numbers aren''t correct. When we talked to Mike Stormes, the administrator of the Office of Budget for the state of Arkansas, we discovered a different story. In fact, after adjusting for inflation, we found that spending in fiscal year 1998 (the first budget for which Huckabee was responsible) was actually $10.4 billion, while spending at the end of 2006 was $15.6 billion. That%u2019s a big increase, but it%u2019s a far cry from doubling state spending.
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by jbrewster7 December 27, 2007 2:04 AM EST
xThe former Arkansas governor is fond of saying %u2013 in debates, on his Web site and in that Nov. 18 Fox News interview %u2013 that he cut taxes "almost 94 times in my state." (On his site, he rounds up to "nearly 100 times," adding that he saved "the people of Arkansas almost $380 million.")

That turns out to be far from the whole story. The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration found that 90 tax cuts were enacted in legislative sessions from 1997 through 2005, while Huckabee was governor, and those cuts reduced tax revenues by $378 million. But Huckabee fails to mention the 21 tax increases that occurred under his watch and that raised revenues by substantially more. The total net tax increase under Huckabee''s tenure was an estimated $505.1 million, says the Department of Finance and Administration''s Whitney McLaughlin, adding that the figure has been adjusted for inflation.
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by michaellitz2 December 26, 2007 9:49 PM EST
The attempts to paint Mike Huckabee as a big tax-spend fiscal liberal are simply an old fashioned smear campaign. He has nothing to be ashamed of regarding his fiscal record as Governor. He balanced the budget every year, dramatically improved the WORST road system in the country left to him by his predecessors and significantly improved the school system. He started with a deficit and left with a surplus. If our representatives at the federal level came close to achieving a record in office like his those knocking Huckabee''s record would call it a MIRACLE.
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