Huckabee Continues Slamming Romney

By: Joy Lin
Topics: Mike Huckabee

(CBS)

From CBS News' Joy Lin:

OKLAHOMA CITY -- On morning talk television yesterday, Mike Huckabee called Mitt Romney a "man who didn't hit political puberty in the Conservative ranks until he was sixty years old."

Asked to explain the comment today at a press conference, Huckabee described his opponent as a Johnny-come-lately to issues central to the Republican Party. Huckabee landed in the area after 4am and was up and dressed by 7:30 to deliver a speech at a rally. Despite having had only about two hours of sleep under his belt, Huckabee gave a detailed, blow-by-blow account of why Romney wasn't fit to be the nominee.

"On the second amendment – [Romney] supported Brady, he supported an assault weapon ban and still does. So if he says to anybody he's a second amendment supporter, anybody who's a true second amendment supporter knows if you support Brady and assault weapon ban, you're not a second amendment supporter."

"Secondly," Huckabee continued, in an aggressive attack that eclipsed the last time he went negative (Iowa), "He was very pro choice, supported strong positions for same sex relationships, said on television that he would do more for the gay/lesbian agenda than Ted Kennedy. That's pretty bold. He said he was not a part of the Reagan Revolution, said he was not a part of that Reagan/Bush thing -- that's on camera, that's not something I'm making up."

"Said he marched with Martin Luther King but he didn't, said he saw his father march with Martin Luther King but he didn't. Claimed that he was in law school when his church reversed its doctrine on African Americans, turned out he had been out of law school for three years – on the issue of even taxes, he said he never raised taxes but he did raise fees by $700 million."

Not letting up, Huckabee concluded, "I just think you can't just have a change of opinion on fundamental issues over and over and wait until you're running for President to do it. "To say that you've never thought about the origins of human life until you were nearly 60 years old -- I find that hard to believe even for somebody who hasn't run for office before, but certainly for somebody who had."

Infuriated by attempts made to characterize the fight for the GOP nomination as a two-way race, the ever-scrappy but usually courteous Huckabee displayed a level of fight that hasn't yet been seen on the trail.

Asked whether he or John McCain was more conservative, Huckabee vouched for himself.

"I think if you look at the record, I'm even more conservative. I supported the Bush tax cuts from the beginning and I believe in, you know, less government. I think that when it comes down to certain issues like the life amendment, the marriage amendment, those are issues I personally stand for very strongly. Those are conservative hallmarks. The human life amendment has been part of the GOP platform since 1980. So those are some specific issues that I think separate us."

But Huckabee also was more gracious to McCain than Romney, saying he still considered the former a conservative. He said Romney's characterization of McCain as a liberal was "absurd."

"If you look at Senator McCain compared to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, he's no liberal."

Huckabee emphasized that only 8 percent of delegates had been allocated so far and there were no "inevitable" candidates in the race.

"It's a little early for some of the national media to start deciding who the next president's going to be and who the nominee is going to be. The people are going to decide that."

Huckabee argued he was a "natural fit" for Oklahomans, not just as a governor from the region, but as someone who valued agriculture, the military, gun rights, pro-life principles, traditional marriage, hard work, and low taxes. He said his experience as governor of Arkansas made him more sympathetic to the interests of the Midwest and the South than a "a governor from Massachusetts" or "a senator who spent 25 years in Washington."

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by conspiracygirl February 3, 2008 4:02 PM EST: Here is what Ann Coulter has to say: :-)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucac/20080116/cm_ucac/theelephantintheroom; Reply to this comment


by conspiracygirl February 3, 2008 3:54 PM EST: Sgt. Dan Campbell,

My husband is a Captain in the US Navy, heading off to serve again, this time in Afghanistan. Therefore, I need you to listen to his opinion....

He doesn''t find Huckabee sufficiently prepared for the office of president. Huckabee''s lack of education is apparant. Huckabee may be a nice guy and his religious beliefs may meet your approval, but that is an insufficient qualifier.

He doesn''t believe Republicans should be slamming a candidate FOR his success in the private sector.

Also, he finds it very odd that Huckabee spends his time slamming Romney yet has not a word to say about McCain. He thinks Huckabee is using you for his own ambitions, which ambitions no longer include being president.

BTW, Ronald Reagan''s son, Mike Reagan, believes that Mitt Romney most emulates his father and has endorsed him.; Reply to this comment


by marinepatriot February 2, 2008 9:15 PM EST: I DOUBT IT, BUT IF THERE ARE ANY CATHOLICS OUT THERE STILL WONDERING WHO TO VOTE FOR, YOU SHOULD GO TO WWW.CATHOLIC.ORG TO READ ABOUT HUCKABEE

CATHOLICS ARE SAYING HUCKABEE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS:

*******CATHOLIC VALUES********

HERE ARE A FEW OF THE ARTICLES THE CATHOLICS ARE PROMOTING:

http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=26591
http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=26696
http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=26620
http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=26621
http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=26698; Reply to this comment


by marinepatriot February 2, 2008 8:33 PM EST: I HAVE SERVED MY COUNTRY FOR OVER 13 YEARS IN THE MILITARY. I WOULD LIKE TO ASK YOU TO WATCH 1 VIDEO FOR ME. (THIS IS NOT A RP VIDEO)

THIS VIDEO HELPS MAKE A CHOICE BETWEEN ROMNEY, MCCAIN AND HUCKABEE.

I SERVED YOU AND MY COUNTRY, WILL YOU TAKE JUST 1 MINUTE TO HEAR ME?

HERE IS MY QUICK VIDEO:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnU3G-HCf9w

Dan Campbell
Sgt., USMC; Reply to this comment


by Ruidu February 2, 2008 6:51 PM EST: My Arkansas born and raised Daddy always told me, %u201CIts a good life if you don%u2019t weaken%u201D. Now is the time not to weaken for Mike Huckabee! He needs our money, our voices, and our time until Feb. 5th. Let%u2019s take back the White House for America, and say no to more of the same with John McCain or Mitt Romney!; Reply to this comment


by well-spoken February 2, 2008 5:24 PM EST: HUCKABEE A CONSERVATIVE ... RIGHT!

I think that you will all find this very interesting. In 1999 Mr. Conservative Huckabee sponsored a $500 a plate luncheon to raise funds for .... Giuliani. The reference is posted on Wikipedia and if you need the source document:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2DA113EF935A15754C0A96F958260

C''mon already ... let''s see, Giuliani immediately pulls out of the race after FL ... to the benefit of McCain .... and Huckabee stays in the race ... to the benefit of McCain. These guys have been in bed together on this for a long time.

A vote for Huckabee is a vote for McCain!

HUCKABEE SUPPORTERS ... STOP BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF ... VOTE ROMNEY BEFORE YOU PUT A LIBERAL IN OFFICE.; Reply to this comment


by well-spoken February 2, 2008 5:05 PM EST: NurSuzi,

I had to post twice. Read the message below first.

However, as these are matters of public record, it really only takes about 10 to 20 minutes of searching. There is a littany of specific details about the individual charges. Start with www.wikipedia.com. Very specific about being fined for failing to report campaign donations, setting up funds for his personal use, accepting fees for public speaking appearances while in office, setting up wedding registries to accept house warming gifts (a loophole doesn''t cap wedding gifts), and before leaving office the destruction of 83 hard drives from the office''s computers and 4 hard drives from the servers (seems he has a little Enron in him). Do a Google search on "Huckabee Ethics Charges" and you find an avalanche of listings on "Govenor Graft" now including stealing furniture from the mansion to furhish his home, setting up private shell companies to flow money. Any way it is all there.

Put this in Google "Romney Ethics Charges" .... absolutely nothing comes up.; Reply to this comment


by well-spoken February 2, 2008 5:04 PM EST: Hi NurSuzi,

Pleasure to meet you ... like you, I like to read things for myself and see the facts. You are correct, the 14 filings are not itemized in detail. Rather, they are summarized in three broad categories: ranging from his management of campaign cash to his use of a nonprofit organization to subsidize his income to his destruction of state computer files on his way out of the governor%u2019s office. To be fair, details for any of the 10 most corrupt politicians on the list are not published. I called JW to get the details, but it being Sat. they are closed. Sorry I have to list the charges in 2 posts.; Reply to this comment


by nursuzi February 2, 2008 2:26 PM EST: To: Well Spoken
I went to the Judicial Website as you suggested to see what was so corrupt about Mike Huckabee. You have got to be kidding me!!! There is not ONE SINGLE specific charge. Get a better argment than this. If there is something truly out there, I want to read it. But, it needs to put down specifics. Not some arbitrary article that gives me basically no information, only charges. And, please, note the wording: "complaints and a volley of questions...". No where in this article does it substantiate any of these claims with facts.; Reply to this comment


by michaellitz2 February 2, 2008 1:53 PM EST: Mike Huckabee is SO RIGHT about Romney. I wish that Huckabee or SOMEONE had done a better job of making these points about Romney sooner!I know Mike has wanted and tried to run an all positive campaign - even as he was being very dishonestly and relentlessly attacked by Romney and his surrogates. However, all republicans NEED TO KNOW that Romney is a WORLD-CLASS FLIP-FLOPPER who should NOT be trusted with our party''s issues. If republicans don''t tell republicans about Romney''s rather pathetic flip-flopping you can be sure that the democrats will tell the WORLD about it should he be the nominee. If THEY tell the story you can believe it will be told in a way that no one will FORGET!!!!!!!!!!!; Reply to this comment