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Huckabee says Romney owes him apology

Huckabee also said Romney should take down his negative TV ads because they were “dishonest.”

“What Gov. Romney has said is off the charts in terms of being inaccurate and not just inaccurate, but being blatantly untrue,” Huckabee said.

His whopping explanation for the “off the charts” inaccuracies are as follows:

Huckabee said that contrary to Romney’s commercials, Huckabee had instituted stricter criminal sentencing in Arkansas,

No mentions of a corrected number of pardons and commutations as cited in Romney’s ad.

that Romney was using “bogus” numbers regarding Huckabee’s fiscal record

I guess this telephone interview was too short to cite any numbers

and that he had not granted special benefits to illegal immigrants, but only those required by law or to provide “seamless” educational opportunity.

Or to provide “seamless” educational opportunity?!?!

And the classic response from Romney’s spokesman Kevin Madden?

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden told me Romney would not apologize to Huckabee and dismissed his comments as a sign of “testiness and irritability.”

 

Couresy of RealClearPolitics

RealClearPolitics is the coolest site ever.  I love these graphs.

I will not be surprised to see the Huckabee and Romney lines intersect again in the next couple of weeks.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/18/romney.huckabee.crime/index.html

In the current issue of Foreign Affairs magazine, Huckabee says, “American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out. The Bush administration’s arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad.”

That stance prompted Romney, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, to call on Huckabee to apologize to President Bush for his remarks.

“I said, ‘Well, did this come from Barack Obama or from Hillary Clinton? Did it come from John Edwards?’ No, it was Gov. Huckabee,” Romney told host Tim Russert. “The truth of the matter is this president has kept us safe these last six years and that has not been easy to do.”

Huckabee said he didn’t have anything for which to apologize.

“I didn’t say the president was arrogant,” Huckabee told CNN on Sunday. “One of my opponents has mistakenly, maybe purposefully, misstated my position on that. I’ve said the policies have been arrogant.“

Huckabee cannot even swallow his own words.

By attacking the President’s policies he is attacking the President. To claim otherwise is so bizarre. “Oh Bush is a fine guy! I’m not saying he is arrogant, I’m saying what he does as President is arrogant.”

This is like stating that an athlete has a sloppy style of play, but saying at the same time they are not a sloppy athlete.

So Mike Huckabee wants to be President of the United States of America.  He claims he has the experience to do it.

Yet one of the best indicators, in my mind, of determining if someone can manage that kind of stress and high paced environment is their campaign.

A Politico article mentions his not having heard of the NIE earlier this month.

The shoestring operation explains why, in part, Huckabee was unaware when Politico asked earlier this month about a recent intelligence report on Iran’s nuclear program, though it topped the news for more than a day.

“If I was running his campaign at that point in time, the moment something like that breaks you have someone traveling with him briefed,” Rollins said. “In the course of the day you have an hourly contact with your candidate.”

Good for Huckabee for getting someone that actually knows how to organize a run for the presidency.  But 1 month before Iowa? Is this not a glaring example of less than stellar understanding of how to run a campaign, let alone a country?  Huckabee criticizes Bush for a lack of planning on Iraq, yet he is the epitome of someone with lots of talk, not as much competent execution.

The inevitable argument Huckabee’s camp would make is that money is coming out of Romney’s ears.  Yes.  And most of it donated by Romney supporters.  In fact, Romney is just about tied with Rudy Giuliani for most money raised among Republicans.  $44 million.  Thats before any personal money.  The road to the White House isn’t all words.  If you can’t accept that, you should probably not run.  If you want to be President, you need to execute your campaign with the same competence, foresight and efficiency with which you will manage a future administration.

Doubt creeps into my mind when Huckabee cannot even get an aide at his side whispering up to date news headlines throughout the day.  Until now.

Weeks until Iowa votes: 2 1/2

Weeks Huckabee has had a competent campaign manager: less than 1

http://www.hypocabee.com/

hypocabee

noun hi·poc·a·bee (pl. hypocabees) Sounds like hypocrisy (hi·poc·ra·see). 1. the practice of claiming to have higher standards or beliefs than really is the case. 2. a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude. 3. inciting fear about a religion to get gain politically (see Mormon Extermination Order 1838 Missouri, Holocaust, Holy Land Crusades).

Huckabee responds to his own hypocrisy after releasing his border plan.  Tom Bevan didn’t waste time drawing a clear line about what this means about the position of not punishing children from crimes of the parents.

In other words, kids who are here illegally and in school – the same kids that Huckabee sought to provide additional opportunity to as governor and who defended that policy by saying we’re a “better country” than to punish kids for the actions of their parents – would be taken out of school and deported.

Glancing at the graphical representation of the polls in Iowa, I was pleased to see what may be the beginning of an atmospheric reentry and landing for Huckabee.

Finally life from the Thompson campaign!

This is a really funny “apology” from Thompson to Huckabee. I had thought this was getting excessive, Huckabee to Romney, Clinton to Obama, now Thompson to Huckabee?

But then I read it.