Mike Huckabee

Michael Dale (Mike) Huckabee (born August 24, 1955, in Hope, Arkansas) has been the governor of Arkansas since 1996. He is the third Republican governor of the state since Reconstruction. He is frequently mentioned as a possible candidate for president in 2008.

Presidential candidacy
On January 29, 2007, Huckabee announced the creation of a presidential exploratory committee, hoping to spark "a revival of our national soul." 

In December 2007, Huckabee's presidential campaign announced that veteran Republican consultant Ed Rollins had joined, as its national campaign chair.

"Breaking with tradition for presidential candidates, Mike Huckabee is continuing to accept paid speaking engagements in the thick of his insurgent presidential campaign," reported Mike Allen. Huckabee responded, "Unlike the members of the Senate or Congress who continue to get their paycheck and get a taxpayer-funded salary, and unlike people who are independently wealthy, if I don’t work, I don’t eat."

On the issues

 * Compare where Mike Huckabee stands to other 2008 presidential candidates - whereIstand.com.

Rapturist Christian
Ramzy Baroud writes:
 * Rev Stan Moody of the Christian Policy Institute, writes, "Huckabee is a Rapturist" in reference to the mid-19th Century interpretation of biblical text which culminated in 1909 as the Scofield Desk Reference Bible. This envisions -- and not metaphorically -- a Greater Israel as a precondition to the return of Christ, who, with the true Christians, will defeat Satanic forces, convert 144,000 Jews and exterminate the rest. It has no Harry Potter twists, but it puts Hollywood horror movies to shame. The actual concern is that this group has cultivated an alliance with the Israeli government since the late 1970s and is a major powerbroker in US foreign policy in the Middle East. In her article, which appeared in The Jerusalem Post on 3 January, Hilary Leila Krieger reported from Iowa that Huckabee "has also been staunchly supportive of Israel, writing in Foreign Affairs that, 'I will not waver in standing by our ally Israel.' It is a country he has visited several times, leading groups there as well as taking his family." According to the same article, "Huckabee has drawn on his experience in the Holy Land in making his pitch to voters, which has especially resonated with evangelicals."

Straight Truth Express: The Dark Side of Mike Huckabee Max Brantley Wrote:

Huckabee revealed an enduring weakness as glaring as that other Arkansas governor's fondness for women. Huckabee seems to love loot and has a dismissive attitude toward ethics, campaign finance rules and propriety in general. Since that first, failed campaign, the ethical questions have multiplied. In the 1992 contest with Bumpers, Huckabee used campaign funds to pay himself as his own media consultant. Other payments went to the family babysitter.

In his successful 1994 run for lieutenant governor, he set up a nonprofit curtain known as Action America so he could give speeches for money without having to disclose the names of his benefactors. He failed to report that campaign travel payments were for the use of his own personal plane. After he became governor in 1996, he raked in tens of thousands of dollars in gifts, including gifts from people he later appointed to prestigious state commissions. In the governor's office, his grasp never exceeded his reach. Furniture he'd received to doll up his office was carted out with him when he left, after he'd crushed computer hard drives so nobody could ever get a peek behind the curtain of the Huckabee administration.

He converted a governor's mansion operating account into a personal expense account, claiming public money for a doghouse, dry-cleaning bills, panty hose and meals at Taco Bell. He tried to claim $70,000 in furnishings provided by a wealthy cotton grower for the private part of the residence as his own, until he learned ethics rules prevented it. When a disgruntled former employee disclosed memos revealing all this, the Huckabee camp shut her up by repeatedly suggesting she might be vulnerable to prosecution for theft because she'd shared documents generated by the state's highest official. He ran the State Police airplane into the ground, many of the miles in pursuit of political ends. Inauguration funds were used to buy clothing for his wife. He once took control of the state Republican Party's campaign account -- then swore the account had been somebody else's responsibility when it ran afoul of federal election laws. He repeated the pattern when he claimed in a newspaper story that his staff controlled the account to stage his second inauguration. When I filed a formal ethics complaint over what appeared to be an improper appropriation of donated money, he told a different story, disavowing responsibility for the money. He thus avoided another punishment from an Ethics Commission, which had sanctioned him on five other occasions. He dodged nine other complaints (though none, despite his counter-complaints, was held to be frivolous). In one case, he was saved by the swing vote of a woman who left the chairmanship of the Ethics Commission days later to take a state job. She listed the governor as a reference on the job application.

Finally, unbelievably, Huckabee once sued to overturn the ban on gifts to him. Max Brantley Said "didn't often experience the "nice" Mike Huckabee that so many national commentators have enjoyed". In fact, ultimately Huckabee ended press services, which are publicly financed, to my newspaper. The Arkansas Times received no news releases from the governor's office, no notices of news conferences, no responses to routine questions. He was condemned for this by journalism organizations.

Truth is, we were happy to be thrown into the governor's briar patch. The world is full of disaffected Huckabee campaign workers, former employees and garden-variety Republicans who love to pass on tips about a governor they'd found self-centered and untrustworthy. If you think he left a well of warm feelings in Arkansas, note that Hillary Clinton had raised more money in Arkansas at last report and that a recent University of Arkansas Poll showed her a 35 to 8 percent leader over Huckabee in the presidential preferences of Arkansas residents. Only one-third of 33 Republican legislators have said they will support him for president. Thanks to such unhappy people, we've broken numerous stories about Huckabee, from the first early word of his destruction of state computer hard drives (more fully reported by the Democrat-Gazette); to the time and place of his announcement for president; to his sale and purchase of homes; to his infamous "wedding registry." About the last: Three decades after the Huckabees' wedding, his wife registered at department stores so their new home, post-governor's mansion, could be stocked with gifts of linens, toasters and other suitable furnishings. In early 2007, our reporting also prompted the former first lady to decline dozens of place settings of governor's mansion china and Irish crystal that had been purchased with tax-deductible contributions to the Governor's Mansion Association, nominally set up to improve the mansion, not to buy going-away presents for former occupants. (Huckabee's governorship ended on Jan. 9, 2007.)

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External articles

 * Murray Waas, "How the Huckabee Administration Worked to Free Wayne Dumond" Arkansas Times, August 1, 2005.
 * Murray Waas, "Questions for Huckabee on Meet the Press," Whatever Already!, Jan 28, 2007.
 * "Huckabee says GOP not above character issues. Clinton may be owed apology if party candidates not held to same standard," Associated Press (MSNBC), April 6, 2007.
 * Faiz Shakir, "Huckabee Suggests Escalating The Escalation: ‘It’s Possible’ We Need To Send More Troops," Think Progress, July 9, 2007.
 * Murray Waas, "Documents Expose Huckabee's Role in Serial Rapist's Release" Huffington Post, Dec. 4, 2007
 * John Amato, "Huckabee's Role in Serial Rapist's Releasee to Discredit Clinton," Crooks and Liars,, Dec. 5, 2007.
 * "Revelations on Huckabee Pardon of Serial Rapist Produce Surprising Response" Editor & Publisher, Dec. 5, 2007.


 * Murray Waas, "Former Aide Contraidcts Huckabee Defense of Rapist's Defense" Huffington Post, Dec. 5, 2007.
 * Brian Ross and Joseph Rhee,"Despite Victims' Pleas, Huckabee Pushed Rapist's Freedom," ABCNews.com, Dec. 5, 2007.
 * Laura Meckler, "Romney Targets Huckabee's Pardons" Wall Street Journal, Dec. 17, 2007.
 * Adam Nossiter and David Barstow, "Charming and Aloof, Huckabee Changed State" New York Times, Dec. 22, 2007.
 * Matthew Felling "Huckabee's Defensive Posture",CBS News, Public Eye (blog), Feb. 11, 2007.
 * Mike Allen, "Huckabee still gives paid speeches," Politico.com, December 26, 2007.
 * Max Brantley, Straight Talk Express: The Dark Side of Mike HuckabeeSalon.com, Nov. 13, 2007.
 * Jason George "Mike Huckabee Reels in Ed Rollins, Baltimore Sun, Dec. 14, 2007
 * Murray Waas, "Documents Expose Huckabee's Role in Serial Rapist's Release" Huffington Post, Dec. 4, 2007
 * Zeev Chafets, "The Huckabee Factor" New York Times, Dec. 12, 2007.
 * Michael Stickings "Huckabee: I threaten GOP Elites" Moderate Voice, Jan. 14, 2008.
 * Justin Rood, "Did Pastor Huck Flub Marriage Question?" ABC News (The Blotter), Jan.16, 2008.