Posted on 04/08/2007 12:21:10 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
WASHINGTON - GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney was wrong to suggest he was a lifelong hunter even though he never took out a license, campaign rival Mike Huckabee said Sunday.
"I think it was a major mistake," said Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor. "It would be like me saying I've been a lifelong golfer because I played putt-putt when I was 9 years old and I rode in a golf cart a couple of times."
"I think American people are looking for authenticity," Huckabee added. "Match their record with their rhetoric."
Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, was dogged last week about his hunting activities after he remarked at a campaign stop that he has been a hunter nearly all his life.
The next day, his campaign said Romney had gone hunting just twice — once as a teenager in Idaho and last year with GOP donors in Georgia. Officials in the four states where Romney has lived also told The Associated Press that he never took out a license.
Romney explained later that his staff was wrong and that he had hunted rabbits and other small animals for many years, mainly in Utah. Hunting certain small game there does not require a license.
On Sunday, Huckabee said Romney's comments undermined his credibility as a candidate.
In contrast, Huckabee said, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, also in the 2008 race, showed his honesty by recently reaffirming he supported abortion rights.
Last week in South Carolina, Giuliani defended his record favoring the use of public money for abortions. South Carolina is early voting state dominated by conservatives who oppose abortion rights.
"Now, I disagree with him. I don't think we ought to use federal tax dollars for abortion, and I wouldn't if I were president," Huckabee said.
"But I thought it was at least a statement of extraordinary honesty and candor on the part of Giuliani that he would go into South Carolina, a very pro-life environment, and just say, look, this is who I am. I'm not going to change just to get your votes," he said.
Huckabee spoke on "Face the Nation" on CBS.
Romney shouldn't respond to him.
What is this obsession with Romney’s hunting record ? Is it his exaggeration or the fact that he hasn’t killed enough animals to qualify to be President ?
Hahaha...Way to go Huckabee!!.....No John Kerrys for the GOP nomination!!
Classic!
I don't know. I don't get a particular joy out of shooting varmits. But I've done it because they needed killin'.
Romney is a flip-flopper. He only says things to appease the conservative audience, not because it’s really in his heart. I don’t really like Huckabee, but I agree with him here.
Mitt Romney is the GOP’s John Kerry with this hunting debacle.
You do remember he was a huge supporter of Clinton’s Assault Weapons Ban?
Make sure everyone knows this. The guy is anti gun.
What was with that obsession with Clinton's sex record? "It's just about sex"
Ol’ Flip Flops Romney voted against hunting before he voted for it.
Is this Hackabee’s campaign now, taking potshots at the forerunners?
What did Newt say this morning? (I hate to hear, but I have to know.)
Romney supported Klinton’s gun ban ?
“He only says things to appease the conservative audience, not because it’s really in his heart.”
Don’t be so cynical! Anybody could have a TOTAL change of heart on pretty much EVERY issue they had previously taken a position on.
Here’s a link to the article that discusses it: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1814020/posts
Suggesting that an agency of the current administration (of a political party that he supposedly belongs to) is hopelessly incompetent rubs me the wrong way...
Is that sarcasm?
The dems do this all of the time and most of the time it makes them look ignorant -- witness Gore the "environmental scientist" and Kerrey the "combat veteran". In the military I was trained and licensed as a semi-truck driver, but that does not and never will make me a cross-country trucker.
Tell the public what you really are and what your experience really is and if that does not cut it then we're better off without you.
Romney’s an authentic politician. The real deal.
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