Posted on 12/14/2007 10:57:37 AM PST by eastsider
BRIAN WILLIAMS: We're back with NBC News "In Depth." Politics tonight, and the leading man in Iowa, Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, is surging in the polls right now. And when you go to the front in politics, reporters start looking at your past. Tonight, his record on ethics as governor, and what our senior investigative correspondent, Lisa Myers, found to be an unusual record of receiving gifts.
[Video begins]
MIKE HUCKABEE: Thank you, sir.
LISA MYERS: There's an old saying that it's better to give than to receive. But as governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee seemed to like receiving a lot. Financial disclosure forms reveal that over 10 years, Huckabee and his wife took hundreds of gifts, large and small -- more than $112,000 worth in one year alone. Guitars. Gold jewelry and diamonds. Vacations. Gift certificates. Free dental care and dry cleaning. $23,000 for Mrs. Huckabee's inaugural wardrobe. And 50% off hamburgers at Wendy's.
GWEN MORITZ (ARKANSAS BUSINESS JOURNAL EDITOR): He doesn't think that there's anything that anyone offers him that he should have to say no to.
LISA MYERS: In 1999, this businessman [Jennings Osbourne] gave $53,000 in gifts, including $23,000 in suits and clothing for Huckabee himself. That same year the governor appointed the businessman to the Stadium Commission. Huckabee said gifts had nothing to do with the appointment.
All the gifts were legal. But over the years, the State Ethics Commission admonished Huckabee five times for failing to report gifts and for failing to report thousands he paid himself and his family from campaign funds.
Today, Huckabee vigorously defended his record.
MIKE HUCKABEE: In all of the complaints I've ever gotten, there was never, ever once, one instance in which I was found to have received an illegal gift.
RANDY MINTON (FORMER REPUBLICAN STATE REPRESENTATIVE): I just think it’s terribly wrong.
LISA MYERS: Former Republican State Representative Randy Minton, who’s going to Iowa to campaign against Huckabee, says the governor, though likeable, has an ethical blind spot.
RANDY MINTON: If people see you as someone who’s always got their hand out, I think it hurts the public trust when you’re doing that.
LISA MYERS: As the Huckabees moved out of the governor’s mansion, they signed up on the wedding registry at this department store [Dillard’s] and at Target, identifying gifts they’d like for their new home. After an uproar, the Huckabees pulled the registries down, but defend the tradition of gift giving and receiving.
Lisa Myers, NBC News, Washington.
Gee, I thought the MSM was on his side.
I guess not.
If NBC does as god a job with this as it did with the baseball list we get another laugh at an enemy’s expense.
Did they ask him about taking it all with him when he left office ?
I think sometimes they just can’t help themselves. Huckabee is everything they despise and hate, all the more so because he talks the Jesus talk, so it must be hard to smile and ignore it all the time. It’s bound to slip out once in a while.
Maybe hillary will call and remind them what the program is.
NBC knows ethics. When it comes to ethics they are rocket scientists.
Main stream media starting to take notice now that their chosen liberal candidate Guiliani is falling like a rock.
Main stream media has complete distain for Huckabee.
Ah yes... Lisa Meyers of Anita Broderick fame.
LOL!
Which is why they are putting him on the cover of Newsweak? Huckabee is a useful tool for them right now.
They build them up then they tear them down.
It's finally Huck's turn.
“NBC investigates”. That’s a new one.
They should investigate Clinton's ethical shortcomings.Lisa Myers did a nearly half-hour investigative report on Juanita Broaddrick.
Ah yes... Lisa Meyers of Anita Broderick fame.Juanita Broaddrick.
Huckabee has the “I’m not as smart as I look” aura about him.
Crickets chirping.......
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