Posted on 01/12/2008 1:40:02 PM PST by jaybeegee
Thompson and Huckabee sparred earlier this week after Thompson called the Arkansas governor a dirty word: "liberal." Today, speaking to reporters after a campaign event at a breakfast restaurant in North Charleston, Thompson served up another helping.
Asked to respond to Huckabee's charge that Thompson voted for Republican candidates other than conservative icon Ronald Reagan in 1976 and 1980, Thompson scoffed, "That's kind of silly." He explained his support of longtime Tennessee mentor Howard Baker before adding, "If you check the record, Governor Huckabee supported Democrats on a fairly consistent basis during his days in Arkansas politics.
"I don't think he wants to get into that discussion."
Thompson, who has thrown almost all of his campaign's resources into South Carolina in the hopes that a win in the first southern primary could buoy his campaign, says that there's "plenty of time" before next week's contest to convince voters that he's the best conservative candidate.
"We're going to have to make some fundamental decisions as which direction we want to go as a party," he said. "Whether or not we still believe in the Reagan coalition or whether or not we think we ought to go towards a more populist -- and I consider more liberal -- kind of approach."
*UPDATE* From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy and Carrie Dann According to news outlets in the governor's home state, Huckabee supported Democrat Barbara Horn during a 2000 primary race for a state senate seat in southwest Arkansas. Horn subsequently beat her Democratic opponent, and the Republican she would have opposed bowed out of the race.
[See source for more...]
(Excerpt) Read more at firstread.msnbc.msn.com ...
Should we conceal the fact that Huckabee supported Democrats?
If asked, should we lie and say he didn’t?
Should Huckabee lie about it?
Thou hast drunk of the Aide of Kool and are lost unto Men...
So Huckabee DID NOT support a Democrat?
Thank God you won’t vote for him...:)
The Republican party needs to kick Huckabee to the curb in a way that leaves no doubt what we think if populism.
Did Huckabee deny the cross in his ad? (yes)
Did the NEA (an atheistic union) endorse Huckabee? (yes)
How can you get past these facts?
As a matter of fact, George W. Bush worked with Democrats in Texas and certainly has as President.
What Huckabee is saying is that Fred Thompson is as conciliatory with respect to politics as is Huckabee. That is, in fact, the nature of practical politics in a country so evenly divided between left and right.
An unbending arch-conservative will not be successful as President and Huckabee knows it just as George W. Bush does.
Huckabee is not a pure, hard-core conservative on all the issues which is exactly why he might be elected President.
Fred Thompson would not be as hard core a conservative running in the general election as most astute observers know
I take it you do not live in the south. If you play nicey nicey kissy kissy face down here, you get eaten alive and LOSE!!!!
SO, I expect you to also say you will never vote for Huckabee -- since he attacked Romney and attacked Thompson.
I'm waiting.......
****crickets*****
You nailed it!
ROFLOL....hollow rhetoric. Akin to a Metcmucil joke.
Hahaha! Fred is doing what voters have been calling for since before he announced!
Frankly, it appears that voters are turned off by Thompson in general.
Only Huckabee voters! LOLOLOL!
I find this very ironic that you can dish it, yet can't handle a little bit of light shining on your candidate.
But hey, Huckabee did it for hope, and the children.
You've got to be kidding! I don't think anyone on the Rep side is more un-electable than Huckabee. That's why the MSM is so busy propping him up....a cinch for the donkeys to beat.
Guess who they know they can defeat?
Notice - Fred Thompson is not in this montage?
They know he is the real threat that they cannot dismiss.
Exactly my point. I stated that Fred supporters are behaving this way and that Huck supporters should support anybody that is running against Hitlery or Obama Hussein in the general election that has an R behind his name.
And what pray tell is wrong with Duncan Hunter - is selling out American workers to China a pre-requisite for being a conservative. If so, then I am afraid that brand of conservatism died or should have died with the end of the Robber Barons.
Not sure that supporting a democratic candidate who you like against another democrat that you don’t like in their primary election should be a cardinal sin. Certainly, I wouldn’t have blamed President Bush if he had supported Sen. Lieberman in his primary election against Ned Lamont. I would assume that this situation was probably something like that.
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