Posted on 01/13/2008 1:01:49 PM PST by TornadoAlley3
Six days before South Carolina Republicans go to the polls, the spat between the Southerners who need to win that crucial primary -- former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- continues to get uglier and uglier, even as both men tread more lightly on the candidate who leads the most recent poll in that state, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
"Fred Thompson talks about putting America first, and yet he's the one who is a registered foreign agent, lobbied for foreign countries, was in a law firm that did lobbying work for Libya," Huckabee charged Sunday morning on CNN.
Thompson, who had launched an aggressive attack against Huckabee's record during Thursday night's GOP debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., responded by insinuating that Huckabee is in truth nastier than his sunny demeanor, is unprepared for the presidency, and is making personal attacks while Thompson is "talking about issues concerning this country."
Huckabee has "raised enough money now to get some hit pieces and dredge up personal stuff and personal accusations against me," Thompson told CNN. "And now you're seeing the real Mike Huckabee come out. So, I think we've done a favor to the American people. Because these are serious times, and they require somebody that knows what they're doing and doesn't walk into a situation with foreign representatives and heads of foreign nations with training wheels on."
Since 1980, no Republican has won the presidency without first winning the South Carolina primary. But in this year's unpredictable GOP contest, with any number of possible nominees and no clear frontrunner, the South Carolina primary has taken on extra importance -- for Huckabee and Thompson in particular.
Huckabee needs to demonstrate that his Iowa caucus victory Jan. 3 wasn't a fluke, and that his scotch-tape-and-rubber-bands campaign is capable of going national. For his part, Thompson needs to win somewhere. Anywhere.
Addressing the substance of Huckabee's charges, Thompson Sunday acknowledged he was "in a law firm that did some lobbying work for Libya," but his involvement was minimal. He said he'd registered with the government because of "five minutes' worth of contribution" to discussions about another client, Haiti.
"It was totally consistent with the policies of this country, where a dictatorship had taken over that country and we were opposing that," Thompson said.
During the Republican debate Thursday night, Thompson -- about whom even his supporters complain of less-than-energetic campaigning -- showed remarkable pep and vigor, attacking Huckabee for having overseen a net tax increase as Arkansas governor, for having pushed merit scholarships for the children of illegal immigrants, and for having suggested he would sign a nation-wide ban on smoking in public places. He took issue with comments Huckabee made that the Bush administration had demonstrated an "arrogant bunker mentality" in its foreign policy.
"On the one hand, you have the Reagan revolution," Thompson said during the debate. "You have the Reagan coalition of limited government and strong national security. On the other hand, you have the direction that Gov. Huckabee would take us in. He would be a Christian leader, but he would also bring about liberal economic policies, liberal foreign policies. .. That's not the model of the Reagan coalition. That's the model of the Democratic Party."
Huckabee didn't respond much during the debate, but appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Friday morning, he took his well-known wit literally below the belt, joking, "I think Fred needs some Metamucil. I think it would help a lot. He was in a bad mood last night."
Campaigning Friday in Michigan, Huckabee went on the attack more substantively.
"It was real interesting hearing Fred Thompson talk about Ronald Reagan last night," Huckabee said. "Because Fred Thompson supported [then-President] Gerald Ford in 1976 and not Ronald Reagan. He supported [then-Sen.] Howard Baker in 1980 and not Ronald Reagan. I appreciate his recent conversion, but some of us were for Ronald Reagan back in the early days; our legacy goes back a little further."
Huckabee also tried to paint Thompson as having been an undistinguished senator.
"Eight years is a pretty long time to get a check from the federal government and not be able to say" he was responsible for any major legislation, Huckabee said.
On Saturday, Thompson called the criticism of his previous support of Ford and Baker as "kind of silly. Howard Baker was my mentor and personal friend in Tennessee for years and years. If you check the record, Gov. Huckabee supported Democrats on a fairly consistent basis in his days in Arkansas politics. I don't think he wants to get into that discussion. We'll see."
Of Huckabee's Metamucil's joke, on Sunday morning Thompson said "his response was to return fire with some potty humor. That's the best he could come up with for the last three days."
He added that he was happy to compare his record to Huckabee's, whom he described as "having raised taxes $500 million more than he cut." He described Huckabee's criticisms of the Bush administration as "blame-America-first comments," and pointed out, correctly, the Huckabee campaign chairman Ed Rollins had called the Reagan coalition dead.
Huckabee, Thompson charged, "talked around the subject and smiled and giggled and told a couple of jokes. When I came back, I said, 'You know, this is about the heart and mind of the Republican Party, because I don't believe it [the Reagan coalition] is [dead].'"
Said Huckabee, "The Writers Guild strike needs to end soon. Fred's got to get some better lines. Calling me a liberal would be laughable in Arkansas, where people recognized -- if anything, they called me this ultra-conservative guy. ... It's always interesting to me, when people get desperate, they start grabbing for anything."
Thompson responded that he had been asking questions about Huckabee's support for closing down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, his support for public programs for the children of illegal immigrants, and the fact that he was endorsed by a teachers' union.
"These are substantive issues," Thompson said. "These are not personal attacks. If the governor wants to get into personal attacks and things that happened some years ago and things that they've done and allegations, there's enough on the record in Arkansas that will keep us busy for the rest of this campaign."
Or at least until Saturday.
Good luck with your candidate.
You seem intent on undermining Reagan’s conservative credentials when it’s your boy who’s using him as the standard.
FACT: Mike Huckabee's substantial tax hikes far surpassed his modest tax cuts, with the average tax burden increasing by a whopping 47% over his tenure. (Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 10/09/07)
FACT: Mike Huckabee opposed a congressional measure to ban internet taxes in 2003. (Source: Arkansas News Bureau, 11/21/03)
FACT: Mike Huckabee in 2004, he allowed a 17% sales tax increase to become law. (Source: The Gurdon Times, 03/02/04)
Huckabee: The money grabber.
I thought that us evangelicals had outgrown (at least a bit) the cult of personality thing which led us down so many problem paths. I am obviously mistaken. I could have had (and did have) these same arguments with supporters of Swaggart and Bakker. "Don't look at what they did, look at how 'Christian' they are?"
Odd thing was, the most fundamentalist was always the first to cuss in the argument. Guess some things never change.
My candidate is Coolidge. He isn’t eligible to run this time.
What do you think about Huck wanting to shut down Guantanamo?
I don’t think so, but you keep that thinking going, the Democrats need folks like you.
“I’d say Huckabee is more conservative than Giuliani “
Huckabee is/was soft-on-crime with his commutation spree, nonconservative in foreign policy, was a tax-and-spend Governor (ranked 45th out of 50 on fiscal responsibility),
and it a nanny-stater, support CO2 caps and a national smoking ban in public places. The only area where Huck is genuinely conservative is social issues.
Putting that up against Guiliani’s deviations on gun, gays and abortion, and you have obviously very different positions, but Huckabee’s deviations are larger and much more impactful for a President. For example on abortion, both promise to appoint conservative judges; not much different; Huck’s support for HLA will make that no more likely to happen than if Rudy were in the oval office. OTOH, Huck’s foreign policy positions, part ignorance and part Cartereqsue moralizing, would direct our US foreign policy 100%.
Thirty years ago he supported his friend and mentor in a Republican primary. Too far back. He was a big supporter of Reagan starting 27 years ago. That is good enough on that subject for me.
We need to stick to issues in the last 20 years or so...
Sorry for injecting facts onto the thread. I shall, with you Huckabee shills, attempt to avoid it with all due vigor in the future.
I wasn't undermining Reagan's conservative credentials. He stood up for life in the end. He was a champion of the unborn and I'm sure he was quite proud of that as he looked back on his life. I am eternally grateful to him for the stance he took.
On this thread, I was merely pointing out that he wouldn't have passed your all's test for true conservatism in 1976. And the assertion that he was the choice for all true conservatives in '76 was a bit over the top.
I disagree with him on that.
I think I'd switch that to "Don't look at what they did, look at how 'Christian' they say they are'
He's using John McCain as an alias
Golly, I thought the FredHeads were the true conservatives. You mean we’ve been giving and taking here for nothing?
What do you think about his endorsement from the NEA?
I bet Lincoln wasn’t much of a Republican when he first started in politics either.:)
“Looking at a politician’s past record is an excellent predictor of his future behavior just like looking at a racehorse’s past performance is indicative of future performances. Once a horse has developed a chart with several performances going back sometime, he seldom rises above his best past performance. I believe the same can be said about a politician.”
We can also say that politicians become old nags after a time ... McCain in his early years had a conservative voting record, but he turned RINO. Huckabee cut taxes his first year in office, but then turned into a tax-and-spend liberal who raised taxes on multiple occassions with multiple excuses.
I dont know of a single politician who actually improved in office over a long period of time. The longer they serve, the worse they get. So maybe Romney’s 4 years and Thompson’s 8 are a PLUS compared with Huckabee’s 10 and McCain 28 years on the public dole.
Yeah, that was the gist of what I was saying.
I trust life is treating you splendidly?
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