Mike Huckabee
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Categories: Arkansas Republicans | 2008 Presidential candidates
Mike Huckabee is the former Republican Governor of Arkansas. He became Governor in 1996 when his predecessor resigned, and he was reelected in 1998 and 2002. He was elected Lt. Gov. in a 1993 special election, and was reelected in 1994. He ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 1992.
Huckabee is a former chairman of the National Governors Association. He is an ordained Baptist pastor. He and his wife Janet have three grown children.
Huckabee is seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. At one of the GOP presidential debates, he raised his hand to show that he did not believe in evolution. Huckabee opposes abortion, even for victims of rape and incest.
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Quotes
- "I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ." - (Source: Huckabee: U.S. gave up on religion - Arkansas Gazette, June 8, 1998.)
- “most of our prisoners [in the US] would love to be in a facility more like Guantanamo and less like the state prisons that people are in in the United States.” - Source: ThinkProgress.org, June 11, 2007.
- "If a person dresses provocatively, they're calling attention - maybe not the most desirable kind - to private parts of their body." - referring to women who wear miniskirts. (Source: Essential Estrogen, June 12, 2007)
- On Guantanamo - "The inmates there were getting a whole lot better treatment than my prisoners in Arkansas. In fact, we left saying, ‘I hope our guys don’t see this. They’ll all want to be transferred to Guanatanmo. If anything, it’s too nice." (Source: Huckabee will say anything to win, December 21, 2007)
- "I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that’s what we need to do is amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than trying to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family." - at a rally in MIchigan on Jan. 14, 2008 (Source: ThinkProgress, Jan. 15, 2008)
- On Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction - "Everybody can look back and say, oh well we didn’t find the weapons. Doesn’t meet that they weren’t there. Just because you didn’t find every Easter egg didn’t mean it wasn’t planted. ... I think it’s more likely that that weapons of mass destruction that we know that he at one time had, he used weapons against the Kurds, good chance they may have gone to Jordan. We don’t know where they are." - during the Republican Presidential debate, Jan. 24, 2008 (Source: Huckabee: Iraq’s WMD Were Hidden Like ‘Easter Eggs’ And Then Moved To Jordan, ThinkProgress.org] (Note that Jordan is an American ally.)
AIDS Quarantine
- In 1992, Huckabee said about AIDS patients - 'we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague". When questioned about it in 2007, he stood by his previous statement. (Source: Huckabee stands by AIDS statement).
An Arkansas Willie Horton
- In 1997, Huckabee used his influence as governor to secure an early parole for convicted rapist Wayne DuMond. Four years later, DuMond was convicted of raping and murdering a Kansas City woman, and he later died in jail. (Source: Digbysblog, June 11, 2007.) Huckabee sought parole for DuMond despite letters from his previous victims begging him to keep DuMond behind bars. (Source: Mike Huckabee:"None Of Us Could Have Predicted...").
- Huckabee released 1033 convicted prisoners while he was governor. (Source: Huckabee and criminals: It's worse than just Wayne DuMond, by Joe Conason, Salon.com, December 14, 2007.)
Gifts Galore
- While he was governor, Huckabee accepted extravagant gifts from friends and supporters. In 1999 alone, he reported $112,366 in gifts. (Source: "Persuasive Huckabee Changed State, His Way", by Adam Nossiter and Adam Barstow, New York Times, Dec. 22, 2007.)
Women Should Submit
- On August 26, 1998, Huckabee was one of 131 co-signers of a full page ad in USA Today, which supported the Southern Baptist Convention's statement on the family. That statement said, in part, "A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ." (Source: Huckabee: women's role in marriage is to "graciously submit").
Crazy Son
- Huckabee's son, David, was arrested for trying to carry a loaded pistol onto an airplane. (Source: Huckabee's Son Arrested With Gun - AP, April 26, 2007).
- David Huckabee was fired as a camp counselor after apparently killing a dog. The director of the Arkansas State Police claimed that Huckabee interfered in the investigation to protect his son. (Source: A Son’s Past Deeds Come Back To Bite Huckabee, by MIchael Isikoff, Newsweek, December 24, 2007).
Mike Huckabee "Military Strategist"
- Led around with three other governors by their military handlers in a tour of Iraq, Huckabee is quoted as saying that insurgency is losing momentum despite evidence that insurgent attacks and sophistication increased over the past year. Searching for a "down home" metaphor or perhaps using one supplied by aides or handlers, Huckabee said of the Sunni Iraqi insurgency that a, "light bulb burns very brightly right before it goes out." Source: Antonio Casteneda. "Four U.S. Governors Meet GIs In Iraq." ABC News. January 24, 2006. Of course the light bulb Huckabee thinks he sees might be the light at the end of the tunnel, accompanied by the sound of a train.
- Huckabee has never served in the military - he was not yet 18 years old when the draft ended in 1973. [1]
dKos Diaries
- Huckabeeyond belief: "losing WW2 would've been OK", by Major Danby (February 23, 2007)
Books
- From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, CenterStreet, 2007.
- Character Makes a Difference, by Mike Hucabee and John Perry, Broadman & Holman, Nashville, TN, 2007.
- Kids Who Kill: Confronting our Culture of Violence, by Mike Huckabee and Dr. George Grant, Broadman & Holman, Nashville, TN, 1998.
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