Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has already come under (GOP) fire for comments “dissing” President George Bush’s foreign policy, getting into a tussle with Republican icon Rush Limbaugh — and then there was his (in)famous press conference with the Romney ad. Has he stuck his foot in his mouth again?
The latest incident that could provide conservative weblogs, Rush Limbaugh, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and others hours of rage-pleasure comes via an interview with the Quad-City Times:
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee defended his failure to read the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran in early December, joking in an interview Monday that President Bush didn’t read intelligence reports for four years.
Huckabee came under fire in early December when, in response to a reporter’s question about the Iran report, Huckabee said he wasn’t aware of it. Huckabee’s lack of familiarity with the National Intelligence Estimate — a report that showed Iran had discontinued its nuclear program — provided fuel for his critics who said he was a lightweight on foreign policy.
“The whole perception was based on an ambush question on the NIE report,” Huckabee said in an interview Monday with the Quad-City Times. “From there, it was like, ‘Wow.’ That was released at 10 o’clock in the morning. At 5:30 in the afternoon, somebody says, ‘Have you read the report?’ Maybe I should’ve said, ‘Have you read the report?’ President Bush didn’t read it for four years; I don’t know why I should read it in four hours.”
Rush now has his Wednesday show all laid out for him…
His comment about President Bush appears to be a reference to allegations made by Bush’s critics that Bush didn’t pay close enough attention to intelligence reports, particularly in the early years of his presidency.
When asked to clarify, Huckabee said this:
“The point I’m trying to make is that, on the campaign trail, nobody’s going to be able, if they’ve been campaigning as hard as we have been, to keep up with every single thing, from what happened to Britney last night to who won ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ ”
Actually, Huckabee is correct.
And his “sin” is in talking as a normal human being would talk — with humor, sarcasm, and making an observation that does not edit out an unflattering reference to someone who is his party’s guy in the White House. It IS refreshing.
The only problem is, the GOP establishment doesn’t like him anyway and he’s running in Iowa and needs to get the votes of GOPers. He could still win in Iowa but this latest comment may mean that more than ever some of the powers that be will want to get behind Arizona Senator John McCain or Mitt Romney. His comment will also make a great quote for a Democratic Party TV ad somewhere along the line.
But, again, do he and his consultant Ed Rollins know something we don’t know? Could it be that talking like a normal human being and not praising The Leader of Your Party at every turn or playing defense lawyer for him if his performance (or cover story) wasn’t stellar will appeal to many Republicans who have had enough with the elite now running the GOP? Could it be that his press conference won’t backfire on him but helped him get his message out?
Part of the answer will arrive on Jan. 3.
But it’s safe to say some powerful folks in the White House (and powerful talk show hosts with private airplanes whose shows are almost always done from the perspective of the White House and the RNC) won’t find his joke funny.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.