K
Kickin' Ass and Takin' Names
Guest
This is what the Republican Party has sunk to.
----------------------------------------------------
Huckabee Unveils Ad Only to Disavow It
By Michael D. Shear and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 1, 2008; A01
DES MOINES, Dec. 31 -- Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee took an
unorthodox gamble in his bid for the presidency Monday, unveiling an
attack ad against Republican rival Mitt Romney and then immediately
pledging not to run it in the hopes of appealing to the better nature
of Iowa voters.
Flanked by posters his campaign produced to question Romney's
credibility, Huckabee decried gutter politics in America but then
directed the attention of scores of reporters and television cameras
to a movie screen, where he played the 30-second hit piece on Romney's
honesty and record.
"I pulled the ad. I do not want it to be run at all," he said. But
within minutes, the ad was being played on national television and had
been posted on blogs and other Web sites -- without costing his
campaign a penny.
The campaign's decision to not buy airtime for the ad came after an
internal debate over how to arrest the damage from a week of critical
Romney campaign commercials and several highly publicized flubs by
Huckabee, whose sudden status as front-runner in the GOP contest here
appears to be in jeopardy.
Huckabee has not had a good day in nearly a week as he has tried to
respond to attacks by Romney on his Arkansas record and to
increasingly skeptical media coverage. A poll released Sunday showed
him trailing Romney here after once leading by double digits. Over the
weekend, he began telling reporters that a second-place finish would
be wonderful.
In the past several days, Huckabee has lashed out at Romney, calling
him "dishonest" for airing ads that distort Huckabee's record. In an
appearance on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, he accused Romney of
"running a very desperate and, frankly, a dishonest campaign." His
campaign Web site compares Romney to the "Seinfeld" character George
Costanza, who the campaign quotes as saying: "Just remember, it's not
a lie if you believe it."
Instead of becoming more disciplined in the face of battle, Huckabee
and his campaign have veered off in directions that have not helped
his message. Huckabee has had several gaffes in recent days, including
an erroneous comment that a large number of illegal immigrants come to
the United States from Pakistan. The mistake raised questions about
his foreign policy experience.
Huckabee spent all day Sunday filming the ad, flying to Arkansas to
produce it and losing a day on the campaign trail as a result. On
Monday, his campaign appearances included an early-morning run through
the snow and a haircut that became a media circus because it followed
his news conference.
On Wednesday, Huckabee is scheduled to leave Iowa -- a virtually
unheard-of move on the day before the caucuses -- and head for
Hollywood, where he will appear as a guest on "The Tonight Show With
Jay Leno."
Romney, meanwhile, spent the weekend crisscrossing Iowa with a bus
tour called "Strong America." He will use the final day of campaigning
to fly around Iowa in a last-minute push for votes.
Huckabee's decision on Monday -- which produced loud snickers from
reporters sensitive to hypocrisy -- is the latest gimmick in an
unconventional campaign that has captured the fancy of Iowa voters,
especially Christian conservatives, with a mix of offbeat humor, anti-
business populism and aw-shucks Southern charm. The morning after
Christmas, Huckabee went pheasant hunting, earning pictures on front
pages everywhere.
Huckabee's poll numbers began to rise a month ago after the campaign
started airing its first ad -- a cartoonish spot featuring action hero
Chuck Norris. A later ad just before Christmas stirred up controversy
by panning across a white bookcase that some said looked like a cross.
Huckabee said the new ad, which says Romney is too dishonest to be
president and wrong on gun control, abortion and taxes, was sent to
television and radio stations Sunday but will not be broadcast. He
said he had made the decision only 10 minutes before his noon news
conference, surprising even his top staff.
"The original plan was to show you the two Romney attack ads, then our
response to it," he told reporters. "I just realized that this is not
how we run our campaign in this state. We've gotten here by being
positive."
That drew a sarcastic response from Romney campaign spokesman Kevin
Madden. "To say one thing one minute and then turn around and show an
attack ad to reporters the next will, obviously, leave folks with a
very cynical view of Mike Huckabee and his message," Madden said.
"Mike Huckabee has turned from nice to very hot-tempered now that his
record has been examined by voters."
The move also was ridiculed by some in the party who said it called
into question whether Huckabee is ready to be the GOP standard-bearer.
"Poor Huckabee has gone from being a principled conservative candidate
to a political analyst who can't make a decision on strategy," said
Scott Reed, who managed Robert J. Dole's presidential campaign in
1996. "This effort makes him look weak and will begin a new level of
second-guessing that will overwhelm his campaign in the critical
homestretch."
The possibility of a Huckabee victory in the 2008 nomination battle
has been improbable from the beginning. In the first six months of the
campaign, he raised almost no money and was a mere blip in most
national and state polls.
He also adopted a unique, populist message for a Republican, one that
takes aim at much of his party's establishment by highlighting how
different he is from the button-down Romney.
As he seeks to expand his support beyond the conservative evangelicals
who put him atop the field, Huckabee increasingly sounds like one of
the Democratic candidates who has long been popular here, former
senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
"A lot of the folks on Wall Street have been pummeling me . . . but
I'm a champion of the guys on Main Street," Huckabee said Friday in
Ottumwa.
Pete Wehner, a former top adviser to President Bush, said he thought
Huckabee was "onto something" by emphasizing economic concerns of
middle-class Americans but was not expressing them in a way that would
win over GOP voters. "It's an interesting test case," Wehner said,
"but that message of economic populism goes against the core of Ronald
Reagan's message and is out of step with Republican voters."
Several weeks ago, Huckabee seemed to concede that he needed some
guidance from an old Washington hand when he hired Ed Rollins, a
Republican operative who joined the team with a pledge to help with
the intraparty brawl that was sure to come. Rollins said on Sunday
that they were producing an ad that would "set the record straight" on
Huckabee and Romney.
Rollins stood uncomfortably to the side as Huckabee renounced what
Rollins had helped produce for $30,000 the day before. But Huckabee
defended Rollins at the news conference, saying that he was staying on
as a top adviser.
"I'm responsible for the direction we're going," Huckabee said. "I'm
responsible for the decision to pull it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/12/31/ST2007123102528.html?hpid=topnews
----------------------------------------------------
Huckabee Unveils Ad Only to Disavow It
By Michael D. Shear and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, January 1, 2008; A01
DES MOINES, Dec. 31 -- Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee took an
unorthodox gamble in his bid for the presidency Monday, unveiling an
attack ad against Republican rival Mitt Romney and then immediately
pledging not to run it in the hopes of appealing to the better nature
of Iowa voters.
Flanked by posters his campaign produced to question Romney's
credibility, Huckabee decried gutter politics in America but then
directed the attention of scores of reporters and television cameras
to a movie screen, where he played the 30-second hit piece on Romney's
honesty and record.
"I pulled the ad. I do not want it to be run at all," he said. But
within minutes, the ad was being played on national television and had
been posted on blogs and other Web sites -- without costing his
campaign a penny.
The campaign's decision to not buy airtime for the ad came after an
internal debate over how to arrest the damage from a week of critical
Romney campaign commercials and several highly publicized flubs by
Huckabee, whose sudden status as front-runner in the GOP contest here
appears to be in jeopardy.
Huckabee has not had a good day in nearly a week as he has tried to
respond to attacks by Romney on his Arkansas record and to
increasingly skeptical media coverage. A poll released Sunday showed
him trailing Romney here after once leading by double digits. Over the
weekend, he began telling reporters that a second-place finish would
be wonderful.
In the past several days, Huckabee has lashed out at Romney, calling
him "dishonest" for airing ads that distort Huckabee's record. In an
appearance on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, he accused Romney of
"running a very desperate and, frankly, a dishonest campaign." His
campaign Web site compares Romney to the "Seinfeld" character George
Costanza, who the campaign quotes as saying: "Just remember, it's not
a lie if you believe it."
Instead of becoming more disciplined in the face of battle, Huckabee
and his campaign have veered off in directions that have not helped
his message. Huckabee has had several gaffes in recent days, including
an erroneous comment that a large number of illegal immigrants come to
the United States from Pakistan. The mistake raised questions about
his foreign policy experience.
Huckabee spent all day Sunday filming the ad, flying to Arkansas to
produce it and losing a day on the campaign trail as a result. On
Monday, his campaign appearances included an early-morning run through
the snow and a haircut that became a media circus because it followed
his news conference.
On Wednesday, Huckabee is scheduled to leave Iowa -- a virtually
unheard-of move on the day before the caucuses -- and head for
Hollywood, where he will appear as a guest on "The Tonight Show With
Jay Leno."
Romney, meanwhile, spent the weekend crisscrossing Iowa with a bus
tour called "Strong America." He will use the final day of campaigning
to fly around Iowa in a last-minute push for votes.
Huckabee's decision on Monday -- which produced loud snickers from
reporters sensitive to hypocrisy -- is the latest gimmick in an
unconventional campaign that has captured the fancy of Iowa voters,
especially Christian conservatives, with a mix of offbeat humor, anti-
business populism and aw-shucks Southern charm. The morning after
Christmas, Huckabee went pheasant hunting, earning pictures on front
pages everywhere.
Huckabee's poll numbers began to rise a month ago after the campaign
started airing its first ad -- a cartoonish spot featuring action hero
Chuck Norris. A later ad just before Christmas stirred up controversy
by panning across a white bookcase that some said looked like a cross.
Huckabee said the new ad, which says Romney is too dishonest to be
president and wrong on gun control, abortion and taxes, was sent to
television and radio stations Sunday but will not be broadcast. He
said he had made the decision only 10 minutes before his noon news
conference, surprising even his top staff.
"The original plan was to show you the two Romney attack ads, then our
response to it," he told reporters. "I just realized that this is not
how we run our campaign in this state. We've gotten here by being
positive."
That drew a sarcastic response from Romney campaign spokesman Kevin
Madden. "To say one thing one minute and then turn around and show an
attack ad to reporters the next will, obviously, leave folks with a
very cynical view of Mike Huckabee and his message," Madden said.
"Mike Huckabee has turned from nice to very hot-tempered now that his
record has been examined by voters."
The move also was ridiculed by some in the party who said it called
into question whether Huckabee is ready to be the GOP standard-bearer.
"Poor Huckabee has gone from being a principled conservative candidate
to a political analyst who can't make a decision on strategy," said
Scott Reed, who managed Robert J. Dole's presidential campaign in
1996. "This effort makes him look weak and will begin a new level of
second-guessing that will overwhelm his campaign in the critical
homestretch."
The possibility of a Huckabee victory in the 2008 nomination battle
has been improbable from the beginning. In the first six months of the
campaign, he raised almost no money and was a mere blip in most
national and state polls.
He also adopted a unique, populist message for a Republican, one that
takes aim at much of his party's establishment by highlighting how
different he is from the button-down Romney.
As he seeks to expand his support beyond the conservative evangelicals
who put him atop the field, Huckabee increasingly sounds like one of
the Democratic candidates who has long been popular here, former
senator John Edwards of North Carolina.
"A lot of the folks on Wall Street have been pummeling me . . . but
I'm a champion of the guys on Main Street," Huckabee said Friday in
Ottumwa.
Pete Wehner, a former top adviser to President Bush, said he thought
Huckabee was "onto something" by emphasizing economic concerns of
middle-class Americans but was not expressing them in a way that would
win over GOP voters. "It's an interesting test case," Wehner said,
"but that message of economic populism goes against the core of Ronald
Reagan's message and is out of step with Republican voters."
Several weeks ago, Huckabee seemed to concede that he needed some
guidance from an old Washington hand when he hired Ed Rollins, a
Republican operative who joined the team with a pledge to help with
the intraparty brawl that was sure to come. Rollins said on Sunday
that they were producing an ad that would "set the record straight" on
Huckabee and Romney.
Rollins stood uncomfortably to the side as Huckabee renounced what
Rollins had helped produce for $30,000 the day before. But Huckabee
defended Rollins at the news conference, saying that he was staying on
as a top adviser.
"I'm responsible for the direction we're going," Huckabee said. "I'm
responsible for the decision to pull it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2007/12/31/ST2007123102528.html?hpid=topnews