Out on the tour circuit for his new book, "How Mitt Romney, the Fake Conservative, Almost Bought the Republican Primary With His Big CEO Money" "Do the Right Thing," Mike Huckabee took a break from bashing former rival Mitt Romney to take a few whacks at a fellow governor he's never had to compete with:
"What John McCain did for her was to give her the capacity to sort of leapfrog over the process and get right to the center stage," he said at a breakfast with reporters this morning. "By naming her (his running mate) he was able to put her in a position where she did have to go through the bruising process of the primaries. Many of us had been out there for 15 months … she walks into the hot spotlight and she's a blank slate nobody knows so Republicans are fired up."
Oh, Huck's just mad that moose-hunting super-mom who sells planes on eBay trumps Jared from Subway with a penchant for federal workplace smoking bans.
"She didn't have to go through any the debates, she didn't have to go through the primaries, she didn't have to have people pick her or pick someone else against her. State parties did not have to divide from one to 12 ways over her. So it was a remarkable ability for her to come in at a level that is an extraordinary benefit to her."...
"So will she be part of the future? Of course she will, for the simple reason that she is one of the few people who played at that stage who didn't have to get bloodied in the process."
When she was beaten up, he added, it was by "people Republicans don't like," such as Democrats and the media.
Wow, this guy's so petty, you could put him in the 43 car and call him the King. Huckabee's very good performance during his primary "bloodying," such that it was, has served his profile and career fairly well. Less whining would serve him even better.
I was never a huge Romney fan during the primaries, but I found the open distaste for him among his opponents somewhat hyperbolic, and thought he was unfairly maligned for simply taking them to task on their records. A comparison of Huckabee's and Romney's preliminary 2012 positioning indicates Romney may have been the bigger man in that dispute all along. Huckabee's a great politician, but he's throwing up barriers between himself and the good will of the average voter right now.
Romney has been penning helpful op-eds on the economy and the auto bailout (though I should note that he loses points for his politically convenient pro-intervention position while campaigning in Michigan and the flip required for his new position). Romney has declined to trade paint with his opponent thus far.
Asked to respond (to Huckabee's book), Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said Huckabee was acting small.
"This type of pettiness is beneath Mike Huckabee," Fehrnstrom. "If we're going to move the party forward, we need to offer more than personal recriminations. Unfortunately, in this book, Mike Huckabee is consumed with presumed slights, and he seems more interested in settling scores than in bringing people together."
I think they accidentally put self-absorption in the water down in Hope, Ark. instead of fluoride.
