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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Huckabee apologizes to Romney, saying Mormonism doesn’t matter
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CNN has put out a transcript of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s interview this afternoon, after the Iowa debate.
Wolf Blitzer asked Huckabee about his comments on Mitt Romney’s faith, in an article to be published in the New York Times magazine this Sunday. The article highlights this sentence from the new GOP frontrunner in Iowa: “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”
This is part of what Huckabee said to CNN:
“After the debate today I went to Mitt Romney and apologized to him, because I said, I would never try, ever, to try to somehow pick out some point of your faith and make it, you know, an issue, and I wouldn’t.
“I’ve stayed away from talking about Mitt Romney’s faith. And I told him face to face, I said, ‘I don’t think your being a Mormon ought to make you more or less qualified for being a president.’ That has been my position.”
“Wolf, everybody I’ve talked to just about wants me to come out and say something about Mitt Romney’s faith. I’ve not taken the bait, but if I don’t say something, they say that my avoiding it is really an underlying statement. If I do say anything, then I’m attacking him.”
Go to the jump for the entire segment on the religious issue.
BLITZER: All right. “The New York Times” Sunday magazine has a long profile of you, and one line has jumped out and is causing a lot of commotion right now.
When you asked this question to the interviewer, the reporter who wrote the story, you said this: “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?” Now, as you know, Mormons say that’s a canard, they don’t believe that, that’s been a canard spread by people who don’t like Mormonism.
I want you to explain what you were doing by even raising that question.
HUCKABEE: Actually if you’ll talk to the reporter, because he was shocked that that was characterized out of an 8,100-word story, as we were, we thought, good heavens. We were having a conversation. It was over several hours, and the conversation was about religion, and he was trying to press me on my thoughts of Mitt Romney’s religion.
And I said I don’t want to go there. I don’t know that much about it. I barely know enough about being a Baptist. And I really didn’t know.
Well, he was telling me things about the Mormon faith, because he frankly is fairly well-schooled on comparative religions. And so as a part of that conversation, I asked the question, because I had heard that, and I asked it not to create something — I never thought it would make the story.
After the debate today I went to Mitt Romney and apologized to him, because I said, I would never try, ever, to try to somehow pick out some point of your faith and make it, you know, an issue, and I wouldn’t.
I’ve stayed away from talking about Mitt Romney’s faith. And I told him face to face, I said, “I don’t think your being a Mormon ought to make you more or less qualified for being a president.” That has been my position.
Wolf, everybody I’ve talked to just about wants me to come out and say something about Mitt Romney’s faith. I’ve not taken the bait, but if I don’t say something, they say that my avoiding it is really an underlying statement. If I do say anything, then I’m attacking him.
So I’m not sure how to deal with that, but I certainly am not in any way getting into that. And as I said to him, I say to you, I don’t think his particular religion is a factor in whether or not people should vote for him or against him.
I’d like to think that my being a Baptist isn’t a factor in people voting for or against me, although in Arkansas, when people say, are the Baptists active in your campaign, I always say they’re all active, half for me and half of them against me, but it certainly didn’t mean that they automatically voted for me.
BLITZER: So how did he react, Mitt Romney, when you went up to him and you said — you apologized, I guess, for that one quote?
HUCKABEE: Well, he was gracious. You know, I hope he knows it was sincere. But, you know, I’m trying to stay away from everything I can say. I’m being much more cautious now, because everything is being parsed.
And heck, not just the things I’m saying now, but, you know, we have got a lot of people dumpster-diving right now in the political process, and they’re going through every old wastebasket they can find to dig up anything I have ever said, but I understand. I went through this in Arkansas, it’s part of the political process. It’s not something I’m shocked by, not something I wasn’t expecting.
If anything, I’m kind of delighted that it’s happening, because there’s no way that this wouldn’t be happening if I wasn’t scaring some people to death.
You can help a governor build his clout — or you can turn the page
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you want to help a particular Georgia governor spread his footprint and have a boatload of cash, then Sonny Perdue is looking for you.
An e-mail has gone out from John Watson, the governor’s former chief of staff, soliciting minimum donations of $5,000 for a Jan. 7 fund-raiser for Perdue PAC. No hurry, but Watson wants an answer by Friday.
You can clear it with the spouse later.
“Perdue PAC is a political organization registered as a ยง 527 organization with the I.R.S. and as a political action committee with the Georgia State Ethics Commission,” Watson explains in a helpful attachment to his message.
Exactly what does Perdue PAC do? We’re so glad you asked.
“The funds are used to support the political activities of Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue and elect like-minded conservative, principled candidates within the State and across the country,” says the hand-out.
The literature also assures us that, because Perdue PAC is a 527, no contribution limits apply. So feel free to open your wallets really, really wide.
Now, given the fact that the event will be held exactly one week before the Legislature convenes, some wags will say that this is aimed at lobbyists interested in the governor’s help on any number of issues.
But that would be cynical — and hard to judge, too. Exactly who gives to the governor won’t be known until long after the Legislature leaves town.
The event will also compete with similar receptions for several lawmakers, Republican and Democrat, which would be — oh, wait. That’s the point.
Cash can cure many ills, including lameduckitis. Every governor sees his influence wane as his second term ticks on. But a pile of money that can be spread, judiciously, here and there among (or against) troublesome lawmakers might delay advance of the disease.
In any case, the Perdue fund-raiser is likely to be the most expensive ticket in town. Five large ones will only buy you the right to scarf nuts and Cheetos at the reception. Only those who write checks for $10,000 and more will be permitted a sit-down dinner afterwards.
A plain-spoken assessment of GOP congressional prospects
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If you’re a Republican, possibly you also have a friend or two contemplating a congressional challenge to either John Barrow of Savannah or Jim Marshall of Macon, Georgia’s two white Democrats.
If this is the case, please tell them that House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) has this message: The fund-raising situation “sucks.”
His word, not ours, in The Politico.
“Now the money sucks for two reasons,” Boehner said. “People are mad at the president; they are mad at the party. And then [there is] this whole immigration fight. People just turned off the spigot.”
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In Georgia, the Fair Tax unveils its role in the GOP presidential race
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As promised, U.S. Rep. John Linder put out a statement this morning, becoming the first member of the Republican congressional delegation in Georgia to throw his weight behind presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
He cited Huckabee’s support of the Fair Tax — a proposed shift in taxation from the federal income tax to a consumption tax.
What Linder didn’t say was that he had withdrawn his previous support from Mitt Romney. For the same reason.
Linder said that happened in June or July, when Romney — the Georgia congressman remembered — said that “the only tax reform we needed is to reduce the tax burden on savings for middle America.
“And he said, on Social Security, the only thing we need to do is reduce the benefit for wealthier people,” Linder recounted in an interview. “I began to wonder what party he was running in.”
So Linder said he quietly had his name removed from Romney’s list of supporters, and then began waiting for someone to catch fire.
The Fair Tax, as plugged by Linder and radio talk show host Neal Boortz, has been endorsed by Ron Paul, Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter, Linder said. (Fred Thompson had said kind things about the Fair Tax this summer when he made his first trip to Georgia, but has since backed away from the idea.}
“But Huckabee was campaigning on it. It was a secondary issue for the other three,” he said.
Over the weekend, as Huckabee surged, Linder said he concluded that “this was the best opportunity to get the fair tax on the front page.”
“I think he’ll win Georgia. I think, in Georgia, the Fair Tax will help him a lot. I think it’ll help in Florida and South Carolina. We’ve got a huge team in Michigan,” Linder said.
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