Huckabee trashes Romney- and rightly so
Mike Huckabee's new book is quite critical of Mitt Romney- justifiably, in my opinion. Lest we forget it was Romney's decision to trash Ronald Reagan's "Eleventh Commandment-" "Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican-" and go negative on Huckabee during the campaign here in Iowa early this year that ended up making Romney the most disliked of all the contenders among his fellow candidates. Romney continued his slash-and-burn tactics against John McCain once Huckabee was safely out of the way, still oblivious to the fact that he was providing the Democrats with potential ammunition for the Fall campaign.
Huckabee's book apparently makes pretty much the same case Huck made- successfully- during the primaries: that Romney's conversion to social conservatism from a consistent, career-long record as a social liberal, while welcome, seemed to coincide curiously with his decision that he wanted to be president.
The Romney camp's response? Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom replies, “This type of pettiness is beneath Mike Huckabee. 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 may throw up.
If I were in Mitt's camp, I'd want Huckabee to forget my guy's willingness to trash his fellow Republicans in order to advance his own chances of getting the nomination, too. But "bringing people together" wasn't exactly Romney's main objective during the 2008 primaries, and five will get you ten it won't be his main objective during the 2012 primaries, either.
I don't think either Huck or Romney ought to be our nominee in 2012. Neither of them, in my opinion, is electable. But in this case, Huckabee is right. Romney deserved everything Huckabee dished out, and more. And for his people to hypocritically chide Huck for a lack of concern about "bringing people together" for 2012 after the kind of campaign Romney ran in 2008 is nothing short of outrageous.
Romney would be better served by walking a walk from now through 2012 that matches Fehrnstrom's talk- and above all by avoiding any temptation to criticize either Mike Huckabee or John McCain for being negative about him.
Ever.
Maybe then he will deserve better of his fellow Republicans.
Huckabee's book apparently makes pretty much the same case Huck made- successfully- during the primaries: that Romney's conversion to social conservatism from a consistent, career-long record as a social liberal, while welcome, seemed to coincide curiously with his decision that he wanted to be president.
The Romney camp's response? Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom replies, “This type of pettiness is beneath Mike Huckabee. 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 may throw up.
If I were in Mitt's camp, I'd want Huckabee to forget my guy's willingness to trash his fellow Republicans in order to advance his own chances of getting the nomination, too. But "bringing people together" wasn't exactly Romney's main objective during the 2008 primaries, and five will get you ten it won't be his main objective during the 2012 primaries, either.
I don't think either Huck or Romney ought to be our nominee in 2012. Neither of them, in my opinion, is electable. But in this case, Huckabee is right. Romney deserved everything Huckabee dished out, and more. And for his people to hypocritically chide Huck for a lack of concern about "bringing people together" for 2012 after the kind of campaign Romney ran in 2008 is nothing short of outrageous.
Romney would be better served by walking a walk from now through 2012 that matches Fehrnstrom's talk- and above all by avoiding any temptation to criticize either Mike Huckabee or John McCain for being negative about him.
Ever.
Maybe then he will deserve better of his fellow Republicans.
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