Arkansas Blog: Huckabee: Calling all homeboys

-- YouTube from Club for Growth.

Mike Huckabee has been stung by Arkansas Republicans who've been trashing his candidacy in national press interviews. (Between that and a 35-8 poll win for Hillary Clinton in the Arkansas Poll, it gives any national press paying attention the idea that Arkansas wasn't sorry to see The Huckster in the rear view mirror.) Brummett writes on The Huckster's homestate numbers today, too.

So now Huckabee is trying to rally Arkansas Republican legislators to his cause. A survey earlier by the Democrat-Gazette indicated that his support in that corner was slim. That wasn't surprising. He was imperious in his relationship with them during his kingship, plus many of them simply split deeply with him on matters of principle. His major achievements were primarily parade-leading partnerships with Democrats opposed by significant numbers of Republicans.

His make-nice letter to Arkanas Republican legislators is on the jump. (Does it tell you anything about his relationship with them that I was supplied a copy?) My guess is that there are some Republican legislators with a revisionist view of Huck's history and long memories of the degree to which he supported legislative election efforts. And party building? How many Republicans are in state office now? How many legislative seats were picked up in the last two elections, at the pinnacle of Huck power, with his appointees in control of every lever in government? The answer to both questions is a big fat zero.

Typical, one legislator notes, that Huck would seek support by a staffer's e-mail. You think he has a phone up in New Hampshire?

LETTER FROM MIKE HUCKABEE, DISTRIBUTED BY STACI CATES, THE ARK. GOP'S DIRECTOR OF SPECIAL PROJECTS

To:     Arkansas Republican Legislators
From:   Mike Huckabee
               Date:   October 31, 2007
               Re:     Your Support
Friends, I want to let you know that we are experience great success on
every front for the campaign. The truth is that our success is surprising
most everyone nationally but it is no surprise to you or me. As Republicans
in Arkansas we have a long track record of taking on difficult task,
overcoming tremendous challenges and winning battles no one thought we could
win. It is true that like any family we do not always see eye to eye on
every issue but overall we have locked arms over and over again to fight for
better government and to advance conservative causes in Arkansas. The truth
is that we had great success together in cutting taxes, passing pro-life
legislation, fighting for the family, improving education and highways and
making government more efficient. I look back with tremendous pride on all
we achieved in spite of being in the minority! Also, together we appointed
Republicans to every board and commission for the first time in Arkansas
history!

Some of my best memories are not just the ones at the Capitol in the battles
we took on but are the days we spent together out in Arkansas. It was my
privilege to give PAC monies to our candidates, write letters of support for
them, host fundraisers and travel from town to town on their behalf. Whether
it was a bus tour for Asa or a local dinner for a legislative candidate we
worked hard together to get our team elected. I do not regret one moment of
it. I cherish these memories of campaigning with many of you side by side.

Now I need your help. As you know our campaign is doing very well. The Iowa
Caucus is just 64 days away and we are now in second place and climbing.
Recent national polls place me in third place among the GOP candidates. As
you can imagine this type of success has caused attacks against me and my
record in Arkansas to begin. I need you to help me spread the truth about my
tenor. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal it was disappointing
to read the criticisms of Randy Minton and Betsy Hagan, as I had campaigned
to help elect Randy and have known and loved Betsy for such a long time.
They do not represent the vast majority of Republicans in our state as
evidenced by those who have rallied to us since these broadsides were
launched in the national press. They are certainly not the spokesperson for
our party nor did they paint an accurate picture. I need you to help tell
the story of all we did together to make Arkansas better and how hard I
fought to help our team get elected and see our party grow.

I am honored to have the endorsement of John Paul Hammerschmidt, Tim
Hutchinson, Asa Hutchinson, John Boozman, Jay Dickey, and a long list of
past and present GOP legislators. I am asking you today to help me. Please
sign on today and join the "Arkansas Republican Leaders for Huckabee". We
need every one of you on board. Chad Gallagher will be following up with
you. You can join this team today by emailing him at
chad.gallagher@legacyincorporated.com <mailto:chad.gallagher@legacyincorporated.com>

I will never forget all our hard work together to make Arkansas a better
place and now together again we can take the next step to serve our country!
Thanks in advance for your support and help.

                               With Gratitude,
                               MIKE HUCKABEE

Comments

Old listen to me slick-mouth Huck is just another satanic bush-lite, with horns, spouting christian values -- as long as they don't obstruct political ambitions!

Bush lite with horns -- Hmm mm does that mean we could call him "Horny Huckabee".

Posted by: BWC | November 1, 2007 06:36 AM

An awful lot of those "republicans" that were appointed turned out to be democrats in 2006 governor's race. Ooops!!!

A good portion of his allies who were active in party politics seem to have been removed by a youth movement that doesn't seem to be allied Huckabee loyalists.

And, ummm, with as few republicans that are left in office in the state after he was through, he could have called each one personally before he finished his morning jog.

Posted by: Stump | November 1, 2007 07:09 AM

From the republican mouthpiece at Stephens Media (who was a former Huckabee staffer)

10-31-2007

"...the governor [Beebe] was quite clear and didn't appear to be concerned with offending a group of people [illegal immigrants] that many politicians in his party and some in the other party, including his predecessor [Huckabee], would rather pander to."

Full story here.

http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2007/10/31/DavidJSanders/343912.html

Posted by: Stump | November 1, 2007 07:23 AM

It's tenure, not tenor. And Huck's mention by name of Minton and Hagan is typical of his thin-skinned defensiveness at any criticism.

Posted by: PVNasby | November 1, 2007 07:32 AM

PVNasby,

Heck, I thought he had moved on to a discussion of his voice.

Just for fun, lets see how many typos can be found in this letter. (maybe it is Max's fault, who knows).

If this is the level of writing that Huckabee is employing on the campaign trail, it may be one reason they are struggling. Don't know if this is from DeQueen's finest or not, but I have spotted a couple of typos on top of very poor sentence structure. A few of those would be a nightmare to diagram.

Posted by: Stump | November 1, 2007 07:50 AM

Stump, I agree with you on the typo's. EGAD! It was hard to get past those and read the entire content of the letter. Max, is this the original???

Posted by: suchstangetimes | November 1, 2007 08:10 AM

Probably written by one of his kids on the campaign payroll. Minton and Hagan should be smiling, since their barb clearly hit the bull's eye.

Posted by: PVNasby | November 1, 2007 09:28 AM

His spell-check is demonstrative of his abilities. My favorite is an engraved invitation I received from him during his "tenor". It requested the honor of my "presents" at a reception. Freudian slip? Thought it was to Jennings Osborne?

Posted by: perrobravo | November 1, 2007 09:36 AM

ROFL..... That's funny, perro.

Posted by: PVNasby | November 1, 2007 09:42 AM

About all those typos: Every good performer knows his audience. He has to communicate in ways that are meaningful to the selected group.

I presume that his selected audience would not expect letter-perfect correspondence.

And I presume that if he were writing to this blog he'd find it necessary for his grammar and syntax to express a much higher level of clarity.

Posted by: Ecce! Spiro et Spero. | November 1, 2007 09:59 AM

Now I never claimed to be an English major, Ms Lagrone had enough trouble keeping me in my seat much less learn how to diagram a sentence but the little, "I want to let you know that we are experience great success on..." jumped out at me.

Besides getting some more support he needs to remove some of those folks from his current list, those hutchinson boys seem like the sure fire kiss o death.

Off the thread a bit but an interesting article on Crooks & Liars this morning about a repug who converted to dem. Maybe you guys at the Times can get a mass distribution of that article up to the fay-et-ville area.

Posted by: ArkansawTravler | November 1, 2007 10:49 AM

Ecce!,

I'd say given his audience a few "ya'lls" and dropping the "g" off of some words would have been appropriate. Especially if the author dipped his quill in smokeless tobacco prior to writing.

Posted by: Stump | November 1, 2007 10:54 AM

Stump, it takes a heap o' time to find that hidden key to make the single quote mark, and when you're jist talkin' at the good-ole boys, they's jist too busy noddin' they heads up and down and rubbin' they hands together to notice.

Posted by: Ecce! Spiro et Spero. | November 1, 2007 11:08 AM

Take a look at what conservatives in Arkansas think of Huckabee's latest attempts to make nice.

Go to the Arkansas Journal Blog to see what Arkansas Conservatives are thinking and saying about him.

http://arkjournal.com/

Posted by: Born Red | November 1, 2007 02:55 PM

Go to the Arkansas Journal Blog to see what Arkansas Conservatives are thinking <<

As usual Arkansas Conservatives are not thinking. But hey, one of Rearden's numerous threads did have
2, yes TWO, posts.

No wonder you wingnuts come here. Your world is worse than boring.

Posted by: Knoc Knock | November 8, 2007 12:48 PM

Test

Posted by: Jake da Snake | November 12, 2007 09:07 PM

Arkansas Blog

Huckabee: Calling all homeboys

Comments

Post a comment