Rush: Huck ‘not a conservative’
From Jonathan Martin at Politico
Rush Limbaugh devoted a large portion of his first show since the holidays to criticizing Mike Huckabee’s candidacy and offering a disapproving bottom-line assessment of the former governor.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Gov. Huckabee, mighty fine man and is a great Christian, is not a conservative, he’s just not,” Limbaugh said. ”If you look at his record as governor, he’s got some conservative tendencies on things but he’s certainly not the most conservative of the candidates running on the Republican side.”
Limbaugh’s comments come after a long-distance back-and-forth between the candidate and influential talk show host before Christmas.
Despite his criticism, Limbaugh said he didn’t want to use the entire program to bash Huckabee.
“I’m going to keep some of the powder dry here because I don’t want to be accused of piling on,” Limbaugh said, “but if people are going to ask me questions I’m not going to shirk from them and try to hem-haw around.”
Indeed, callers were interested in discussing Huckabee, and the talker spent most of the first half of his program discussing his candidacy in the context of the GOP race.
While calling Huckabee’s now-famous Des Moines presser Monday “Clintonesque,” Limabugh said he would not “join the chorus” of those saying it would damage the Republican’s chances.
“It’s quite possible people will see Huckabee’s press conference as an attempt to be honorable, that the drive-bys [in the mainstream media] have now sabotaged him on,” Limbaugh observed.
“And they can easily conclude, ‘Look, he didn’t air the ad, you guys did.’ The people that are looking at Huckabee in a supportive way are not analyzing Huckabee, this is what you have to understand. They are not picking apart his policy, they’re accepting him for what he is based on his identity politics. So I don’t think they’re going to take it to the nth degree the way the drive-by pundits are.”
Limbaugh, who has previously offered warm words for Fred Thompson, appeared to be dissatisfied with at least three of the top GOP candidates.
In addition to Huckabee, he singled out John McCain for specific criticism, attacking the senator on immigration, campaign finance reform, interrogation and tax cuts. Â
“The idea that he’s a great conservative in this race is an affront to conservatives,” Limbaugh said, accusing the media of “pushing McCain hard.”
Limbaugh seemed to swipe at McCain, Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani, respectively, in responding to a caller about which candidate had true conservative bona fides.
“If our nominee is either not conservative and is pandering to the left trying to get some of their votes, or if our nominee is so afraid of his record that he’s relying on identity politics to get votes or if our nominee decides that the only way he can win is to go out and pick off some libs in the northeast and out in the west, it’s going to be a bloodbath,” he predicted of the general election.
January 2nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Uh, another non-endorsement for Romney? I think so.
January 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Are you a Huck fan? He hardly endorsed your candidate. In fact, I copied the below stories from Rush’s web site 10 seconds ago:
Identity Politics and the Hucksters
You can love your guy. Just don’t call him conservative.
Governor Huckabee E-mails Rush; Drive-Bys Miss Point of the Story
A full review of the Limbaugh-Huckabee dispute.
Why the Media Helped Huckabee
They built up Huck; now they’re re-building McCain.
Huckabee’s Clintonesque Ad Move
In contrast, yesterday Rush’s site was effusive in its praise over Mitt.
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:05 pm
What Rush says (or doesn’t say) is gospel. Huckabee is a populist and not a conservative and his rise more than anything, quickly splashed cold water on my face about the need to support the traditional conservative candidate regardless of how pure they are. Romney and Thompson are those candidates. Romney is not the purest but with the prospect of a Huckabee, a Giuliaini, or a McCain winning the nomination I am rooting for him to end the race, since its in his grasp. With that said, if Fred surprises, then I hope that this will lead to a can’t lose scenario, where we are left with Romney vs Thompson. In that case, let the best man win, since both are traditionalist and are running across the board as unabashed conservatives.
By the way, McCain surge will wane when Romney wins IA and focuses on McCain again exclusively. Romney’s support in NH is very strong and though he has fallen from the lead in NH, his actual support has not receded. This is a tale tell sign of a temporary surge and McCain will begin to come down to earth as Huckabee has in Iowa. Unfortunately for McCain, three things are against him, one is that his surge is not as buoyant as Huckabee’s surge, two he is reliant on independents and democrats who will be participating for the most part in the democratic contest, and lastly Ron Paul will seize a sizable amount of those independents and dems who do participate in the GOP primary.
January 2nd, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Nealie, only Frozone can speak for Frozone, but if you don’t mind, I thought I’d throw in my own thoughts. I believe Frozone was trying to say that by Rush picking apart the other candidates in the field, that this amounted to an endorsement of Romney. So, it’s a non-endorsement (or, an unspoken endorsement.)
Of course, I’ve been known to be wrong…
Havs
http://www.votemittforpresident.com