California Conservative

Fred Thompson has been beating Mike Huckabee like a drum so now Huckabee has started to hit back. The bad news for Huckabee is that he’s resorting to a futile tactic. This article lays it out for everyone to see:

“Fred Thompson talks about putting America first, and yet he’s the one who is a registered foreign agent, lobbied for foreign countries, was in a law firm that did lobbying work for Libya,” Huckabee charged Sunday morning on CNN.

That’s the type of tactic that the DNC uses. Frankly, it’s a lightweight response. The first thing worth noting is that Huckabee accusing Sen. Thompson of lobbying for Libya. Here’s how Fred responded to that:

Thompson Sunday acknowledged he was “in a law firm that did some lobbying work for Libya,” but his involvement was minimal. He said he’d registered with the government because of “five minutes’ worth of contribution” to discussions about another client, Haiti.

Now let’s look at things from a campaign against Team Clinton. If that’s the hardest that Mike Huckabee can hit, then the Clinton Machine will steamroller him. He’d be lucky to win 10 states nationwide. If the choice is between Liberal Lite and Liberal, they’ll take the liberal all the time.

What’s needed in fighting the Clinton Machine is someone who can hit them hard time after time after time. What’s needed is someone with gravitas. What’s needed is someone who draws a distinction between Hillary’s irresponsible policies and their own policies.

The man best equipped for that type of combat is Fred Thompson.

Mike Huckabee is finding out the hard way that Fred doesn’t horse around when it comes to hitting his opponents. Here’s another exchange that Fred wins:

Huckabee has “raised enough money now to get some hit pieces and dredge up personal stuff and personal accusations against me,” Thompson told CNN. “And now
you’re seeing the real Mike Huckabee come out. So, I think we’ve done a favor to the American people. Because these are serious times, and they require somebody that knows what they’re doing and doesn’t walk into a situation with foreign representatives and heads of foreign nations with training wheels on.”

Told what Thompson said on CNN, Huckabee told reporters at the Greenville/Spartanburg Airport in Greer, S.C., Sunday afternoon, “Well, it seems like its perfectly okay for he or others to fire away these lengthy salvos at me, but if I respond then it’s a personal attack. If you’re gonna play big league ball, you have to stand at the plate as well as throw a few, and that’s just the way it works. If you really can’t handle that, you probably shouldn’t run for something as serious as president.”

What’s interesting is that Fred didn’t say that Huckabee’s accusations were a personal attack. Huckabee insinuates that that’s what Fred did. What’s also interesting is that Huckabee isn’t arguing that what Fred’s said isn’t true. He’s simply deflecting as much of the flak as possible.

It’s also laughable that Huckabee is acting like Mr. Tough Guy. Huckabee is attempting to make himself sound like Mr. Macho. That isn’t his persona. It isn’t working. People are noticing who’s the whiny candidate and which is the gravitas candidate.

Here’s another stinging attack on Huckabee:

On Saturday, Thompson called the criticism of his previous support of Ford and Baker as “kind of silly. Howard Baker was my mentor and personal friend in Tennessee for years and years. If you check the record, Gov. Huckabee supported Democrats on a fairly consistent basis in his days in Arkansas politics. I don’t think he wants to get into that discussion. We’ll see.”

I’ll grant Gov. Huckabee the fact that southern Democrats are oftentimes more conservative that northeastern RINOs but that supporting Democrats isn’t the way to win the GOP presidential nomination. This isn’t a fight that Huckabee should pick.

Finally, there’s this exchange:

Huckabee, Thompson charged, “talked around the subject and smiled and giggled and told a couple of jokes. When I came back, I said, ‘You know, this is about the heart and mind of the Republican Party, because I don’t believe it [the Reagan coalition] is [dead].’”

Said Huckabee, “The Writers Guild strike needs to end soon. Fred’s got to get some better lines. Calling me a liberal would be laughable in Arkansas, where people recognized; if anything, they called me this ultra-conservative guy…It’s always interesting to me, when people get desperate, they start grabbing for anything.”

Thompson responded that he had been asking questions about Huckabee’s support for closing down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, his support for public programs for the children of illegal immigrants, and the fact that he was endorsed by a teachers’ union. “These are substantive issues,” Thompson said. “These are not personal attacks.”

Huckabee hinting that Fred’s getting desperate because he launched a substantive attack of Huckabee’s policies is just another instance of Huckabee bringing a peashooter to a bazooka fight. It’s also laughable because Fred landed several substantive haymakers. In contrast, the best that Huckabee could do is throw in a couple substance-free one-liners. (Have you noticed that Gov. Huckabee didn’t respond substantively to any of Fred’s allegations?)

Huckabee’s lack of substance is showing. His standard response to a substantive attack is a cute one-liner. That doesn’t work. That might work with RINOs or squishy independents but it won’t when you’re playing in the big leagues.

Wouldn’t you rather have Fred fighting for, and defending, the conservative principles that made this country great against Hillary than seeing Huckabee reply with oh so cute one-liners?

Anytime it’s a fight between a pea-shooter and a bazooka, I’d want the bazooka on my side.

Technorati Tags: Fred Thompson, Lobbying, Libya, Mike Huckabee, Hillary, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, Election 2008, Hillary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.