GOP In Civil War: Huckabee vs. Romney
Posted by gopinder on November 19, 2008
Former GOP primary candidate Mike Huckabee has a new book out where he talks about his 2008 bid for the Republican nomination, as well as his thoughts on the future of his party. But that’s not what the media sees as the highlights of his book. Apparently beneath the book jacket is a lot of sneering at former rival Mitt Romney:
Mike Huckabee is using his new book, out this week, to settle a few scores, not the least of which is with his fierce primary rival, Mitt Romney.Per Michael Scherer, Huckabee picks up where he left off earlier this year, tweaking Romney as a rich guy and firing what may be the first shots of the 2012 primary.
Romney, Huckabee, writes, was “anything but conservative until he changed the light bulbs in his chandelier in time to run for president.”
At another point, Huckabee portrays a Romney proposal to encourage more investment in the market as, “Let them eat stocks!”
…
There are 15 different Romney references in the book’s index, more than any of Huckabee’s other GOP rivals. The former Massachusetts governor’s name appears on at least 25 seperate pages.
Even in the Acknowledgments, Huckabee works in a reference to his former (and perhaps future) competitor in a paragraph otherwise devoted to praising his dogs.
Discussing a Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Toby, Huckabee writes: “We needed another dog about as much as we needed Mitt Romney to spend another $100 million, but he turned out to be a real blessing (Toby, that is).”
Despite the fact that we just got out of an endlessly long presidential campaign, there’s no sign that the GOP is taking a breather. In a hurry to redefine their brand and start rebuilding their broken party, there are already reports that the likely 2012 contenders are heading to Iowa soon to plant their primary seeds. Romney’s response to Huckabee’s fuss was pretty telling:
A spokesman for Romney today dismissed Huckabee’s comments in the book as “petty stuff.”
“We need to focus on moving the party forward with new ideas,” Romney spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom told the Associated Press. “Unfortunately, Mike Huckabee seems more interested in settling scores than bringing people together.”
Sounds like a response put out in the heat of a campaign. I think we’re already in 2012 mode.
