WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee criticized the Bush administration's war against terrorism Friday, delivering a bold and potentially risky speech that could establish the former Arkansas governor as the maverick among top Republican candidates and test his party's loyalty to President Bush.
"This administration's bunker mentality has been counterproductive both at home and abroad," Huckabee said in opening a broad indictment of Bush's style and policy.
The speech came after several top GOP candidates started distancing themselves from Bush, vowing change on such issues as illegal immigration and federal spending even as they endorsed Bush's foreign policy.
'By going much further than his rivals have in attacking Bush, Huckabee could draw attention to a campaign that's inched up in polls in recent months but still lacks the money and organization to compete head-on with better-known, better-financed candidates such as Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson.
In first-to-vote Iowa, for example, an average of four recent polls put Huckabee fourth among Republican candidates with 10.3 percent, ahead of John McCain and within five points of Giuliani and Thompson, but far behind front-runner Romney, according to RealClearPolitics.com.
His strong stand also could give him the kind of maverick image that McCain pursued in 2000, which appeals to independent voters in states such as New Hampshire, where they can vote in the Republican primary.
But it also could turn off the majority of Republicans who still like Bush.
"He's trying to carve out a responsible alternative to the administration's foreign policy," said Dennis Goldford, a political scientist at Drake University in Iowa. "But I don't know that it will do him any good in the Republican Party. While there is a lot of grumbling in the Republican Party about Bush, they're still pretty loyal."
Huckabee endorsed Bush's surge of troops into Iraq, urging more time for it to work and criticizing Democratic proposals to get troops out as an invitation to chaos.
But beyond that, he differed with Bush across the map. He accused the administration of shunning allies and turning world sentiment against the United States.
"They've done a poor job of communicating and consulting countries, much as they have, frankly, the American people," Huckabee told about 150 people at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a center-right think tank in Washington.
On Iran, he said Bush blew a chance to improve relations right after the 2001 terrorist attacks and that the United States should be talking to Iran today.
"When we first invaded Afghanistan, Iran helped, especially in dealings with their ally, the Northern Alliance," he said. "They wanted to join us in fighting al-Qaida. ... The CIA and State Department supported a partnership. Some in the White House and beyond did not. And when President Bush included Iran in the axis of evil, everything went downhill pretty fast."
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2 comments:
Oh please. First he tries to get an internet presence and that doesn't work. Next he tries to say get rid of the IRS. The latest was put an end to the drug war.
And now he's the MAVERICK?
Tell Huck to stop trying to act like Ron Paul.
Ron is the REAL maverick and tops on the internet. Just raised a million dollars in one week.
Imitation is the best flattery.
Newt Gingrich made a comment the other day about the winner of the republican nomination will have to distance themselves from the Bush Administration to be able to win the Presidency. I believe that is what will set Gov. Huckabee apart from the others. Check out www.mikehuckabee.com and see how Mike stands on the issues, it's not like he has changed his mind on any of them lately. Huckabee's poll numbers are still increasing and he is now #3 in Iowa. Ron Paul has not had the increase in his polling numbers because there are not enough republican that beleive what he preaches.
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