Huckabee: I "Envy" Sarah Palin

WASHINGTON — Mike Huckabee wouldn't rule out a 2012 run for president Wednesday, but he acknowledged it could be hard to take back the spotlight from fellow Republican Sarah Palin. "I'm not ruling anything out for the future, but I'm not making any specific plans," Huckabee told reporters at a briefing to promote his new book, "Do the Right Thing."

"It's not something I'm sitting around thinking about."

Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, said he expects Palin to continue to have a leading voice in the Republican Party, though he acknowledged he was envious of her meteoric rise after Sen. John McCain brought her out of relative obscurity as governor of Alaska to run with him this year as the vice presidential candidate.

Huckabee credited Palin with energizing McCain's campaign and said that her surprise selection for the GOP ticket helped her to "leapfrog over the process" that other Republicans _ including himself _ had to endure to become national political figures.

"I'm not frustrated by it," Huckabee said. "It's not a resentment on her part. It's an envy."

Huckabee plans to stay on the national political stage through his shows he'll host on Fox News Channel and ABC Radio.

The former Arkansas governor ran a scrappy but underfunded presidential campaign this year, staying in the race until March, when McCain secured enough delegates to win the nomination. All the other serious Republican contenders had dropped out weeks before.

Huckabee ran as a religious conservative, though many conservative leaders wouldn't support him. Despite a lack of money, Huckabee won the leadoff caucuses in Iowa and seven other states. His book tour will take him to Iowa later this month.

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Huckabee and McCain had a cordial relationship during the campaign, but Huckabee clearly didn't like former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, another contender for the GOP nomination.

In his book, Huckabee slams Romney for changing positions on issues such as abortion rights and gay marriage.

"He spent more time on the road to Damascus than a Syrian camel driver. And we thought nobody could fill John Kerry's flip-flops!" Huckabee wrote.

Romney's record, he wrote, "was anything but conservative until he changed all the lightbulbs in his chandelier in time to run for president."

A spokesman for Romney 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 said. "Unfortunately, Mike Huckabee seems more interested in settling scores than bringing people together."

Huckabee said Wednesday he was simply writing with the same candor he showed during the campaign.

"There was obvious tension, and again, it wasn't just me, but with other candidates, and so I addressed where that came from," Huckabee said. "One of the things people came to believe that they would get from me was candor."

"If I had written this book and totally ignored some of the obvious issues that were there, I think people would have said the book lacked credibility and candor," he said.

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Associated Press Writer Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

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On The Net: http://www.mikehuckabee.com

Comments

[slaxx]

the more i hear about huckabee complaining about the other repub candidates and comparing himself to them, the more i think that he's some kind of insecure, approval-seeking crybaby.

[kotipup]

Aww, don't be envious, Huckabee. I've disagreed with you on a lot of things, but at least you can speak in coherent sentences and can even make me laugh with you, instead of at you, once in awhile. Still, the idea of either Palin or Huckabee coming into power frightens me. People who are outwardly against seperation of church and state are scarier than Bush.

[Indie2008]

It could be quite a conflict if they both try to plow through the same "open door"! Sorry, one zealot at a time!

[NicoloM]

But fun to watch. And since their gods open the door, if only a crack, it will be quite a conflict. Wait until the two start at each other with "my gods are bigger than your gods." It will be a sprint to the bottom for the end of days crowd. Maybe Romney can look in his bags of magical rocks for a way around this tussle.

[BetterDeadthanRedState]

It's understandable, even though there's not much to say for the lot of them. McCain probably felt the same way about W when he saw this lazy, dimwit, frat boy walking away with the Presidency and not having done anything to earn it.

[CactusTom]

Revenge: How John McCain destroyed the Republican right-wing.

In the 2000 Republican primary the right-wing, Rovian slime machine, in backing G. W. Bush, buried McCain in mud. It took awhile, but in the 2008 presidential race McCain got his revenge. McCain’s attack plan commenced when the normally moderate, independent minded McCain reversed his basic core principles and began kissing up to leaders of the religious right and hugging President bush.

Though the right still did not trust McCain, to make a long story short, with Bush’s popularity in the toilet, they thought they could win with McCain’s broad appeal. But then McCain, by his words and deeds, went about cleverly destroying the faith of his traditionally moderate and independent, and even moderate Republican, base. In picking the Palin gal he knew it would fire up the right, but more importantly it would kill off support of the American political center (his real strength) that had come to see the Republican right as having taken the nation down. Then in the presidential debates with Obama, he went out of his way to act in strange ways designed to further alienate large numbers of voters, while certain members of his team began leaking nasty things about Palin meant to irritate the Republican right.

Via his kamikaze presidential mission he has caused the right-winged controlled Republican party to become a fringe party for years to come. Mission accomplished!

[goodasitgets]

That is what I would call hitting the nail on the head. Well said.

[crystalcakes]

I had an epiphany the other day when I realized that I don't have to get upset with Obama for not supporting every single progressive stance because what's more important is the change in environment/culture that he will bring. Also, by him moving more center as well as involving all types of perspectives, it will naturally bring to light the extremism of the religious right. It will expose them for the fringe that they are. They will be marginalized as they should be.

[Giada]

I'm apt to believe the old religious ideas will dry up politically. Religion is not the only standard for morality.

Gov Scwarzegger of CA ...has been making calls, and one specifically to McCain stating if you don't adopt a Centrist position ... the party will disappear.

[RJSquirrel]

well then Huck, who are a bigger idiot than i ever thought...

and you had me with your thinking that dinosaurs co-exited with mankind (just like your idol Sarah the stupid, queen of the morons)

[Bill Swadley - Huffpost Blogger]

Mike has the classic symptoms of Palin-envy. He should try to be more vapid if he wants to compete with her.

I, too, hope she continues to be a leading voice in the Republican Party so that their road to irrelevance is well-paved.

His new book is titled, "Do the Right Thing." Hysterical! I'll bet he thought that was soooo original and can't figure out why no one has used it before...

[auntiecairo]

So he has Venus envy?

[slaxx]

good one.

[MadDog]

WTF?? Huckabee's envious of being a bubblehead?

[tchristin]

It disappoints me to hear Mike Huckabee say he envies Sarah Palin. I thought he was smarter than that.

[levibatgirl]

He doesn't believe in evolution either so there's that......

[msgotrox]

Ha! I've been saying this for months: Palin Huckabee 2012.

Moose & squirrel in every pot!

[collprof]

I remember his speech where he said the constitution should be changed to mirror the bible because it was easier than changing beliefs of the bible to mirror the constitution.

[zumpie]

And here I thought we already HAD Boris and Natasha, guess Palin/Huckabee's B&N 2.0. I still think it'll be Palin/Bachmann 2012. ANY questions of any kind will be automatically sexist.

[dsmithr]

We all need to start a grass roots movement to make sure Sarah Palin runs for President in 2012. If she wins, then we deserve her, but my gut feeling is she is the beginning of the end for the GOP as we know it. They call themselves conservatives, but they are anything but that. They don't want to conserve our environment, our health care, our savings, our freedom to choose our own way of life, our jobs or anything that makes sense. They want to conserve the very wealthy and big business getting all the breaks on all issues. Oh yeah, they want to conserve that false macho we are Americans don't burn our flag couch potato patriot crap. Trickle has really worked well so far..... They gotta go!!!

[crystalcakes]

I've thought the same thing-- make moves to get her in there intentionally, especially if obama is well like at the time. It would be great!

[ritur]

I simply don't understand why in the world everyone is talking about Palin as the prohibitive favorite for 2012. Don't any of us look at history books? Heck, don't any of us look at the world around us? Sarah Palin, like John Edwards, Joe Lieberman, Dan Quayle, and Walter Mondale, is going to learn the hard lesson of running for president as damaged goods. At some point both the party and the party faithful will say to themselves, "Hey, this one already lost an election for us. Let's try something new."

Although, I would love to see the SNL skits. "As president, that means I'm in charge of the Supreme Court, so that means I can get in there with the justices, and make good anti abortion decisions.­"

[collprof]

Today was almost Palin free in MSM. But with Uncle Ted's loss we shall be hearing how God slammed the door on Ms. Sarah.

[SENATORCALLENBOWE]

I BET HE ISNT...

[dsmithr]

All I know is if Huckabee and Palin run in 2012, I will register as a Republican because the rational people in this world need to support the cave in of the Republican party. I want them to get so religious, so Christian that even the extreme conservatives will run from there dinasours were here 6k years ago insanity there will be nothing left of that party but fools and only those religious fundamentalists will vote for them. Please, Republicans, tie yourselves even tighter to these anchors!!!