Huckabee Slams Karl Rove & GOP Establishment For 'Elitism,' 'Country Club Attitude'

Former Arkansas Governor and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee took his turn Sunday to hammer an apparent rift between some big names in the conservative leadership and the GOP establishment.

Speaking with conservative radio host Aaron Klein on his WABC radio show, Huckabee was asked about recent "infighting" between conservative powers such as Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin and Republican strategist Karl Rove.

"I was very disappointed in some of the -- particularly Karl and others -- who were so dismissive of Christine O'Donnell," Huckabee told Klein, referring to a contentious moment following the Tea Party-backed candidate's surprise win in Delaware, in which Rove appeared to imply that O'Donnell was in a race that she couldn't win.

"Unfortunately, there is an elitism within the Republican establishment," Huckabee told Klein. "And it's one of the reasons the Republicans have not been able to solidify not only the tea party movement but solidify conservatives across America. Because a lot of people know that it's not so much about the principles of really controlling government and having responsible people in office, it's about making sure that the right people get into the game to play."

Huckabee continued:

"It's almost, again to be blunt, the kind of country club attitude, that we're not sure there's certain people we really want as members of the club. And we don't mind showing up to events to put up signs and making phone calls and going door-to-door making those pesky little trips that we don't like to do, but we really don't want them dining with us in the main dining room."

Last week, Rush Limbaugh jabbed Rove when he said that his recent comments about the Tea Party's lack of sophistication were based on "jealousies and egos and competition."

Comments

[NVEnvy07]

01:03 AM on 10/29/2010

What does Huckabee know lol...I can't choose a side here but seriously Huckabee is a tool.

[acmes]

10:59 PM on 10/26/2010

Clearly, it's Rove's fault that O'Donnell is such an idiot. Not that I want to ever give him credit for anything.

[IDIOTA]

07:10 PM on 10/26/2010

Having used the Religious Right for 30 years, the GOP finds itself transformed into The Tea Potty filled with zealots who are proudly ignorant.

[IDIOTA]

07:08 PM on 10/26/2010

The truth is that the GOP used the religious Right all along.

[Bumpkins]

08:18 PM on 10/26/2010

The name will soon be extremist fringe....after the head stomp........mob mentality.

[Boomerwoman]

06:35 PM on 10/26/2010

Cannibals.

[eddw88]

05:11 PM on 10/26/2010

Keep throwing punches Huchster.

[MisterCee]

02:27 PM on 10/26/2010

Looks like that business and church split is about to happen in the Republican party. I for one, am looking forward to it.

[Jeffin90019]

01:31 PM on 10/26/2010

O'Donnell is part of Huckabee's cult. Of course he supports her at all costs.

[osage]

12:40 PM on 10/26/2010

THE DEVOLUTION OF REPUBLICAN "VALUES"

In order to gain the political power they've enjoyed for decades, Republican moderates and fiscal conservatives made a pact with the devil (faux Christians, bigots, racists, sexists - teabaggers) to achieve the numbers they needed to defeat Democrats. They made a strategic decision to manipulate and exploit the ignorance, fears and hatreds of dysfunctional/malleable/misanthropic voters in order to win elections rather than lose them by being intellectually and morally HONEST.

Today, those who conspired with the devil are caught between wanting to disassociate themselves with/casting out the demons/teabaggers they empowered and the karmic reality that they don't have the numbers to hold on to or regain power without accepting and "advocating" the immoral prejudices, hypocrisies and corruptions that are dividing and destroying their party.

The survival of today's shrinking Republican Party is so dependent on extremism that they have no significant power left WITH or WITHOUT the support of America's increasingly pernicious lunatic fringe.

The idiom "caught between the devil and the deep blue sea" is appropriate as Republicans are facing the dilemma of choosing between two equally undesirable alternatives that both result in Republican impotence in mainstream American politics. They are suffering the consequences of their treachery.

Their irresponsible propping up of George W. Bush cost them their credibility, and the dysfunctions of teabaggers, birthers and deathers exacerbated by the irresponsible exhortations of Palin, Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity are costing them their viability.

[derekderekderek]

12:45 PM on 10/26/2010

very well put!

[Littlewords]

01:04 PM on 10/26/2010

Wonderfully stated.

Further, their political impact today can be distilled down to a simple party mantra and agenda of 'NO.' Obstructing the national recovery, course corrections, and efforts to fix our nation has been converted into their only pan-party rally cry. They have unleashed their junkyard dogs (the uninformed, ever conflicted teaheads) to do everything from mercilessly and most un-patriotically disrupting local townhalls where elected official actually do engage and have interplay with average American citizens, to storming congress with their errant signage which is so frequently both off the mark with the message as well as suffering from poor grammar and spelling.

Lastly, while both parties suffer from the corporate sellout and power shift of once great nation by/for the people to that of a government by/paid for the corporations. The pendulum has swung so far to the extreme here that House Minority Leader Boehner actually proclaimed that, assuming the GOP takes over the House in Nov, that the lobbyists are writing his House 2011 agenda. The GOP no longer even feels a need to hide from such deliberate power shifting from the constituents and people to that of big business lobbyists.

[rambot02]

11:58 AM on 10/26/2010

You know who's an elitist? George W. Bush who read Camus and "a coupla Shakespeares" while vacation-izing in Crawford.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKiWWi8rdJQ

=^..^=

[drwtsn]

08:44 PM on 10/26/2010

In reality, he was just looking for the pictures.

[rambot02]

09:19 PM on 10/26/2010

It's **elementary**, drwtsn: Dubya had the coloring book version of "The Stranger", "Titus Andronicus" and the Scottish play. (Being somewhat connected to the thea-tah, I dare not mention it by name.)

=^..^=

[poobah]

10:36 PM on 10/26/2010

I didn't know they had those in coloring book format

[rambot02]

11:23 PM on 10/26/2010

Check it out, poohah: there are comic book versions of Das Kapital and the Protocals of tee Elders of Zion. Oy vey.

[sroot]

11:54 AM on 10/26/2010

Governor Huckabee, the reason Karl Rove dismissed Christine O'Donnell is because she's completely unqualified to be a US Senator, but more importantly she truly can't win. As much as I hate Rove, he's right on this one. Huckabee and the rest of the right-wing, fundamentalist Christian arm of the GOP needs to understand their candidates need to win in the general election, not just Republican primaries. It's happened 100's of times to the GOP. The most conservative candidate wins the GOP primary, usually in races with multiple candidates therefore getting only 25% - 35% of the vote, then they get beaten by the Dem in the general election because their to conservative. They'll never learn, which in turn is good for America!

[teapot90]

11:08 AM on 10/26/2010

I knew I'd be disappointed in this article, that "tearing into" Rove would turn out to be a pinprick at best, staged to insert Huckabee's name in the news. Rove long ago reversed his comments on Ms O. Just another pantomime to make Huck look teabagger supportive and woman-friendly.

/yawn.

[rockinroll]

11:06 AM on 10/26/2010

That is why no one believes Tea Party Candidates as they are all declaring themselves Republicans and Republicans are Corporate Welfare Queens. It does not compute! Tea Party Candidates will not cut Defense Waste or Corporate control of Lobbyists.

[GranE]

11:01 AM on 10/26/2010

If teabaggers get elected they will learn what Scott Brown learned, that one does not get to vote for what their constituents may want, but only what the Republican party tells them to do. You must be a ditto head or forget it. "Why a person needs a brain" should be Huckabee's concern, but it isn't, he endorses O'Donnell.

The old guard will not control the teabaggers and we will have a daily show of it if they are elected. Maybe America needs to see how far down we can go before we end up saluting another flag.

[FarmerGreen]

10:51 AM on 10/26/2010

put them all in a room and lock the door.