Huckabee Goofs May Not Bode Well for '08

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee speaks to reporters in this Feb. 21, 2006, file photo while standing near a mock up of the number he was given to run in the 2006 Little Rock Marathon in Little Rock, Ark. Huckabee, who is considering a 2008 presidential run, said the number was a prank by marathon race directors. (Danny Johnston - AP)

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Losing 110 pounds was no mean feat, but Gov. Mike Huckabee may find it more difficult to shed a reputation for verbal gaffes and ethics lapses if he pursues the presidency.

Huckabee, who is considering a bid for the 2008 GOP nomination, has burnished his political credentials with a term heading the National Governors Association, and has drawn national attention for his dramatic weight loss.

Yet, he has repeatedly had to defend against slips of the tongue and ethics controversies.

Arkansas' Ethics Commission has admonished Huckabee for violations five times in 14 years, once for taking money from an organization whose donors have never been listed. He jokingly attributed his weight loss to a "concentration camp" diet and once called his state a "banana republic."

And last week, he lashed out after reporters questioned wedding-gift registries set up to furnish Huckabee's new $525,000 home in North Little Rock. Friends this fall set up the accounts for Huckabee and his wife Janet, who have been married since 1974.

"I can understand him being upset with people thumbing through his registry, but if he's thinking seriously about running for president, he needs to get used to that," said Seth Masket, a political scientist at the University of Denver. "If his name exists anywhere on the Internet, people will find it pretty quickly."

It seems that for every popular cause that Huckabee has championed _ healthy living, education reform, insurance for the poor _ he's tangled with campaign finance officials, reporters and political enemies who question his ethics.

On his monthly call-in show on the Arkansas Educational Television Network last week, Huckabee said he had figured out why he's a target.

"If you can't attack me on my record for children's health care, if you can't attack me on my record for education, if you can't attack me on the record for our highway program or for technology or for natural resources, what are you left to do? Make personal attacks," he said.

In 2000, Huckabee angered state Democrats with an attack of his own, telling Don Imus' national radio audience that Arkansas was a "banana republic" and that Democrats would attempt to steal the presidential election from Republican George W. Bush.

This year, as Imus interviewed Huckabee about his 110-pound weight loss after a diabetes diagnosis, the governor joked that he had spent time in a concentration camp. Huckabee dismissed a Jewish group's criticism, saying he hadn't made a reference to Jews or the Holocaust.

"I hate to think I'd have to live my life without a sense of humor," Huckabee said.