Huckabee Becomes a Big Fat Target

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 10, 2007 9:17 AM

Mike Huckabee was an obscure Arkansas governor three years ago when he invited a dozen pundits to lunch at a Capitol Hill eatery.

"That was when I began to form the impression this was a guy with real communications skills and real potential," says CNBC correspondent John Harwood. "He plainly had real gifts for talking about policy in a very human way."

The courtship paid dividends. When the latest man from Hope launched his presidential bid, he was depicted as a funny, charming, guitar-playing preacher who had miraculously shed 110 pounds -- and who would need divine intervention to win the Republican nomination. Hard-news stories, meanwhile, treated him like an asterisk.

"I got obliterated in news coverage," Huckabee says. "The frustrating thing was, a lot of people weren't even aware that I was running." Reporters, he says, "were basing everything on 'how much money have you got?' I couldn't wave a big checkbook in their face."

But, he says in an interview volunteered by his campaign, "I got feature coverage from columnists who felt someone like me ought to get attention."

Now that Huckabee has surged to a 22-point lead in Iowa (as reported in today's Newsweek cover story, "Holy Huckabee") and second place among Republicans nationally, journalists are suddenly fascinated by the man--and chasing every negative story around. Huckabee, in turn, hasn't exactly been elusive during the process.

Last Monday, a day after appearing on ABC's "This Week," Huckabee was on CBS's "The Early Show," the "CBS Evening News" and "Nightline." He was featured on the front pages of USA Today and the New York Times (twice) last week, and bounced from "Today" to "Hardball" to "The Situation Room" to "Morning Joe."

Kirsten Fedewa, a longtime Huckabee adviser, says the early conclaves with national political writers and columnists were crucial. "It helped him to establish relationships and articulate his vision to an audience of tough-minded, politically savvy reporters," she says. "He really had to go around the conventional wisdom by going to people who would carry his story."

Rex Nelson, Huckabee's former communications chief, likens the charm offensive -- which peaked when Huckabee was chairman of the National Governors Association -- to that of another Arkansas governor, Bill Clinton. "In an era of programmed politicians who won't stray from the talking points, he's a good quote," Nelson says.

National Journal's Ron Brownstein says he found Huckabee "very engaging" at one such session, but didn't expect his rapid rise. Fedewa, he says, "was very dogged about making you aware of his movements. She would always be e-mailing."

When Huckabee announced his candidacy in January, he got brief mentions on the NBC and ABC evening newscasts and none on CBS. "Huckabee enters the race as a long shot," The Washington Post said.

But not everyone gave Huckabee short shrift. Syndicated columnist E.J. Dionne wrote that month that Huckabee was "the Republican to watch . . . a southerner with unassailable Christian evangelical credentials."

"We always discount people who are lagging in the polls," says Dionne, who was intrigued when his sister sent him Huckabee's diet book. "There's always a fear of touting the next Bruce Babbitt," the Democrat who was briefly a media darling in the 1988 race. Reporters, says Dionne, "second-guess themselves, not unreasonably, when they are touting dark horses."

Huckabee, operating on a shoestring budget, had good reason to be constantly accessible to the press. Like John McCain in 2000, who held endless chatfests aboard his bus, Huckabee needed free media because he couldn't afford the paid kind. In May, Post columnist David Broder -- one of those courted early by Huckabee -- praised him as "a good-natured fundamentalist" with "an independent streak."

Some journalists are drawn to Huckabee's emphasis on compassion for the poor, even if they disagree with his opposition to abortion and embrace of creationism. And then there is the matter of style. The Los Angeles Times, describing his opposition to a 2005 Arkansas bill to deprive illegal immigrants of public benefits, approvingly quoted Huckabee as saying: "I drink a different kind of Jesus juice."

He has also garnered favorable coverage for one-liners at the GOP debates. At one, he said Congress has "spent money like John Edwards at a beauty shop." Asked at another debate what Jesus would do about the death penalty, Huckabee retorted: "Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office."

Until he finished second in last summer's Iowa straw poll, Huckabee's also-ran status served as a sort of shield. News organizations generally limit their investigations to candidates who are high in the polls, on the theory that those back in the pack aren't viewed as potential presidents. But if a single-digit contender moves up in the all-powerful polls, reporters parachute into their home state and start turning over rocks. And rival campaigns start unloading their ammunition.

Huckabee has long been viewed skeptically by the home-state press. Max Brantley, editor of the Arkansas Times and a frequent Huckabee critic, says he is "kind of shocked" that the press hasn't scrutinized such Huckabee proposals as abolishing the income tax in favor of a national sales tax. "It's been dereliction of duty, frankly," he says. "I think reporters are desperate for a new narrative, and he's a fresh face."

Now, however, the warm-and-fuzzy coverage of Huckabee is taking on a harder edge. Reporters have looked at his tax hikes in Arkansas, a series of gifts to Huckabee that drew rebukes from the state ethics panel and, most notably, the early release in 1999 of a convicted rapist who later sexually assaulted and killed a woman in Missouri.

The Huffington Post bannered a story headlined "Exclusive: New Documents Expose Huckabee's Role In Serial Rapist's Release." Huckabee did not hide from the story, talking to all the networks in a 24-hour span and fielding questions at a news conference. He disputed some details of Murray Waas's Huffington Post account, calling it "a very liberal, left-wing blog" and saying that while he regrets what happened, his role was to sign off on the parole board's decision.

ABC, working with the Web site, interviewed a former parole board member who said Huckabee had pressed the panel to release the convict, Wayne Dumond. Huckabee calls the story "totally inaccurate," saying he was "amazed" that correspondent Brian Ross had ignored information he had provided. Still, he says, "I'd rather go ahead and face it, let's deal with it and let it get exhausted. While it's old stuff in Arkansas, I realize it's new stuff to a lot of people."

Ross acknowledges that "Good Morning America" made one error, using an on-screen headline that referred to Huckabee granting a "pardon," which he did not. But the story "was fair and presented his reaction, as best we could get it, to every single thing we raised," Ross says.

After the piece ran, Huckabee gave Ross an interview for an update on "World News." "He was very classy," Ross says. "These were not easy questions, and he answered them in a straightforward way."

When Huckabee hosted a dinner for journalists in Des Moines, he caused a flap by saying he was unfamiliar with the day-old news that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded Iran had not been pursuing a nuclear weapon for four years. On "Fox News Sunday" yesterday, host Chris Wallace began by asking about Huckabee's 1992 suggestion that AIDS victims should be quarantined.

Some conservative columnists have stepped up their criticism. George Will wrote that Huckabee "combines pure moralism with incoherent populism." Charles Krauthammer accused him of "playing the religion card" against Mitt Romney. What's more, Slate, professing concern about chief executives obsessed with exercise, ran the headline: "Is Mike Huckabee Too Fit to be President?"

Huckabee is riding a wave that could submerge him, while his staff is having to turn down interview requests for the first time. "He constantly warns us that we can't kill him," Fedewa says.

Blogger Gets Bounced

National Review has apologized for an "editing failure" involving a blogger in Lebanon and says it can no longer stand by a disputed dispatch from W. Thomas Smith Jr. The former Marine resigned Friday, saying he "should have been more specific in terms of my sourcing."

The magazine's Web editor, Kathryn Jean Lopez, wrote that after Smith reported that 5,000 Hezbollah gunmen had massed in a Christian part of Beirut, "two of our independent sources agreed with Smith's critics that the event was unlikely, and one -- an editor who lives and works in Beirut -- flatly stated that it didn't happen."

Furthermore . . .

Moving right along . . . Here's that Newsweek poll giving Huck a 39 to 17 lead in Iowa over Romney (who's outspent him by many millions), part of the "Holy Huckabee!" cover:

"Huckabee's religious credibility . . . appears to be a key factor behind his surge. Huckabee has opened up a huge lead among evangelicals, who are likely to make up about 40 percent of GOP caucus-goers on Jan. 3, the survey found. Among all Republican voters who identify themselves as evangelicals, 47 percent support Huckabee while only 14 percent back Romney. Among nonevangelicals, the two candidates are dead even at 24 percent apiece. Even so, a majority of Republican voters indicated that other issues, such as abortion, same-sex marriage, immigration, health care and Iraq, are more important than religion."

Lots of papers have the grab bag of allegations against Huck. NYT: "As new polls highlight Mike Huckabee's ascent in the Republican presidential field, he is drawing new scrutiny of his record in Arkansas, particularly his actions in the release of a convicted rapist who went on to murder a woman and his response to a questionnaire in which he said people with AIDS should be quarantined."

Boston Globe: "For months, candidates with 'unlimited resources looked down their collective noses at us,' Huckabee said in an interview. Pundits were writing his political obituary 'without even writing my birth announcement.' Now, Huckabee is at the tipping point that could determine his campaign's fate. He could crash-land if voters become disenchanted as they learn more about his Arkansas record, and his rivals and the national media scrutinize his past writings and views. Or he could keep building his sudden momentum and fill what some feel is a credibility gap among the field of Republican presidential hopefuls."

Wall Street Journal: "Hundreds of Republicans arriving to hear Mike Huckabee speak this weekend were greeted by a man in prison stripes with a rubber mask and this sign: 'Hey Mike, Thanks for the Pardon.'

"It was a reference to a convicted rapist who was paroled (not pardoned) when Mr. Huckabee was Arkansas governor, and who went on to murder a woman. It also was an indicator of how the Republicans' hot new presidential prospect faces tougher scrutiny of both his record and his views."

As for Romney, more analysis of the big speech. At Real Clear Politics, Jay Cost says in the end it's not about religion:

"I would suggest that the whole issue of Mormonism is actually a red herring in this campaign. The issue here is Romney himself. Remember that the Mitt Romney of 2007 is very different than the Mitt Romney of 2002 on many social issues. Five years ago, he had little to do with evangelical Christians. Now -- through his positions, his language, and his emphases -- he wants them to believe he is just like they are. That is all well and good -- and indeed he might be.

"But surely he must expect those voters to be wary of the systematic changes that a 60 year old man has undergone, to want to know more about this man and what he believes, and to frame those questions in terms of religious beliefs. Is it unreasonable for those whom he is openly courting (on their terms) to inquire a bit about the origins of his policy preferences, to want some insight into his inner being, to see whether he will remain faithful to his promises once in office?"

Peggy Noonan says Mitt may have reached lots of people beyond the chattering class:

"Did Mitt Romney have to give a speech on religion? Yes. When you're in a race so close you could lose due to one issue, your Mormonism, you must address the issue of your Mormonism. The only question was timing . . .

"But Mr. Romney had other needs, too. His candidacy needed a high-minded kick start. It needed an Act II. He's been around for a year, he's made his first impression, he needed to make it new again. He seized the opportunity to connect his candidacy to something larger and transcendent: the history of religious freedom in America. He made a virtue of necessity . . .

"Romney reintroduced himself to a distracted country-- Who is that handsome man saying those nice things?--while defending principles we all, actually, hold close, and hold high."

The Oprah tour continues, and the Chicago Tribune is there:

"Oprah Winfrey came to South Carolina Sunday with a message tailored to the state's considerable African-American community, asking it to cast aside doubt and support the black man she assured them could--and should-- be elected president.

"On the second day of Barack Obama and Winfrey's tour of early voting states, the two turned out the biggest crowd yet of the election campaign, an exuberant and overwhelmingly African-American audience that filled about a third of a football stadium and organizers said exceeded 29,000.The scale of the event rivaled the largest campaign rallies in recent history. Obama drew energy from the crowd, stretching out his arm and holding the microphone to the audience to capture its roar. At times, the metal bleachers behind him rumbled under stomping feet."

Question of the Day--Tim Russert to Rudy Giuliani: "Would it be appropriate for a president to provide Secret Service protection for his mistress?"

Yet another piece on how Hillary Clinton has trouble with some women, this one from the L.A. Times:

"On paper, they look an awful lot like Hillary Rodham Clinton. They are professional women of a certain age -- politically active Democrats, liberals, unabashed feminists who remember what it was like to be told they could not become firefighters or university department heads, let alone president of the United States of America. They are women of accomplishment who have bumped up against glass ceilings, sometimes breaking them, while managing marriages, raising children and trying to make the world their version of a better place.

"They have waited a long, long time for a plausible female presidential candidate. You'd think they'd be rushing to support Clinton. But they can't stand her . . .

"For upscale women on the left -- historically her toughest crowd -- negative reaction has been more nuanced. Polls show that blue-collar women see her as a defender of their economic interests. But their well-educated upper-middle-class sisters, who aren't as worried about job security, feel free to judge her as they would a peer. She has recently gained substantial ground with this constituency, but polls continue to show that fully half of college-educated Democratic women do not support her.

"The reasons vary. For many, it's visceral. While they struggled to break through institutional barriers in the workplace, Clinton hitched her star to her man and followed him to the top. When his philandering imperiled his political career, she not only pulled him out of the fire but helped orchestrate attacks against his accusers."

After Columbine, Virginia Tech and Omaha, it can no longer be denied that some sick, twisted young men are looking for media infamy with their violent rampages. I love this suggestion by MarketWatch's Jon Friedman, and even though it's not practical--meaning, there's no way to get everyone to go along--it would have an impact:

"I want the media to stop the practice of identifying crazed fame-seekers, such as the gunman who killed eight people Wednesday in an Omaha mall before taking his own life. Don't release their names or photos.

"By taking such a bold step, television, print and Web executives could help society and maybe even save lives. Media do-gooders often point to the positive ways in which they help people to live better lives. Now, those in charge can accomplish something truly noteworthy by doing nothing at all, and it wouldn't cost a dime."