Brody's Notes... Huckabee Claims College Journalist 'Grossly Distorts His Views'

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Apr 14 | Popular Fox News Commentator, former Governor of Arkansas, and one-time Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, has charged that the College of New Jersey magazine, The Perspective, distorted Governor Huckabee's views when he was interviewed by its Editor-In-Chief Michael Tracey and the magazine's staff last week in a published article.

In that article, the Governor, a former Baptist preacher, was quoted as saying;

On the subject of DADT: “I wouldn’t support a repeal if I were commander-in-chief,” he said. “You don’t see foot soldiers out there demanding it. I’m not sure that’s the most important thing we ought to be doing for the military. [‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’] touches an extraordinarily small group of people,” Huckabee continued. He dismissed calls to amend the policy as “primarily a posturing point for political purposes,” and an attempt to “force something on the military that they themselves haven’t pushed that hard.”“I think we certainly should be very sensitive to the fact that the purpose of the military is not to see if we can create social experiments.” 

Huckabee warned that he continues to oppose any government recognition of same-sex relationships;

"Even civil unions are “not necessary,” Huckabee said. “I think there’s been a real level of being disingenuous on the part of the gay and lesbian community with their goal of civil unions."

Huckabee went on to draw parallels between homosexuality and other lifestyles that are considered by some to be morally aberrant;

“You don’t go ahead and accommodate every behavioral pattern that is against the ideal,” he said of same-sex marriage. “That would be like saying, well, there are a lot of people who like to use drugs, so let’s go ahead and accommodate those who want to use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, so we should accommodate them.”

Huckabee in a released statement countering the article's published quotes said: 

"The young college student hopefully will find a career other than journalism. I would ask that he release the unedited tape of our conversation. I believe that what people do as individuals in their private lives is their business, but I do not believe we should change the traditional definition of marriage. Not only did he attempt to sensationalize my well known and hardly unusual views of same-sex marriage, he also inaccurately reported my views on Michael Steele as GOP chairman - I offered my support and didn't "Rip into Steele" as his article asserted. I had a candid and frank conversation with the group about health care, education, the economy and national security while the young journalism student, instead, chose to focus on the issue of same-sex marriage and grossly distort my views"

On RNC Chair Michael Steele, Huckabee had said: 

"The question is, how is [Steele] going to take control and how is he going to explain it? I think there does need to be a better explanation than what’s come forth so far,” he continued. “It’s been pretty weak.”

Huckabee said ongoing controversies involving Steele may become an electoral liability for Republicans as this year’s midterm elections approach. “It’s indefensible the way that some of the money has been spent,” Huckabee said, though he declined to call for Steele’s resignation. “Whether he should resign really is a question for the RNC, and I’m not a member, so I’m not going to get into that.”

The Perspective issued the following response yesterday along with an audio recording of the interview:

It is unfortunate that in the wake of his interview with The Perspective, Gov. Mike Huckabee has resorted to ad hominem attacks intended to cast doubt upon our credibility as a publication. This sort of desperate tactic is not surprising, however; politicians in damage-control mode often stoop to attacking the media so they might avoid being accountable for the substance of their remarks.

It is telling that nowhere in his statement did Huckabee suggest he was misquoted in the article, and rightfully so; we have the audio and transcripts to prove that everything reported is accurate.

Huckabee’s problem seems to lie more in the focus of the article, which is centered partially on LGBT issues. We feel that same-sex marriage, laws prohibiting gays and lesbians from adopting children, and ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ are legitimate policy concerns about which to question national political figures. Gov. Huckabee may disagree.

But regardless, his words speak for themselves, and it is a shame that he is now so quickly embarrassed of them.

Further, Huckabee’s claim that he defended RNC Chairman Michael Steele is simply not true.

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