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November 17, 2008

Mike Huckabee on "Hannity & Colmes"

Hannity & Colmes

COLMES: Welcome to HANNITY & COLMES. Getting right to our "Top Story" tonight.

Senator John McCain met with President-elect Obama today. It was their first face-to-face meeting since the election. In fact, their first since they both attended the Al Smith dinner last month in New York.

And joining us with more on this and the exclusive first look at his brand-new book, "Do the Right Thing," Spike -- no, our own Mike Huckabee.

(LAUGHTER)

SEAN HANNITY, CO-HOST: What did you call him?

HUCKABEE: He was going to call me Spike Lee, I think he's going to call me that.

COLMES: No, I'm kidding. You realize there was a movie by that -- already with the title of your book.

HUCKABEE: He borrowed it from this book anticipating that it was going to be published some day.

COLMES: I see. I got it.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

COLMES: So -- he has endorsed it. Is that right? That's good.

HUCKABEE: As I'm sure you will.

HANNITY: (INAUDIBLE) conservative.

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: Anyway, listen.

HUCKABEE: But he will be after he reads this book.

COLMES: All right. So you really -- some people have said you've gone to town against some of your former opponents here?

HUCKABEE: No. If you look at 240 pages of the book.

COLMES: Yes.

HUCKABEE: . there's probably a page or two in which I try to be as honest because I think people.

COLMES: Right.

HUCKABEE: . came to know that during the campaign the credibility I had with people was that I was plain spoken and I told people what I really believed, and I didn't filter it.

COLMES: What's the deal with Romney?

HUCKABEE: Well, the deal -- it's not a deal with Romney. I talked about some specific instances, sort of behind the scenes stuff at debates. Talked about the Iowa caucuses.

COLMES: What about them?

HUCKABEE: Because this isn't a bad -- this isn't a beat up Mitt Romney book.

COLMES: You said, you said.

HUCKABEE: This is a book about the future of the Republican Party.

COLMES: He said about you.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

COLMES: . the type of (INAUDIBLE) as you displayed in this book, the statement he points out, is beneath Mike Huckabee. If we're going to move the party offer we need to offer more than personal incriminations. Unfortunately, he says in this book, Mike Huckabee is consumed with presumed slights. He seems more interested in settling scores than bring people together.

HUCKABEE: I'm pretty sure that -- and that was his spokesman. I'm pretty sure that he has not read the book. I'm pretty sure. I mean you know -- here's why I know that because the book doesn't come out until tomorrow. So I'm pretty sure he hasn't read the book.

COLMES: Maybe someone sent him an advanced copy.

HUCKABEE: Could have. Maybe it was you.

COLMES: No, I'm not.

HUCKABEE: But you know what, I think if people read this book, here's what they're going to see. This is not a book about what was. This is a book about what ought to be. This is a book on why the Republican Party has got to hit the reset button, move forward, and as has got to -- encompass an understanding that you can't have a conservative movement if you push away the people who have a deep sense of values about certain things being right and wrong.

COLMES: We want to get into that. But you know, people really do love looking at the behind the scenes stuff...

HUCKABEE: Sure.

COLMES: . in what was a very tight primary race. The Huck-a-boom at a one point.

HUCKABEE: Right.

COLMES: And you -- again Mitt Romney -- what was your issue with him? What's your issue with him?

HUCKABEE: Well, a lot of it had to do with misrepresentation of my record both in paid ads and in efforts done in Iowa, in South Carolina very specifically, when I was painted to be some economic liberal, which is nonsense. I'm not.

COLMES: Yes.

HUCKABEE: I mean I'm one of the few guys that are still out there screaming against the bailout.

COLMES: Yes. Well, you said about him that would change his -- with the wind basically depending upon what office he was running for.

HUCKABEE: Well, what I pointed out was that on every major position, whether it was the sanctity of life or the Second Amendment, or whether it was taxes, whether it's the Bush tax cuts, that he had had -- same-sex marriage, he had had a dramatic conversion to every one of those issues.

And that was my point. And then he attacked John McCain on immigration, he attacked Rudy Giuliani on immigration and I can't remember what else, but there was a sense in which we all wanted to say, Mitt, run on your platform, don't attack the rest of us, because -- now let me point out something.

You know I didn't bring this up during the course of the primary. I didn't bring it up even in the course of the general election because had he been the vice presidential nominee, I wouldn't want to.

COLMES: You would support the ticket.

HUCKABEE: I would have supported the ticket, you bet.

COLMES: You say about Fred Thompson he never grasped the dynamics of race or the country and his lackluster campaign reflected just how disconnected he was to people that has Fred Thompson reacted to.

HUCKABEE: I don't think so. I doubt he will.

(LAUGHTER)

COLMES: Why?

HUCKABEE: Well, I don't think -- you know, I never saw Fred's heart in this thing. I mean I just didn't. You never saw him out there showing the kind of energy that a person ought to be showing when they're running for president.

Look, I like Fred personally. Fred was another guy that called me a liberal, and I'm thinking, you know, of all the other things I've ever been called in my life, a liberal would never.

COLMES: That's a good word.

HUCKABEE: But -- it's horrible to me. When you're out there cutting taxes 94 times in your state and you're delivering a road system, and rebuilding education, making things accountable, and you get attacked for being a right winger, and then one day you find yourself on the national stage being accused by your opponents as being a liberal, you've just got to say, wait a minute, that's -- a misrepresentation.

HANNITY: Hey, Mike, you weren't with Gary Bauer either. And by the way, good to see you, Governor. Congratulations on the book.

HUCKABEE: Sean, good to see you.

HANNITY: You weren't happy with a lot of people. I mean you and I, in the course of the campaign.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

HANNITY: . we had a couple of strong debate.

HUCKABEE: Right.

HANNITY: You attacked me on the campaign trail.

(LAUGHTER)

HUCKABEE: I didn't attack you. I pointed out that I was still in Florida, but you and I have buried that hatchet.

HANNITY: No, no, no.

HUCKABEE: Unfortunately it doesn't my.

HANNITY: We're friends. But we always were friends.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

HANNITY: I mean it was.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

HANNITY: It was -- look, I liked everybody on our side. I'm going to be -- I like Mitt Romney, I like Fred Thompson, I like Rudy Giuliani, I watched him govern very conservatively in the city of New York.

HUCKABEE: Right. Yes.

HANNITY: Even though I have passionately argued with him about abortion and about gay rights and some other things. But you're -- this is now the question of the hour, though.

HUCKABEE: Right.

HANNITY: For the Republican Party. I think we need bold differences, no pale pastels.

HUCKABEE: I agree.

HANNITY: And you talk about this in the book.

HUCKABEE: That's exactly what I talked about. What I talked about was that -- and you mention Gary Bauer. My problem was that when Gary Bauer started the organization, he was in charge of -- it was about sticking to traditional marriage, family, integrity, pro-life, and then when it came to this presidential election, he said the most important issue for him was national security.

Look, national security is important to all of us.

HANNITY: Right.

HUCKABEE: But it's like the NRA coming out and saying what really matters to us is firearms, but really what has to happen is we've got to be concerned about global warming. So if you lose the focus of your organization, then that organization loses its capacity to deliver its constituency.

HANNITY: I'm sick of talking about David Brooks, but he mentioned me and he mentioned Rush as, quote, "the traditionalist camp of the Republican Party," and then he talks about the reformer camp which that sounds a lot to me like Democratic Party light which I think the polls now show, definitively, is why people lost faith in the Republican Party.

You know, if you add up the numbers that -- you know, 28 percent think they lost their way, 30 percent think Republicans became incompetent, and only 9 percent think the Republican Party is too conservative. So is conservatism will work again for the Republican Party?

HUCKABEE: Well, the reason the Republicans have had a struggle and lost elections in '06 and '08 was not because they were conservative, it's because they weren't. When we ran away from the issues that brought people into the party, whether it was the sanctity of life or traditional family, or the Second Amendment, and suddenly you say, well, those issues aren't really going to be that important to us, well, then the people for whom those issues were important says might as well vote for the Democratic opponent.

HANNITY: But look what's happening. The number one issue in the minds of almost everybody in our audience is the economy.

HUCKABEE: Yes. Exactly.

HANNITY: And you've been one of the few Republicans to say the $700 billion bailout is bad.

HUCKABEE: No, it's insane. It's worse than bad. It's the most fool- hearted thing we've done as a government a long time. It's part of the reason the markets are not responding favorably because who wants to invest in a market that the government is about to.

HANNITY: But aren't a lot of people anticipating that Obama is going to raise tax cuts? The "Wall Street Journal" -- look, we've never had a.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

HANNITY: . a president-elect in a post war era that has literally seen the stock market go down 15,16 percentage as the case.

HUCKABEE: I think people are scared to death that he'll raise taxes particularly on capital gains and on high earners, which is where the jobs come from. It would be disastrous.

HANNITY: After you get the money from this book and your radio gig and TV show.

HUCKABEE: I got to do it now. I got to do it and so buy this book this week before the taxes go up.

HANNITY: Before next year. I got it.

COLMES: It's patriotic to pay taxes.

HUCKABEE: Yes, that's right.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Why can't you liberals donate your own money? You.

COLMES: You know what? And I am "you liberals."

HANNITY: Thank you. OK.

Now coming up. we're going to have more with Mike Huckabee right after the break, and then, in his first television interview since winning the presidency, Barack Obama reveals some of his immediate plans including the fate of Guantanamo Bay.

Those details, and why some people voted for Barack Obama. What they know about government. It's shocking. You don't want to miss this tape, next.

ANNOUNCER: "Top Story" is brought to you by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HANNITY: And we continue now with Governor Mike Huckabee. By the way, brand-new book out, "Do the Right Thing." It was after.

COLMES: Hold it up there. There you go.

HANNITY: That was Spike Lee.

HUCKABEE: I'm going to be in 56 towns over the next three weeks.

HANNITY: Now but your Web site, people can go meet you on the road.

HUCKABEE: Right.

HANNITY: You're going to be out everywhere.

HUCKABEE: Right.

HANNITY: I love one of the things in the book, and you were saying this out on the campaign trail. There you are. "Do the Right Thing."

HUCKABEE: Yes.

HANNITY: There's your national.

HUCKABEE: I'll be living in that bus right there for three weeks.

HANNITY: Listen, I've been on those buses. They're great.

HUCKABEE: I know you've had. I know you've been there.

HANNITY: Yes, I bet, listen, D.C., Roach Motel, the roaches go in but they never leave.

HUCKABEE: Never come out. That's a chapter that I think people really enjoy. I talk about the fact that you've got really an amazing 35,000 lobbyists in Washington, D.C., that's 70 lobbyists for every member of Congress, and people go into D.C., but -- in the old days, the way Washington envisioned it, you would go and do your service and you go home and farm and you raise your family. You wouldn't stay there forever.

People go there now and it is the Roach Motel.

HANNITY: Are you going to run for president again?

HUCKABEE: You know, honestly, and this is the truth, I have no idea. I'm busy with my FOX show. I've got a contract with ABC Radio Network and I'll be doing commentaries..

HANNITY: How many years are these contracts? That might help answer the questions.

(LAUGHTER)

HUCKABEE: It's a multi-year contract.

HANNITY: OK.

HUCKABEE: Multi-year contract. But the real point is that right now I think it's -- you know, let me put it this -- roll the clock four years back, and you know who we were talking about as the presidential contenders, Bill Frist, George Allen? They didn't even run. So anybody we talk about now, I'd almost say, if you hear that somebody is absolutely running, they probably won't even be in the race.

HANNITY: What do you think -- what are your thoughts because I've stated to this audience and on my radio show often.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

HANNITY: I have my real serious concerns and doubts about Barack Obama. What are your thoughts about him?

HUCKABEE: Well, I think he's going to be smart enough not to do what a lot of liberals want him to do, and that's go in and make a radical, radical left direction of the country. If he does that it will be a gift to the Republican Party in 2010 and in 2012.

HANNITY: What make -- what makes you think that because he's doing it just for political expediency or does he really believe he should govern.

HUCKABEE: I think he's an incrementalist. I think he knows that you can't make major changes in a hurry, or you'll have a huge fullback. And I think the appointment of Rahm Emanuel was another indication because Rahm Emanuel is, at his heart, a pragmatist.

He's partisan, but partisan doesn't necessarily mean that he doesn't understand the value of winning little battles at a time.

HANNITY: So like welfare reform issues like when Bill.

HUCKABEE: NAFTA.

HANNITY: NAFTA.

HUCKABEE: That's right.

HANNITY: So they'll look for issues where they can get along with conservatives.

HUCKABEE: Exactly.

HANNITY: That's what the meeting with John McCain was about.

HUCKABEE: Low hanging fruit. You go after the things and say look what a successful venture we're having, we're working with everybody, we're doing exactly what we said.

HANNITY: But incrementalism or socialism?

HUCKABEE: And in one day whop, upside the head.

COLMES: Hey, Governor, is Hillary a good idea for secretary of state?

HUCKABEE: I'll tell you this. If he doesn't pick her up now, oh, boy. Oh boy.

(LAUGHTER)

COLMES: What do you mean by that?

HUCKABEE: Well, I mean, but he's rejected her once as the VP. Now if he floats her name out there and toys with her yet again, it's like knocking on the door twice.

COLMES: Or maybe he.

HUCKABEE: . and never taking her to the dance.

COLMES: Some (INAUDIBLE) he already offered her the job.

HUCKABEE: I'm telling you, you better, you better take her to the dance now. You've done knock on the door twice.

COLMES: All right.

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: Well, let me - look, some of the things -- talk about running again. You talk about the story of your daughter Sarah coming out of a Chinese restaurant.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

COLMES: . getting that little thing out of a machine.

HUCKABEE: Right.

COLMES: The good luck charm.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

COLMES: And you said hold on to that, we might need it again.

HUCKABEE: Right. Yes.

COLMES: It indicates, don't you think, that you're looking, you know, ahead toward.

HUCKABEE: You never rule out the future. But here's the point, see, you just brought that up, and now people will say I've got to read that book because of that. There you go. Thank you.

COLMES: So you're just -- you just want to tease these.

HUCKABEE: He wants conservatives.

COLMES: You just want to.

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: Hey, by the way, he wrote in his book that Jesus was a liberal and O.J. is innocent.

(LAUGHTER)

COLMES: "Red, White and Liberal" still available at Amazon.com.

HANNITY: Yes.

COLMES: Now, All right, let me ask you this.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: He thinks O.J. is innocent.

COLMES: He still can't get over a book I wrote five years ago.

HANNITY: Can you believe it?

HUCKABEE: OK.

COLMES: Can you believe it?

HUCKABEE: Yes, right.

COLMES: Let me ask you about this.

HUCKABEE: OK.

COLMES: You talk in the book about you're getting ready to do "Saturday Night Live."

HUCKABEE: Yes.

COLMES: And you're talking on the phone with Pastor John Hagee.

HUCKABEE: Right.

COLMES: And you're -- and he's about to endorse John McCain.

HUCKABEE: Right.

COLMES: Would you have wanted his endorsement?

HUCKABEE: I would have accepted anybody's endorsement.

COLMES: Given what's come out of that -- I mean the controversy John McCain.

HUCKABEE: Look, John Hagee.

COLMES: . distancing himself.

HUCKABEE: You don't take a person's entire life and define it by one statement or even two or three statements. And it's easy to say look, here's something he said in a sermon. You may say, look, I don't agree with what he said in that sermon, I think he was wrong in saying that, but that doesn't mean that the man has no value in his life.

HANNITY: Reverend Wright?

COLMES: All right. Now.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

COLMES: Excuse me.

HANNITY: About Reverend Wright?

COLMES: May I continue?

HUCKABEE: Well, OK.

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: Thank you very much.

(CROSSTALK)

COLMES: What about the faux cons you talked about in the book.

HUCKABEE: Yes.

COLMES: F-A-U-X.

HUCKABEE: Right.

COLMES: Who are they and what do they represent?

HUCKABEE: I think they are people who have become, in their minds, the integral part of the Republican Party who are, in fact, not classic Republicans. Here's what I'm saying. Hard core libertarians.

COLMES: Yes.

HUCKABEE: . that's not the same as Republican.

COLMES: You talk about the Club for Growth. Is that who you mean, for example?

HUCKABEE: Well, it's not jus them. I'm talking about people who think that the social issues that consistency and preserving the sanctity of life and traditional marriage, that those are not important issues, that all we want to do is talk about economics.

But Alan, here's the point I make in the book. The single most important thing is this. That our country was designed to operate within a moral context. And why do we have so much government and why is it so expensive? I'll tell you.

When the family and the social structure breaks down, you're going to have more cops, more judges, more jail beds, you've got to have more people cleaning off the graffiti from buildings and bridges, and that's expensive, and that's what causes the huge cost of government.

If we all did the right thing, here's the heart of the book. If we all did the right thing, we could lower taxes, limit the size of government, and families would be free, and we could live in liberty.

COLMES: Will that be your platform in 2012?

HUCKABEE: God bless America.

(LAUGHTER)

COLMES: All right. Governor, thank you very much. Good luck with the book.

HUCKABEE: Thank you, Alan. Great to be here.

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