Interview With Mike Huckabee

COLMES: The campaigns are heating up, and right now, it's anyone's guess who will win their party's nomination. As some candidates are starting to lose, others like our next guest, gaining popularity. Joining us now is presidential candidate, former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee.

You ran around the reservoir in New York City today?

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I did. And I think I need to go back south where it's 20 degrees cooler.

COLMES: Yes, there you go.

You said earlier today that you would want to send more troops to Iraq? You want to increase the surge the president has there?

HUCKABEE: If the issue is what it takes to make sure that we don't walk away with a bigger mess than is there now, I still think that there's an incredible amount of naivete about what we really face. Not just in Iraq but around the world.

These are not people who are going to leave us alone if we leave them alone. That's nonsense.

COLMES: But how do you deal with what's happening? You want to send -- I mean, would your plan be, day one, president of the United States...

HUCKABEE: No.

COLMES: ... to send more troops to Iraq?

HUCKABEE: I think a lot of people have the idea that we have two options: shock and awe or cut and run. I think there's also another option, and that is maybe snatch and grab.

The New York Times had an interesting article. We had an opportunity to go into Pakistan to take out one of the major al Qaeda leaders. We pulled back on it.

I think in the long term it's going to be that type of operation that's going to be more effective in combating terrorism.

COLMES: You say it's not -- you know, even Republicans are falling off the bandwagon of this administration. You've got now two senators from Maine, both of them talking about they don't support it. Domenici -- Domenici, I should say. John Warner, Richard Lugar, George Voinovich.

And you've got a 23 percent approval rating for the president's policy on this war. How does that help your candidacy?

HUCKABEE: It doesn't. Quite frankly, it doesn't. I would love the luxury of just going along with the crowd and saying, "Let's find out what the polls say and go there." But that's what thermometers do. They gauge the temperature and they reflect back.

But thermostats adjust the temperature. Leadership is not necessarily following the crowd. It's about saying, "Look, I know where the crowd is, but I also know where the danger is."

And the danger is in us walking away, allowing Iraq to become nothing but an even greater mess. Genocide, refugees running for the borders, destabilizing all of the Middle East. And if we think those people aren't going to come after us then we've never read the words...

COLMES: Come after us how? They're going to take the next plane back? How do they come after us? We protect our borders. Hopefully, we're working on better...

HUCKABEE: Americans are so upset right now...

COLMES: Is there any evidence that anybody's come over from Mexico, though Mexico to come in? Everybody who did terrorism here did it -- were in the country legally.

HUCKABEE: Well, I think we need to understand, if we under -- just a little bit of understanding of what kind of mindset we're dealing with.

We're dealing with people who want to annihilate us. They don't to just want to come and deal with us in some way and move the borders back a little bit. And this is nonsense, too. And I hear it all the time. Well, it's all about economic disadvantage and educational disadvantage. Glasgow blew that away. You have medical doctors, who were neither disadvantaged economically or educationally, who were blowing up cars.

HANNITY: Hey, Governor, good to see you. Welcome to the -- New York. Welcome to the studio. Appreciate your being here.

You know, conservatives like myself, and I've got to tell you, host of a three-hour radio show, all the e-mail we get from our great FOX audience, I have never, at a point in my career -- I've been in radio now 20 years. We've been here in our -- what, 11, 12 years now? The anger towards the Republican Party.

Congress' approval rating -- Rasmussen -- Rasmussen out today, 16 percent. Immigration, spending, you know, Medicare prescription drugs. Have Republicans abandoned their conservative principles?

HUCKABEE: Sure, they have. That's what they lost the elections in 2006, when they spend more than the Democrats, when they don't address corruption, when they don't act competently in government with the way that Katrina was a complete meltdown. And it didn't get handled right.

And they don't see right the decisions being made in the war. We didn't manage things properly. We went in with too few soldiers when we first went in. The Defense Department said we needed 300,000.

But we can't fix what we haven't done right. We just don't want to make bigger mistakes in the future.

HANNITY: Well, how do Republicans make the case -- and I know the Democrats haven't do anything except bash Bush, which is a full-time obsession. But how are Republicans going to make the case that we're sorry we messed up on all these things, but we deserve your vote in the next election?

HUCKABEE: Well, I think the reality is people have to remember they don't elect parties, they elect people. And nobody's asking that the Republican Party be given a wholesale opportunity.

But they need to collect individual Republicans who show some responsibility.

HANNITY: I'm sitting here bewildered. Why don't they come out and say, "We are the party of no more earmarks. We're the party that will reduce spending and guarantee a cap on spending. We're the party that will build defense"?

And I'm just a, you know, simple talk-show host. Why not take tough, principled stands on simple things and show that they have returned to those basic principles?

HUCKABEE: There are a few of us who are those voices in the wilderness.

HANNITY: I know you're one of the. But...

HUCKABEE: I mean, I'm out there talking about completely overhauling our tax system.

HANNITY: I'm with you. And that's -- you're the only candidate, I think, that supports it now. Right?

HUCKABEE: We ought to be doing it. Sean, Americans are penalized for productivity in this country. And we have people running for office. They'll talk about a tap of the hammer, a twist of the screwdriver, a little duct tape. That's not what our tax system needs. It needs an overhaul.

HANNITY: I have watched you on the campaign trail, and your -- your message resonates. I saw you speak in front of, what, 12,000, 13,000 people or so at the fair tax rally in South Carolina.

You're not showing up in the polls. You can't seem to get to the top tier yet. Why is that?

HUCKABEE: I just haven't been on "Hannity & Colmes" enough. But after tonight...

COLMES: We're there.

HUCKABEE: I think a lot of is that, you know, I like to recognize I'm not that well-known. I've been a governor of Arkansas. I'm not the first relatively unknown obscure governor from Arkansas that ran for the presidency and people said doesn't have a chance.

HANNITY: You know, I've got to tell you. When I found out that John Edwards not only paid for a $400 hair cut, but it actually turned out to be $1,200, I thought of you and the line that you used in the debate.

Of all the top candidates, you know, do you like these guys? Because I keep hearing your name for V.P. I know that whenever somebody is a candidate, they don't want that question.

HUCKABEE: No.

HANNITY: But they -- your name gets mentioned a lot in that capacity. That's got to be flattering to you.

HUCKABEE: Well, it's better to be named as a guy that ought to be V.P., which means in six months maybe they'll be saying, "Who will he pick for his V.P.?" That's what I'm hoping.

HANNITY: So you're hoping that that will help elevate you.

HUCKABEE: I think there's no doubt but that the debates gave me separation, and certainly, every analyst...

HANNITY: You see the one Stiles (ph) on you?

HUCKABEE: Yes.

HANNITY: It was incredible.

COLMES: And which of the other candidates will you choose as your V.P.?

HUCKABEE: I'm going to pick one of you guys.

COLMES: Thank you very much. Yes, I wonder which one.

Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate it.

HUCKABEE: Thank you, Alan.