Andrew DeMillo mines more from that 1992 candidate survey of then-Senate candidate Mike Huckabee. What would you call a guy who opposed the Family and Medical Leave Act? Compassionate doesn’t leap to mind. Would he like to repeal that act today?
And NBC News tonight ran down some of Huckabee’s ethical record, particularly his penchant for gifts. “Tacky” said a newspaper headline displayed at one point in the report. Nothing really new — and some of our favorites, like the Governor’s Mansion grab and the Ted Suhl jet service and State Police improvement of his lake property — didn’t make the cut. Huckabee’s response — none of the gifts was ever held to be illegal — is not a response to the appearance of graspiness richly illustrated in his perpetual hand out. He never did get it about ethics. Narrow compliance or merely technical non-compliance or inventive schemes not anticipated by law (Action America) do not a public servant of high character make.
Here’s that NBC report: