Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee mocks a few of his fellow Republicans – including a few evangelicals – in his book being released tomorrow.
Time magazine reports that the sharpest words go to Huckabee’s former rival, Mitt Romney, who Huckabee describes as “anything but conservative until he changed the light bulbs in his chandelier in time to run for president.”
Michael Scherer writes that Huckabee’s book, Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That’s Bringing Common Sense Back to America, “spared neither the rod nor the lash” for many conservative Christian leaders.
Huckabee writes of Gary Bauer, the conservative Christian leader and former presidential candidate, as having an “ever-changing reason to deny me his support.” Of one private meeting with Bauer, Huckabee says, “It was like playing Whac-a-Mole at the arcade – whatever issue I addressed, another one surfaced as a ‘problem’ that made my candidacy unacceptable.” He also accuses Bauer of putting national security before bedrock social issues like the sanctity of life and traditional marriage.
Huckabee calls out Pat Robertson for endorsing Rudy Giuliani and Dr. Bob Jones III for endorsing Romney. He says he spoke to the Rev. John Hagee by phone before the Texas pastor endorsed John McCain. “I asked if he had prayed about this and believed this was what the Lord wanted him to do,” Huckabee writes. “I didn’t get a straight answer.”
Huckabee also describes the Arlington Group as “more enamored with the process, the political strategies, and the party hierarchy than with the simple principles that had originally motivated the Founders.” Later, he writes, “I lamented that so many people of faith had moved from being prophetic voices – like Naaman, confronting King David in his sin and saying, ‘Thou art the man!’ – to being voices of patronage, and saying to those in power, ‘You da’ man!’ “
