Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Mike Huckabee sat down with GQ to discuss a number of issues including abortion, religion, Pat Robertson, and the former Governor of Arkansas. The full thing is a recommended read.

Some excerpts:

At that time [when you became a Republican], were there national issues driving you to the right? Social issues like Roe v. Wade?
Law and order. Economic issues. I just felt like Republicans had a better handle on both. The sanctity of life wasn’t a big issue until abortions became incredibly more prolific in the later ’70s. That’s when it became a major, profitable industry. There was literally just this avalanche of abortion mills that sprang up. And it was no longer this rare procedure that was occasionally and rarely used: The Yellow Pages were filled with ads for people pushing abortion like it was a tonsillectomy.

Isn’t Robertson’s endorsement strange? I mean, you could say that pro-lifers are finally on the verge of overturning Roe v. Wade—you’re just one Supreme Court justice away—but there doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency coming from the movement. What’s going on?
Now, that’s a question I can’t answer. It seems that the leaders of the past, those who have been looked to as the bell cows of the movement, are completely out of step with their own followers lately. But if you talk about the people in the rank and file, there’s not any confusion at all. The people haven’t abandoned their principles. It’s almost like that classic cartoon where the guy runs up and says, “Did you see where everybody went? I’m their leader and I need to know who they are.” That’s kind of what’s happening. When I win 51 percent of the vote in the Washington Values Voters poll and 63 percent of the one in Ft. Lauderdale, and the next closest candidate to me has 12 percent, nobody says, Hmm, those voters look like they’re all over the place. They’re not all over the place at all. They have it pretty well figured out.

There’s a lot of talk in this election about religious conservatives being concerned with issues of poverty, environment, and so on—and people are looking to you as a representative of this new point of view. Do you see yourself that way?
Absolutely. I’m the first candidate coming from the faith perspective who says stewardship of the earth is a matter we have to touch, along with poverty and hunger. Now, quite frankly, that makes some of the—maybe I would call them traditionalist and establishment—Republicans nervous, because they’ve never talked about these issues before. But we can’t just have two issues: marriage and sanctity of life. It has to be broader.

Generally speaking, do you think it’s fair for people to take a candidate’s theological convictions into consideration at the polling place?
As long as everyone gets the same scrutiny. That’s what I don’t think is fair: I’ve been given an unusual level of scrutiny. No candidate gets quizzed to the depth that I do about faith.

Really? Even Mitt Romney?
He hasn’t gotten nearly as much for his Mormonism as I have for being a Baptist. I mean, I’ve never heard the kind of interviews with him that I got from Bill O’Reilly or Wolf Blitzer. No one’s just kept pressing and pressing and going into the details of his doctrine. Not that I’ve heard.

In the past, being a minister was your job.
Okay, but are you quizzing Rudy Giuliani about being a lawyer? I haven’t been a pastor in sixteen years. I mean, if you want to go back sixteen years and ask Fred Thompson, “What were you doing?”

What did Clinton do right?
He signed NAFTA. Supported welfare reform. Those were things that I think had a good and helpful long-term impact on the economy.

Since you think that Clinton’s greatest failings were personal, do you also think that’s a fair issue to raise about your fellow Republican candidates? Sure, Bill Clinton cheated on his wife, but he stayed with her. You’re running against people who’ve had multiple wives.
I have a lot of respect for the fact that he and Hillary kept their marriage together—a lot of people wouldn’t and couldn’t. It’s a remarkable achievement, and I’ve publicly commended it. And look, Republicans can’t have two sets of rules: If we’re going to say that what he did matters, we have to say that it also matters for us.