Huckabee throws a Mitt fit

 

 

MAGGIE HABERMAN

2/21/11 12:47 AM EST

Updated: 2/21/11 1:07 AM EST

Disdain for Romney could make Mike run. | AP

 

Mike Huckabee may be especially tempted to run in 2012 by a lingering feud between him and Mitt Romney, a severe hangover from the 2008 campaign that has created a lasting and bitter rift between the two, Republicans who know both men say.

“[Huckabee] hates Mitt, and his goal in Iowa last time was to stop him,” said one prominent Republican, who’s known both men for years. “If he sees an opportunity to cut Mitt off [during the nominating process], he will take it.” 

 

Huckabee and Romney were never exactly pals before the Iowa caucuses two years ago — and none of the other contenders had much affection for Romney either — but the battle for the Hawkeye State permanently turned the former Massachusetts governor and Huckabee into lasting enemies, sources say.

As Huckabee weighs whether to run again, several Republicans with ties to Huckabee say his disdain for Romney is a real factor in his decision-making about whether to mount a second campaign for the White House.

Ed Rollins, a national GOP strategist who ran Huckabee’s 2008 effort, recalled the “personal animosity” that the former Arkansas governor felt for Romney, citing the rawness over the negative campaign Romney ran as Huckabee started surging as the dark horse with no money or national establishment support in Iowa in January 2008.

“I don't think he particularly likes Romney,” Rollins said, although the strategist insisted Huckabee “doesn’t’ think much about Romney or Palin” and would only run if he believes the time is right. “I don't think he felt that Romney had a real core of convictions.”

Hogan Gidley, the executive director of HuckPAC, strongly denied that that Huckabee is driven by any score-settling with Romney.

"Only someone who knows precious little about running for president would put forth the ludicrous notion that a person would go through the rigors of running for president due to some personal grudge,” he said. ”That's beyond absurd — it's idiotic."

Former Des Moines Register political columnist David Yepsen, now the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, traces the ongoing dislike in part to socio-economic differences between the two.

“This is a little bit about class differences,” Yepsen said. “It was the populist versus the country club. Huckabee did come up the hard way, and like a lot of politicians, and lot of people who do, they have a bit of a chip on their shoulder for people who have a dime more than they do.”

Even if he decides not to run, Huckabee is in a prime position to be influential in a GOP primary contest where Romney is the nominal frontrunner — and one who’s seen as beatable, Yepsen and others say.

“If he's not a candidate, he's arguably more of a threat to Romney sitting on the [sidelines],” Yepsen said. “I think he could really be needling Romney a lot and hurting Romney with a lot of [social conservatives and religious voters] he needs to attract.

“Mike Huckabee is quick on his feet and he is glib and he can be genuinely funny," Yespen added. "I can see him making some glib [comment about] Romney that will wind up being the story of the day on the campaign trail. That is a narrative that Romney's just got to hate and I'm not sure that Huckabee's got it out of his craw yet.”

Huckabee certainly wasn’t alone in disliking Romney in 2008. A memorable anecdote in the book “Game Change” by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann featured Huckabee, Giuliani and McCain standing on a pre-debate urinal line, mocking the well-coifed Romney.

University of Virginia political analyst Larry Sabato said, "I can't see Huckabee offering Romney a cabinet post."

Yepsen said part of the dynamic between the two men was questions about "Romney's authenticity," and people's' ability to relate to Huckabee, a former pastor whose good-guy persona resonated with caucus-goers. That issue is definitely going to come back for Romney, Yepsen argued, and Huckabee could end up being the person who nails it.

Yepsen also recalled a subplot involving Romney's faith.

“It was a story that all of us were looking for and it was hard to find because people don't talk openly about it,” Yepsen said, referring to Romney’s Mormonism and Huckabee’s strong appeal with evangelical Christians.

It did come up, from Huckabee himself, at one point in December 2007, when the candidate, in a New York Times story, was quoted saying, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

Asked to comment for this article, Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said in an e-mail that “Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee ran a competitive race against each other and had their differences, but Mitt has always had high regard for Mike Huckabee as a person and as a governor.”

Huckabee is on tour promoting his new book, “A Simple Government,” which hits stands on Tuesday. Currently the star of his eponymous Fox News show and the host of a radio show, he has spoken little about Romney publicly in recent months.

But he laid out his grievances with Romney in his post 2008 campaign retrospective, “Do the Right Thing,” which made major headlines for its candid portrayal of the political scion and wealthy former businessman as a phony, an elitist, one who flipped positions and who snubbed his rivals unnecessarily throughout the campaign.

"He spent more time on the road to Damascus than a Syrian camel driver. And we thought nobody could fill John Kerry's flip-flops!" Huckabee wrote in the tome, adding at another point that the Massachusetts pol "was anything but conservative until he changed all the lightbulbs in his chandelier in time to run for president.”

During an interview on Fox News the day before that book came out, Huckabee explained: “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... same-sex marriage, he had had a dramatic conversion to every one of those issues.”

 

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