Huckabee: No Apologies Necessary

Honestly, I don't really think Mitt Romney is necessarily the worst candidate out there, but he keeps saying stuff that irritates me. So here he is in a typical Bushie ploy, demanding that Mike Huckabee apologize to the poor President for attributing to him and his foreign policy an "arrogant bunker mentality." I hear this kind of talk a lot from Sean Hannity and other conservative talkers: shouldn't you apologize? Aren't you ashamed of yourselves? Now Romney applies it to a fellow Republican, accusing Huckabee of adopting a Democratic foreign policy. It sounds like a degenerate, impotent version of the old challenge to a duel, except now if you don't give satisfaction the likes of Romney or Hannity are most likely to just sulk and pout.

In this particular case, Romney looks particularly bad because it's obvious he hasn't read much more than the summary of Huckabee's Foreign Affairs article, which is where he finds the offending quote. You can do better than that, so here's the article in full. You'll see that Romney's claims are occasionally, conicidentally true. Huckabee does happen to share Barrack Obama's interest in attacking al-Qaeda camps in Pakistan whether President Musharraf approves or not. Also, any Democrat candidate would agree with the bit about the bunker mentality. On the other hand, Huckabee (or his speechwriter) specifically chides Democrats over their opposition to the Lieberman-Kyl bill -- Senator Clinton excepted, of course. He opposes setting any timetable for withdrawal from Iraq other than whatever General Petreus might recommend. He insists that we understand that al-Qaeda wants to destroy civilization as we know it.

Overall, however, Huckabee appears to endorse a more realistic foreign policy than our current one -- and how hard could that be? He looks forward to greater engagement with Iran, offering diplomatic recognition as an incentive for good behavior and Iranian concessions while writing that the Islamic Republic need only be contained, while al-Qaeda must be destroyed. He has a clear-eyed view of Russia, acknowledging that the Russians always look out for number one, and that our relations with them will inevitably have ups and downs for this reason. He doesn't seem to think that we should treat Putin as a permanent or irreconcilable enemy, but he also wants to put those missile-defense systems in Eastern Europe despite Putin's objections. Most importantly, he concedes that we can't export U.S. style government as if it were Coca-Cola or Kentucky Fried Chicken, and he appreciates that authoritarian or tribalistic regimes may be the best option in some places. It's not good news, but he sees no use crying over it.

If anyone has to apologize in this matter, it would be Romney for making an ass of himself in blatantly ignorant fashion. But all this hollering for apologies is contemptible, and Huckabee would do well to refer reporters to the record and let the public draw their own conclusions about Romney's desperate tactics. At this point, I tremble at the prospect of a Romney vs Clinton election campaign, because it might go down as the worst in American history by several criteria.