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Posted: July 30, 2007 6:09 PM
Huckabee Fires Back at Radio Ad
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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee this week charged a rival Republican presidential candidate with making false claims about his record. On July 26, he demanded that Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado withdraw a radio ad accusing Huckabee of favoring amnesty for illegal aliens. Huckabee called the ad “blatantly dishonest.”

Tancredo’s campaign said it stood by the ad, citing Huckabee’s support for a proposal backed by President Bush that would allow immigrants to earn legal status in the United States. A Tancredo spokeswoman also said Huckabee had refused to sign a pledge to oppose amnesty.

Huckabee’s spokesman said the ad distorted his candidate’s position, which was first to secure the U.S. border, then impose fines on people who entered the country illegally.

Huckabee said the fact that he had been targeted meant his message was getting through and was making his competitors nervous. He told the Associated Press, “When people engage in a completely false attack, it’s usually an act of desperation. To me, it’s a badge of honor because he sees that we are reaching the people we are trying to reach.”

The former governor of Arkansas also was the subject of a lawsuit in his home state this week. A man in Bella Vista County, Arkansas, filed a so-called citizen’s complaint accusing Huckabee of violating state law when his staff destroyed hard drives on government-owned computers when he left office in January. Huckabee has defended the action, saying the destruction was done to protect sensitive information, such as Social Security and credit numbers of constituents and employees. The Arkansas Ethics Commission has dismissed two earlier complaints filed by the same man, who has described himself as a “gadfly.”