Huckabee on character issue

Former Arkansas Governor/GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been raising the character issue this week, and he was asked about it this morning during taping of the IPTV program "Iowa Press."

Me/Henderson: "You have said that character is an issue in this race, and if it isn’t for Republicans, then Republicans owe Bill Clinton an apology.  In what context are you making this assertion?"

Huckabee: "I’m specially, Kay, referencing Christian Evangelical leaders who were the most vocal in saying back during the Clinton era that behavior, personal responsibility, character were the key factors in a president’s criteria.  I’m not speaking about the candidates. You know, that’s for the American people to make that decision, but I do have a problem with and again, let me speak as a Christian Evangelical — so this is not a group of people that I’m speaking to; this is a group of people I’m spreaking from; those are my roots, so I come from that very wing of the party if you will.  But having said that I feel like I have the responsibility to say, if you will, prophetically to those leaders that if you said during Bill Clinton’s tenure that his personal behavior mattered and his character mattered and his activities in office and all of those. If that mattered, you can’t now come along and say ‘Well, it doesn’t matter to the Republicans in 2008.’  That’s hypocrisy.

AP’s Mike Glover:  "So, Rudy Giuliani being married three times and being estranged from his son will be an issue for Evangelical Christians?"

Huckabee:  "I’m asking the Christian Evangelical leaders, ‘Will it be?’ and if it is, o.kay.  If it isn’t, then: ‘Why is it an issue for Bill Clinton and it’s not for somebody else?’  My point is consistency because I do beleive it’s an issue of credibility.  The Christian leaders need to be Christian leaders, not Republican leaders or therefore they lose the salt that the salt is supposed to be.  If the salt doesn’t have any savor, then it’s not salt, it’s sand; and if the light is hidden under a bushel, then it’s not light at all — and that’s my challenge to the Christian leaders. Either be consistent — be Christian leaders — or just say: ‘Look, I’m a political boss and it’s really about the power.’"