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There’s speculation on the US site, VP Watch, this evening that Barack Obama might be considering the former general and 2004 contender for the presidential nomination - Wes Clarke - for the VP slot. This is the report: “Gen. Wes Clark’s slogan — “Securing America’s Future” — is the theme for the night Barack Obama’s running mate is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention. Clark’s political action committee is called WESPAC — Securing America’s Future. It could just be a coincidence. After all, Clark appeared to dash his hopes of running with Obama in late June when he...

The state GOP chairman says a Little Rock health care executive who lost the Republican primary for an Arkansas congressional seat in 2006 is considering running against Democratic Senator Mark Pryor. Tom Formicola of Little Rock is forming an exploratory committee for a potential run against Pryor, who is seeking a second term in November and has not yet drawn any major party opponents. Dennis Milligan, chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas, said Formicola approached him after Milligan initially said he thought the GOP would be unable to field a candidate against Pryor. Milligan provided copies of a statement...

Via the folks at the Trinity Foundation/Wittenburg Door, there is a report that GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee reached out to televangelist Kenneth Copeland for some fundraising help. Copeland is one of several televangelists under investigation by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and a proponent of the so-called "prosperity gospel." Trinity cites a blog post by former George H.W. Bush staffer Doug Wead to the effect that Huckabee called Copeland during a ministers' conference last week that Copeland was hosting. Wead reports: "Copeland, carefully observing all the laws governing non profits, as a private citizen, re-convened a private meeting, turned...

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, polling a distant fourth in the upcoming Florida primaries, continued to attack former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, while offering implicit support for his other rival, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in his appearance on "Fox News Sunday." When asked to take sides on a dispute between Romney and McCain over whether the former Massachusetts governor called for a timetable for withdrawal in Iraq last April, Huckabee sided squarely with McCain. “Dishonest? I’ve never seen John McCain say something that is just blatantly untrue,” Huckabee said. Huckabee later praised McCain, saying “we have a civil approach to...

That's the name of a new anti-Huckabee web site started by former Thompson staffer Darrel Ng. Jonathan Martin has more on the site: Now that his candidate is out of the race, one Thompson staffer has gone the next stop and is actively working against Huck. Sorta. Darrel Ng, perhaps the heartiest and most dogged of Thompson's aides and somebody who logged many a mile on the Fred bus, has launched a website called "Boycott Chuck Norris." Yup, Ng now wants people to show their disregard for Huck by not patronizing any companies that use Norris as a pitchman. The...

Oh boy one has to believe that Huckabee will be getting some blow-back from this. These push polls have even brought out the South Carolina Attorney General to make this statement: “Last evening the Associated Press reported that that an out-of-state special interest group, Common Sense Issues, had launched a massive push polling effort disparaging John McCain and other candidates for president. In their push poll, Common Sense Issues makes several misleading claims regarding John McCain’s record.“Allow me to set the record straight. In the U.S. Senate, John McCain has been an unwavering voice for the rights of the unborn....

Apparently, small government Republicans [Huckabee’s] aides are wary of New Hampshire. “It’s all no tax, no government there,” said Bob Wickers, a top strategist. “It’s not ideal.” But they believe that the message of economic anxiety that he preaches will help in Michigan’s primary on Jan. 15 and in states in the South, which have high poverty rates in addition to strong groups of social conservatives.” Mike Huckabee is skipping New Hampshire because it’s too fiscally conservative. Instructive, yes? Huckabee’s brand of identity politics is as dangerous as anyone else’s - after nearly eight years of a fiscally liberal Republican...

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is already attacking the politician who appears to be his chief rival in New Hampshire, Arizona Sen. John McCain. On MSNBC's Morning Joe, Romney attempted to spin the Iowa caucuses as a defeat for John McCain, lumping McCain with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton as the big losers. "The Washington insiders are being rejected," Romney said. Romney placed a distant second to former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. McCain and Fred Thompson were in a virtual tie for third. Romney continued to say that placing ahead of big-name candidates Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson, and McCain in Iowa...

Ed Rollins is a nasty, nasty piece of work. Here he was tonight on Fox News: Rollins: The wise men like you who say Huckabee doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in heck - well, he can still go out and take his message to the people. And we’ve seen all the wisdom doesn’t live in Washington, and all the wisdom doesn’t live in the press corps.” Wallace: You can accuse me of a lot of things, but I would note we’ve had Mike Huckabee on Fox News Sunday several times— Rollins: —and we’re very grateful for the opportunity to take...

Johnny Dollar’s got the video of that irascible Ed Rollins shooting off his mouth. Nothing serious. Usually when Rollins shoots off his mouth he finds himself in the unemployment line or wounding the candidate he alleges to support with friendly fire. The Man Who Helped Reagan Win 49 States ™ indeed. Yea. Take “Reagan” out of that bio and what’s left of Vallejo’s finest? Ed Rollins - guiding the gay, yet somehow married to Arianna, Michael Huffington to Senate defeat? The mastermind behind billionaire Ross Perot’s Presidency? Claiming that he bribed black ministers to suppress the black vote to help...

David Yepsen has a horrifically bad column in the Sunday Des Moines Register. In it, he distills each candidate down to the usual cliches of the leftist/"centrist" newspaper agenda: Mike Huckabee The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister has soared in the GOP race following his second-place finish in the Iowa Republican straw poll in August. He has rallied party social and religious conservatives as well as supporters of a big national sales tax to replace the income tax. He's a witty speaker and an affable politician whose criticisms of the nation's economic policies sound a lot like the populist...

Breaking with tradition for presidential candidates, Mike Huckabee is continuing to accept paid speaking engagements in the thick of his insurgent presidential campaign, although churches get a break from his usual fee of up to $25,000. It's not surprising that Huckabee, as a former Arkansas governor who has wowed audiences in debates, would charge for speeches. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, one of Huckabee's rivals for the nomination, made a fortune doing just that. But Giuliani and other major candidates have put their paid speaking careers completely on hold to focus on the flurry of early nominating contests. Huckabee,...

Somebody in the Huckabee camp made the mistake of insulting the leader of the conservative movement in the U.S., Rush Limbaugh. Rush responded on Friday's show and basically ripped the Huckabee camp a well-deserved new one. Whoever made the original comments clearly has not been paying attention. Some are questioning whether the Huckabee campaign can survive the shellacking it got on Friday's program. Huckabee is trying to stop the bleeding: SIOUX CITY, Iowa — The best-talking Republican politician in America has a message for the best-talking conservative voice in the country: Let's talk to one another. Mike Huckabee, taking questions...

After reading this question that was posed to Fred Thompson and his answer, I can't help but think it's a shame that he's not doing better in the campaign (h/t Instapundit): AKD: What will you do for the farmers of Bremer County? FT: (laughs) AKD: You knew this was coming, right? FT: I would continue to enjoy the fruits of their labor. I’ve been looking all over Iowa for a bad steak and I can’t find it. Been trying my best. It’s not a matter of what I would do for the farmers. Farmers are not looking for a president...

Mike Huckabee is still supporting illegal immigration: So what happened to Tom Tancredo’s Iowa supporters after his ‘big announcement’ earlier this week? We know that the former-candidate threw his support behind Mitt Romney, but on Friday Tancredo’s Iowa state chairman Bill Salier announced that he was supporting Fred Thompson. And while riding through Muscatine on the Huckabus this week, Mike Huckabee was confronted by a very well informed former Tancredo staffer who argued with the Iowa frontrunner over the issue of immigration. Deb Miller described herself as “looking” for a candidate after her old boss dropped out of the race,...

Almost as I'd thought. The endorsement of Rep. King has begun having an impact in the Iowa poll numbers and the Thompson campaign is on the move according to this latest Strategic Vision poll. - Huckabee -31% - Romney - 25% - Thompson - 16% The anomaly in this poll right now is Huckabee (another post on that later) who when this poll was taken was at 31%. I have not heard the entire show, however the internet is abuzz with Rush's cremation of Huckabee (and for good reason...again more on that later). Huckabee's numbers are going to plummet down...

Yesterday the news was full of a new poll showing Mitt Romney coming from nowhere to tie Rudy Giuliani for first place among Republicans nationally. The surprising NBC/Wall Street Journal poll,conducted between Dec. 14 and Dec. 16, showed Romney and Giuliani with 20% each, Huckabee with 17%, and the resurgent John McCain with 14%. Combine that with an Insider Advantage poll taken on Dec. 16 and Dec 17 showing Romney recapturing the lead in Iowa,with 28% to Huckabee's 25, and a Rasmussen Poll taken on Dec. 17, showing Huckabee's Iowa lead over Romney cut to only one per cent, and...

Stick a fork in him: With fewer than 20 days until the Iowa caucuses, three men in the Republican Party stand to get their tickets punched out of the Hawkeye State. While everything is still in flux, those likely winners will be Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson. Notably missing out on Iowa’s political rocket fuel is national frontrunner Rudy Giuliani. While most political insiders and pundits have known for months that Giuliani had no plans to compete in Iowa, the general American electorate probably does not. Known to not pay attention to the early political pontificating, the average...

That's right Huckbots, while Brian Pickrell does not rule out a Huckabee win, he claims that the race is really between Fred and Mitt. As a supporter of Mr. Thompson, I'll live with Mitt as well. According to Pickrell... I find it hard to believe that Huckabee is actually leading in the polls here in Iowa. Every person I spoke with told me that they’re supporting Romney or Thompson and that everyone they knew or worked with (who are also Republicans) feels the same way. None of them have even considered Huckabee as a serious choice. It could be a...

Yesterday I posed a question to Governor Huckabee about whether his new immigration proposal punishes children for the actions of their parents - something he decried just weeks ago in an exchange with Mitt Romney. Here's the response I received last night from Governor Huckabee: "Under my Secure America plan, immigrants and their families here illegally would have to return to their home countries. "Because we are talking about a policy that has profound implications for people's lives, I suspect that some people will attempt to use these hard cases to discredit the idea that anything can be done about...

In an obvious effort to diminish Huck, Fred gets off a line he wants Iowans to chew on in the weeks ahead: Citing a face-off with America's enemies, Thompson asks: "Who do you want sitting on our side representing you? "That ought to be who you elect president." Then, in an attempt to put his foot down on debate silliness, he refused to play along on the raise-your-hand-if line of questioning on global warming. "I’m not doing handshows today," Thompson said to applause. Not offered a full minute to respond, Thompson said, "Well, then I'm not going to answer it."...

Huckabee’s opinion on gay marriage is out there, but we should also be publicizing Huckabee’s opinions on heterosexual marriage. Specifically, what he believes about a women’s role in a marriage. In August of 1998, Huckabee was one of 131 signatories to a full page USA Today Ad which declared: “I affirm the statement on the family issued by the 1998 Southern Baptist Convention.” What was in the family statement from the SBC? “A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.” Read on… The...

A quick note about my various Huckabee postings. As many (most) readers know, I am supporting Fred Thompson in the Republican primary (and wrote an article explaining why in NRODT). This is not the reason why I have been posting so much that is critical of Huckabee, however. Rather, I find Huckabee's record and various positions to be particularly problematic, far more so than any of the other candidates. (Note I have not been posting items critical of the other candidates, even though I prefer Fred.) In my view, Huckabee is a big government populist liberal, not a conservative. In...

Mike Huckabee cannot be trusted on immigration matters. I'll say that again: Mike Huckabee cannot be trusted on immigration matters. In fact, just after releasing a plan that unfortunately took in some people, he now admitted on Fox News Sunday (link, video below) what I suspected: his plan includes a revolving door whereby former illegal aliens would leave the U.S. only to return within "days, maybe weeks" as legal workers. He didn't specify whether they'd just be coming back as "guest" workers with no chance at citizenship, but considering that he's supported a "pathway to citizenship" in the past, and...

State Sen. Eric Johnson was among the first prominent Georgians to jump on the Fred Thompson for President bandwagon. The Savannah Republican helped persuade dozens of state lawmakers to endorse the former Tennessee senator earlier this year. But he remained relatively quiet after Thompson officially entered the GOP race this summer. Until last week, that is. That was when Thompson slipped to fifth place in one national poll after doing only a little better in other recent ones. Earlier, he'd led in one national poll and stayed near the front of the pack in others. Against that backdrop, Johnson weighed...

Mike Huckabee’s just-announced plan to stop illegal immigration is about as tough as Fred Thompson’s. It includes the border fence and the employer verification measures that are important to pro-borders voters like me. NumbersUSA now gives Huckabee’s promises scores that are almost as good as the ones it gives Thompson’s. It’s heartening to see Huckabee move so far on this issue; as a governor, he was much more sympathetic to illegal aliens, even supporting special scholarships for them that were not available to US citizens. With Republican presidential candidates endorsing strong pro-borders measures, our prospects of getting the SAVE Act...

Ah jeez: Mike Huckabee has vaulted from nowhere into second place in the Republican presidential race, riding a burst of support from evangelicals, Southerners and conservatives, a poll showed Friday. The upsurge by the former Arkansas governor has come largely at the expense of Fred Thompson, according to the national survey by The Associated Press and Ipsos. Thompson has dropped after failing to galvanize the party's right-wing core as much as some had expected. Rudy Giuliani remains the front-runner, yet while his support long has been steady it shows signs of fraying. Huckabee's growing strength in the South has come...

In one of the toughest mailers to hit yet, Fred Thompson is going after Mike Huckabee on taxes in a piece that is hitting Iowa households. And he's doing so by using the ultimate GOP insult: comparing Huckabee to his fellow Hope native and former Arkansas governor. Thompson badly needs to move the needle in Iowa, and he and Huck are targeting the same voters. Voters who, to put it mildly, have minimal regard for the 42nd president.

If history matters to you, then voters should pick Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton and Republican Fred Thompson as their parties' presidential nominees. That's because they are the choice of America's social studies teachers. In a miniconvention sponsored by Pearson, the education and media giant, Clinton, the former first lady viewed as the most experienced in the field, was first with 41.9 percent, followed by Sen. Barack Obama with 34 percent and John Edwards at 12.3 percent. On the GOP side, Thompson, the actor and former Watergate prober, won 23.2 percent, followed by Rudy Giuliani at 20.5 percent and surging Mike...

Put a fork in the former fat boy - Huckabee is toast. Byron York has the more sympathetic piece on Huckabee's role in the parole of Wayne Dumond, the convicted rapist who was freed under Huckabee’s administration, only to rape and kill a woman in neighboring Missouri. Even presented sympathetically the story is ghastly - Wayne Dumond raped a seventeen year old cheerleader, then was assaulted and castrated while out on bail (although there is innuendo that the castration was self-inflicted.) Conservatives railed against an injustice (the cheerleader was a distant Clinton cousin). Huckabee promised to review the case with...

I guess IÂ’m not that surprised: some folks are using some underhanded push-polling to promote Huckabee. A newly-formed group claiming to support Mike Huckabee hit the phones of Iowa Republicans tonight with an automated push-poll attacking HuckabeeÂ’s GOP opponents and praising the former Arkansas governor. Officials representing the Iowa campaigns of Fred Thompson, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani all said that their supporters contacted them to complain about the calls. A spokesman for RomneyÂ’s campaign said they had gotten reports of calls, but did not know of anything negative being said about their candidate. It appears this group might be...

Carol Platt Liebau didn't care for the former Arkansas governor's debate performance. The invitation to appear on my show for as long an interview as the governor would like will be extended again, as the Huck Duck goes into week five. These exchanges from yesterday's "The Week" may explain why the governor has been avoiding conservative audiences: Huckabee Supports In-State Tuition Breaks For Illegals www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tKnV3_pbVI HUCKABEE: "But I'll tell you what I do believe, that you don't punish a child because a parent committed a crime or committed a sin. You just don't do that." STEPHANOPOULOS: And that's why you...

According to The Politico, New York Post columnist and FOX News contributor Dick Morris has been secretly advising former client Mike Huckabee on his Presidential campaign. Morris claims he is acting in an entirely voluntary capacity by simply offering free advice. Keep in mind that nationally syndicated columnist George Will was pilloried by the media when it became public that he had secretly and voluntarily helped Ronald Reagan prepare for his Presidential debates in 1980. A prominent national GOP insider tells Politics1 that he believes Morris -- despite his claims to the contrary -- is paid for his services through...

Rick Moran has a post up exploring Mike Huckabee’s record as Governor of Arkansas in which he concludes that although Huckabee is a social conservative he most certainly isn’t a ‘real’ conservative. “While Huckabee claims to have cut taxes 90 times totaling $378 million, the state’s Department of Finance and Administration says he also raised taxes 21 times that brought in a whopping $883 million,” Rick writes. “Under his ‘conservative’ governance, the ‘average Arkansan’s tax burden’ went “from $1,969 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 1997, to $2,902 in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2005, including...

Like noxious bugs swarming over a crumbling tenement, followers of Ron Paul have invaded the blogosphere. Their target is anyone who dares to criticize their hero. Bloggers have dealt with them in various ways. Some have tried banning them outright. Others allow readers to engage them in back-and-forth debates that can easily take a thread to several hundred responses. I used to find the Paulites annoying, but recently I had a revelation: Far from being scorned, Paul’s rabid fans should be welcomed and encouraged. We should do everything we can to make certain they keep pushing their man, sending him...

Mike Huckabee appeared tonight on CNN's The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and once again tried to laugh away his record as governor of Arkansas. Huckabee should stop cracking jokes about raising taxes and start taking responsibility for his actions. Excerpted quotes from Mike Huckabee on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, November 29, 2007 HUCK CHECK #1 : Huckabee claimed that if you dismantle the IRS and implement the Fair Tax, make "the federal government operate more efficiently...[and] get rid of a $10 billion industry." In reality, Huckabee's plan replaces one government bureaucracy with another. * Reality: "It is...

Falsehoods, exaggerations and stumbles Summary The CNN/YouTube debate among Republicans lacked any talking snowmen, but we did note a few false and misleading statements by the candidates. * Romney claimed New York called itself a “sanctuary city” for illegal aliens. It didn’t. * Giuliani denied New York actually was a “sanctuary city.” But the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has classified it as such, based on immigrant-friendly policies Giuliani still defends. * Huckabee claimed he would “abolish the IRS.” He failed to mention that he’d replace it with another big tax bureaucracy. * Huckabee said he had proposed to make children...

It’s still early in the process, and a lot can happen in the next few weeks, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to see how Rudy Giuliani’s campaign survives a series of early (and humiliating) defeats. In Iowa, Giuliani has gone from first to third, and he’s not done dropping yet. In New Hampshire, Giuliani is either a distant second possibly even third. And then there’s South Carolina, where Giuliani was, up until fairly recently, hanging onto to a first-place lead. Not anymore. On the heels of polls showing Rudy dropping fast in New Hampshire and out of contention in Iowa,...

"I just want to give my buddies here a little air time." -- Fred Thompson sounding like Ronald Reagan (after showing a video about Romney and Huckabee that would take the bark off the trees, and being told the others would have time to respond) ... Thompson's video utilized YouTube clips that have been circulating for quite some time on YouTube. Only this time, they are also being broadcast on CNN. My bet is getting this negative information out is a lot better use of his time than merely putting out some puff-piece ...

Huckabee's Record: Freed a Rapist Who Became a Killer, Destroyed Gov't Hard Drives, Raised Taxes, Misappropriated Funds Extremist Religious Views Appeal to Christian Nationalists But Will Repel Normal Voters in the General Dems Should Pray He's on the Ticket Recent polls show that Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas and Baptist preacher, is rising in popularity in Iowa, where he is cutting into Mitt Romney's lead. (Romney has 28 percent, Huckabee has 24 percent in the ABC news survey; Romney is at 27 percent and Huckabee's at 18 percent in the local KCCI-TV poll.) He's also moving up in...

According to MSNBC host Chris Matthews, 2008 Republican candidate Mike Huckabee has been given "the biggest free ride from the liberal media that I have ever seen in my life." Appearing on Monday's edition of "Morning Joe," the "Hardball" anchor speculated that left-wingers would enjoy seeing the GOP "chaos" that a Huckabee victory in Iowa would produce and, as a result, are ignoring the Republican's "crazy" views on gun control. Matthews derided as "black helicopter stuff," the former Arkansas governor's assertion that owning a gun gives Americans the ability to fight tyranny. "It sounds crazy," he told "Morning Joe" host...

Right Wing News emailed more than 240 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to answer 8 questions about the 2008 candidates. The following 61 blogs responded: The Absurd Report, David All Group, AtlanticBlog, The American Princess, Betsy's Page, Bit's Blog, BizzyBlog, Blogs of War, Blonde Sagacity, Bluey Blog, Boi From Troy, Bookworm Room, Keith Burgess-Jackson, Cassy Fiano, Dr. Melissa Clouthier, Cold Fury, Conservative Grapevine, Damian Penny, Dispatches from Blogblivion, Argghhhh!, Ed Driscoll, Eckernet, Musings, Fraters Libertas, Ian Schwartz, Jeff Gannon - A Voice of the New Media, Ghost of a Flea, (Michael) GOPUSA Northeast, (Hank) GOPUSA Northeast, GraniteGrok, Gocinatlanta, Guardian Watchblog,...

Republican presidential candidates have pulled out their knives for Mr. Nice Guy. A surprising surge of support for Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, who had long seemed a rank outsider in the 2008 presidential race has turned him into a target six weeks before voting in Iowa. The Times of London reports that “running on a shoestring budget as an affable conservative with unrivalled religious qualifications (he is a former Baptist minister), Huckabee has been previously dismissed as an under-funded no-hoper. He is mostly known for a quirky sense of humor and his skills on bass guitar -...

Here are some recent statements on the character and background of recent conservative favorite Mike Huckabee: Phyllis Shlafly, president of Eagle Forum: "He destroyed the conservative movement in Arkansas, and left the Republican Party a shambles ... Yet some of the same evangelicals who sold us on George W. Bush as a 'compassionate conservative' are now trying to sell us on Mike Huckabee." Betsy Hagan, Arkansas director of the Eagle Forum and a key backer of his early runs for office: "He was pro-life and pro-gun, but otherwise a liberal ... Just like Bill Clinton he will charm you, but...

I believe I represent the average Republican voter, or at least a significant slice of the R base. My positions - in no particular order - are as follows: Immigration - Amnesty is a deal breaker. If they are here illegally and we come into contact with them, send them home. Iraq - We were winning, we are winning, and we will win. The various pitfalls and difficulties that we have had do not equal defeat. We need a President to stand firm, and to fire all the traitors(I am not using this word lightly) in the State Department and...

FLIP FLOP ALERT! FLIP FLOP ALERT! CALLING ROMNEY OPPO TEAM! Earlier today, we linked coverage of The Huckster on Fox News, where he couldn't have been clearer that he opposes a state-by-state solution to abortion. This is to differentiate himself from Fred Thompson, who's taken that approach and thus, in effect, would permit abortion to remain legal in at least some states, regardless of how the Bush court might rule someday on Roe v. Wade. Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee rejects letting states decide whether to allow abortions, claiming the right to life is a moral issue not subject to...

Lately, Democrats have taken to showcasing the hallmark courage overflowing their party’s ranks. For instance, Senator Clinton has boldly unveiled her plan to fix the looming train wreck that is Social Security—namely, to dodge unveiling a plan to fix Social Security. Who knew? One-upping this bawdy exhibition of true grit, Senator Obama, presented his own daring strategy. His plan? “Tax the rich!” Brilliant! Of course, by “rich” he means you, through raising the payroll tax cap to get at even more of your income. How “innovative.” An added bonus: deepening the eventual crisis by reducing tax receipts, but that’s a...

The last month has been the best one of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. He appears to be emerging as a viable conservative alternative -- rising in polls in Iowa and finally putting together a serious fundraising effort. There's just one problem with this rosy scenario. And, its name is the Club For Growth. The Club, a D.C. based organization that proudly touts both its fiscal conservatism and its willingness to dabble in contested Republican primaries, seems intent on not allowing Huckabee to coalesce the Republican conservative base behind his candidacy. From the start...

Vic Snyder (D) 56%; Andy Mayberry (R) 42%

SOLVING THE GREAT PUSH POLL MYSTERY Push polls are to civilized political campaigns what terrorism is to international diplomacy. I have talked to many people in the Republican party about this push poll against Len Munsil, and they are very angry. I got one of the push poll calls myself, and it was obviously designed to make Goldwater look good and start a rumor campaign to make Len Munsil look bad. It was not only an attack on the candidate, Len Munsil, but also on his wife and eldest child, and that is unacceptable to people with any sense of...