Fournier: Huckabee Has ‘An Ethics Record That Would Make A Clinton Blush’

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Ron Fournier goes after Mike Huckabee in the National Journal.

Behind former Gov. Mike Huckabee’s warm smile, inclusive rhetoric, and gee-whiz populism lies an ethics record that would make a Clinton blush. His greedy, cheesy money grabs as governor in Arkansas were a preview of today’s greedy, cheesy money grabs.

As part of what The New York Times called “unconventional ways to fund a campaign,” the newly minted GOP presidential candidate recently pitched a dubious medical treatment via infomercial.

“Let me tell you, diabetes can be reversed,” Huckabee says. “I should know, because I did it. Today you can, too.”

No you can’t. The American Diabetes Association and the Canadian Diabetes Association caution consumers against treatments like the one sold by the company Huckabee represents.

But that’s not all! Huckabee is allowing his mailing list—the names and email addresses of his political supporters—to be used to peddle cancer cures based on Bible verses.

In Arkansas, we called him “The Huckster.” As veteran Little Rock columnist Max Brantley wrote for Salon in 2007, the former Baptist preacher “revealed an enduring weakness as glaring as that other Arkansas governor’s fondness for women.”

…But wait! There’s more. “Three decades after the Huckabees’ wedding,” Brantley wrote, “his wife registered at department stores so their new home, post-governor’s mansion, could be stocked with gifts of linens, toasters, and other suitable furnishings.”

Say what you want about Bill and Hillary Clinton’s ethical corner-cutting after they left Arkansas (or scroll my diatribes here), their conduct in the 1980s and early 1990s never approached Huckabee’s depths. They didn’t use the governor’s office as a personal ATM. They didn’t trade on the public’s trust.

Gov. Bill Clinton registered historic ethics reform.

Gov. Mike Huckabee registered at Target.

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D.B. Hirsch

D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.