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'Club for Growth' Takes Second Hit at Huckabee
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ShareSeptember 12, 2007 4:43 PM
ABC News' Jake Tapper and Kevin Chupka report: The economic conservatives at the Club for Growth took the unusual step of launching a website -- "Tax Hike Mike!" -- against a second-tier Republican presidential candidate: former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
The site claims to highlight Huckabee's "tax and spend" record during his ten-and-a-half year tenure as Governor of Arkansas and is comprised of videos and reposted articles. One such article even compares Huckabee, an anti-abortion Baptist Minister, to fellow one-time Arkansan Hillary Clinton.
On the ABC News Shuffle podcast Wednesday, Huckabee dismissed the website and the organization, which he called the "Club for Greed."
"I just don't have much respect for an organization who basically is a front for whoever will write them a great big check and then allow them to do the dirty work and do it for some anonymous donor," he said. "And that's the way they operate."
Huckabee said that the group's charges have been discredited by news organizations that judged that "instead of being a tax hiker I was a tax cutter." Asked about two of the tax hikes the Club for Growth blamed on him, Huckabee said that he refused to sign the 1996 sales tax increase but a veto-proof majority of the Arkansas legislature was able to pass it into law without his signature. As for the 1999 gas tax increase, Huckabee pointed out that citizens of the state voted for that hike to improve state roads.
This is not the first time the Club for Growth has gone after the former Governor.
In the run up to the August 12th Iowa straw poll the group spent close to $100,000 on a TV ad campaign painting Huckabee as an economic liberal, with one such add citing higher taxes on gas, groceries and even nursing home equipment. Huckabee has insinuated that supporters of one of the other Republican candidates are likely behind the ads but has refused to comment on specifically which campaign he suspected it might have been.
September 12, 2007 in Thompson, Fred | Permalink | User Comments (3)
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I lost a lot of weight like Huckabee. I did it because I wanted to, not by government mandates he's suggesting. He's a phony. Big moralist government. Same old Republican and Democratic song.
Posted by: Michael | Sep 12, 2007 4:54:32 PM
I have not heard any of Huckabee's positions on the issue of global poverty or what he thinks about the introduction of the global poverty act in congress. With 1.2 billion people in the world living under 1 dollar a day, it is important our candidates address that.
Posted by: Erica | Sep 12, 2007 5:38:39 PM
Huckabee will do the one single thing that the citizens of our nation need most... Get rid of the IRS and put a flat tax on consumer goods.
If you want to talk about invasion of privacy - and violation of the constitution... He is the only one to truly address it in a real way that affects us all... don't you want to get the government out of our households and our pocket books once and for all. Voting for Huckabee would actually be like voting for your independence and freedom from a bloated government. The government would get more money if the economy does good and less money if it's not doing so good... just like the rest of the citizens the government represents. Does that not make sense? Use a little logic people!!!
Posted by: Charlie | Sep 12, 2007 10:39:50 PM
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