Let's Explode At Least One Huckabee Myth

One of the things Huckabee touts on the stump is that he beat the Clinton machine twice. But is that true? Not really ... not even close.

In 1992, in Huckabee's first political race, he lost to incumbent U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers (D), receiving 40 percent of the vote in the general election. That same election saw Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton ascend to the Presidency, meaning that Lieutenant Governor Jim Guy Tucker became the new Governor. Huckabee narrowly won a special election for lieutenant governor on July 27, 1993. He defeated Nate Coulter, who had been Bumpers' campaign manager the previous year.

Dick Morris, who had previously worked for Bill Clinton, advised Huckabee on his race in 1993, and again in 1994 when Huckabee ran for re-election. Huckabee commented that Morris was a "personal friend".

And the trick to winning the Lt. Governorship? Running a progressive campaign, courtesy of Dick Morris - part of the Clinton Machine back then.

A newspaper article reported on Huckabee's 1993 win: "Morris said the mistake Republicans always make is that they are too much of a country club set. What we wanted to do was run a progressive campaign that would appeal to all Arkansans.'" Morris elaborated, "So we opened the campaign with ads that characterized Mike as more of a moderate whose values were the same as those of other Arkansans."

In 1994, Huckabee was re-elected to a full term as lieutenant governor, beating Democrat Charlie Cole Chaffin with nearly 59% of the vote.

He walked into the governorship because of the Whitewater scandal. The truth is, Huckabee didn't beat the Clinton Machine ... between Morris and Whitewater, it beat itself.

In 1996, Huckabee ran for U.S. Senate again, winning the Republican nomination. But in May 1996 he announced he would quit the race and would instead fill the unexpired term of Tucker. Tucker had announced that he would resign in July while appealing a federal conviction in the Whitewater scandal.

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[ec1009]

NIT PICK: Jim Guy Tucker, no F.O.B., was indicted on corruption charges completely unrelated to Whitewater. Starr's prosecuters investigated every scrap of paper in Arkansas government in an attempt to get something on the Clintons and stumbled accross Tucker's own shady dealings.