Huckabee jabs Giuliani, Romney
Posted: Saturday, October 20, 2007 5:16 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
2008, Giuliani, Huckabee, Romney
From NBC/NJ's Matthew E. Berger
Huckabee took swipes at the changing positions of
Giuliani and
Romney Saturday,
telling the Family Research Council's Values Voter Summit that he is
“one not who comes to you, but one who comes from you.”
“I believe that there are many who will seek our support,” he said.
“But let me say it is important that people sing from their hearts and
don’t merely lip-sync the lyrics to our songs.”
Huckabee's message of faith-based politics won numerous standing
ovations from the crowd of social conservatives. The mere mention of
his name by the forum’s emcee brought the audience to its feet.
“I don’t want ever for us to let expediency or electability replace our
principles as the new values,” he said. “The new value needs to be the
old values.”
Speaking after Giuliani talked about his Catholic school upbringing, Huckabee preceded a long list of Biblical verses by saying he had maintained the teachings of his youth. “Most of you, probably like me," Huckabee said, "grew up being tutored in Sunday school, and I don’t know about you, but I never outgrew some of that. I don’t guess I outgrew any of it.”
Huckabee also said faith is threatened by candidates whose words of faith are a “recently acquired second language."
“It’s important that a person doesn’t have more positions on issues than Elvis had waist sizes,” he said, seeming to attack Romney.
He also spoke of the need for immigration reform, tax reform, and energy independence from Middle East oil. And he spoke to strong applause on gay marriage and abortion, stressing his positions were in keeping with “the holy word of God."
“Families are threatened because there are some who want to redefine what marriage means,” Huckabee said. “I don’t think there is a one of us in this place that can accept a compromise and a negotiation on the fact that marriage still means one man, one woman, life partners. That’s what it always meant.”
On abortion, he said he would like to replicate his work in Arkansas to make “constitutionally clear that life begins at conception.”
