Huckabee's Rapid Response Director Addresses The Media En Masse, Apologizes To Club For Growth

Joe Carter, Mike Huckabee's new research director and the man tasked with responding to all those Club for Growth/Arkansas-media oppo dumps against his boss, just e-mailed his media contacts with a missive that's both a plea for patience and a road map to the defensive scheme the Huckabee team will use.

This is only my second day as head of research and rapid response for the Huckabee campaign but I’ve already learned some valuable lessons.

The first thing I learned is that I’m apparently not spamming your inboxes nearly enough. If Jonah Golberg’s experience is any indication (http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmRjMTIwNmNmODMzN2Y0NzE4ZTMwNzY1YjA5Nzk4ZTY=) then I haven’t been keeping you adequately informed about the minutia of Gov. Huckabee’s campaigning. To be honest, I don’t know what he had for lunch, what he’s doing in the next ten minutes, or whether he has a hangnail. All I know is that he’s busy winning over the hearts and minds of voters in Iowa and South Carolina.

The second thing I found is that I currently don’t have the stomach for nit-picky, negative sniping at other GOP candidates. I’m sure I’ll get there; maybe by day 13 or so. If not, then I’ll have shown that I don’t have a future in politics. But until that day comes I thought I’d focus on selling my candidate instead of knocking the others.

So here’s what I propose: Send me the tough questions you have about Gov. Huckabee. It may take me a few days but I’ll give you an answer that I hope you’ll find sufficiently candid and detailed. I don’t expect to win everyone over (e.g., If you think a 7/8-cent sales tax increase to fix dilapidated highways is the sign of a “fiscal liberal” then I’m out of luck) but I do think I can clear up a lot of the misperceptions and faulty labels that are floating around.

And if I can’t sell a solid fiscal, social, and security conservative like Mike Huckabee, then I really don’t have a future in politics.

Thanks,

-Joe

Earlier today, Carter apologized to the Club for Growth -- they were not, he said, "dishonest hacks" -- and promised a substantive reply to their charges very soon.