Opinion: TV Repartee
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We’ve got to give MSNBC’s Chris Matthews props for being especially fast on his feet during an interview on his ‘Hardball’ show Monday night with Mike Huckabee, who in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination seems more and more to allude to his pre-political career as a Baptist minister.
Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, was touting his ability to bring people together when the following exchange occurred:
Matthews: ‘Rudy Giuliani wins your party nomination --- a pro-choicer, a guy is open to gay rights, and has other liberal positions. And he comes to you, Mike Huckabee, and says, I need a governor on the ticket with me.’
Huckabee: ‘If you give me a couple of hours with Rudy, I think I will have him pro-life, pro-guns, and get his whole position straight on these issues.’
Matthews: ‘Who are you, Saint Augustine?’
Huckabee: ‘I am in the conversion business, Chris. I think we can do it. So, that’s what I will say.’
Matthews: ‘So, you must have gotten to [Mitt] Romney a few years ago’
Romney’s continuing inability to shed the ‘flip-flopper’ image, due to past positions on social issues that are more liberal than his current rhetoric, was spotlighted last week in a report by David Brody, senior national correspondent for the Christian Broadcasting Network. It concerns an answer the former Massachusetts governor gave in New Hampshire when challeneged about his views by a gay parent.
-- Don Frederick