Opinion: The Huckabee file: tough to check

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Increasingly buffeted by attacks from the Mitt Romney camp (here’s one of the latest), Mike Huckabee on Saturday responded in part by repeatedly urging reporters covering his Republican presidential campaign in Iowa to examine the details of his 10 years as governor of Arkansas.

One problem: His gubernatorial records are not publicly available.

Electronic records were destroyed by his aides as he left office (more about that here). And the paper records were donated to his college alma mater, which has not made them available.

The Times’ Joe Mathews visited that school, Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., where officials denied him access to the records and referred him to an attorney for Huckabee. Efforts to reach the attorney were unsuccessful.

When Mathews, at a campaign stop Saturday in Indianola, Iowa, asked Huckabee about the lack of access, one of the candidate’s media aides intervened. ‘We’re done here,’ she said, and escorted her boss from the room.

-- Don Frederick