Like every other potential presidential candidate, Republican Mike Huckabee has told reporters that he will decide early next year on making a second try for the White House.
Well, early next year, as a galley of his newest book, due out Jan. 20, has landed at Secrets and offers the strongest indications yet that Huckabee’s getting in.
The first hint is the book’s release date. Presidents are inaugurated on Jan. 20 following their election.
The second is the former Arkansas governor’s sneering paragraphs about Washington. “I feel out of place in Washington,” he pens in “God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy.”
“For a city where everyone sure is in a hurry and acts busy, nothing productive ever happens there,” he adds before showing his hand. “Some people think that because I’m involved in politics, I surely must live there. I don’t. In fact, there’s only one address in that city that I’d probably want to relocate to.”
The parts of “God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy” previewed for Secrets reveal a colorful and agenda-filled campaign book that fits well with Huckabee’s down-home style. He touches on many issues, ranging from gun control to the name of the Washington Redskins.
And his attack on the Internal Revenue Service will give him a popular issue to prove he’s an outsider — and win headlines. “The IRS has become a criminal enterprise,” he writes. “It ruins lives, all in the name of being a ‘service.’ Calling the IRS a ‘service’ is like calling your taxes ‘voluntary contributions.’ ”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
