Huckabee on registry reportage: For shame
Posted on Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Gov. Mike Huckabee on Tuesday ripped news reporters for writing about gift registries in his and his wife's names for a housewarming party for their recently purchased halfmillion-dollar home in North Little Rock.
The registries are on the Internet at Target and Dillard's Web sites under "weddings."It's the "Janet Huckabee and Michael Huckabee's Club Wedd Registry"at Target and "Welcome to the wedding registry of: Janet Huckabee and Michael Huckabee"at Dillard's.
The governor accused news media of being "tools"for Arkansas Times Editor Max Brantley, who runs a blog that discussed the registries and who has been a longtime critic of Huckabee.
Huckabee said the registries weren't any different from gift lists for a wedding shower or a baby shower.
He said anyone, when told that the affair was put on by his wife's friends, should have no problem with the registries.
"If a person doesn't have an invitation to an event, there's not a reason in the world why this should have anything to do with them,"Huckabee said.
He said he didn't know which individuals organized the party. He said he wasn't involved.
"Did you go to your wife's baby shower? Answer my question. Did you?"Huckabee asked an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reporter who, along with an Associated Press reporter, questioned him about the registries after an event at the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce. "My point is men don't go to their wives' showers."
He linked the news articles on the registries to the blog of the Times, a weekly newspaper in Little Rock. The Democrat-Gazette, the AP and Stephens Media wrote articles in recent days about the registries.
"I think you let Max Brantley and a blog, a gossip tabloid, create a story for you, and that's really sad,"Huckabee told the reporters. "This isn't a story that originated from your own investigative skills. This came because there was somebody who has tried on every and any occasion he can to find something nefarious in everything I do. You allowed yourselves to become his tools and to let him lead you into a story that doesn't even really exist."
Brantley said he found Huckabee's complaints "kind of amusing."He said he can't imagine why the registries wouldn't be news.
"I haven't talked to anybody who doesn't think that a grown couple letting others, if that be the case, set up a registry to give gifts to an outgoing public official is not comment-worthy,"Brantley said. "The public response to [the news articles on the registries ] indicates that's correct."
He summed up Huckabee allegations as "the stuck pig squeals."
Brantley added," I wish I had the influence Gov. Huckabee presumes I had. I don't think the state's largest newspaper, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; the world's largest news-gathering organization, the AP; or Stephens Media makes their news judgment on anything but what seems newsworthy to their editors."
Griffin Smith, executive editor of the Democrat-Gazette, said," I assigned our story on its own merits because I thought the idea of the governor and his wife having gift registries on the Internet was newsworthy, especially since they've been married 32 years and the gifts were said to be for their 'wedding.' I wasn't aware Arkansas Times had done anything one way or the other about it."
Robert Shaw, bureau chief of the Arkansas AP in Little Rock, said," We think it's a story, or we wouldn't have reported it. Our reporter was doing his job."
Huckabee said disclosure of the registry has "done a real disservice to the people of this state because what you've done is create the impression that my wife has gone out and solicited gifts, which is absolutely untrue."
He said he didn't know whether his wife put together the lists of items on the registries.
"My wife has friends,"Huckabee told reporters. "I know you may find that very difficult to believe, but she actually has lifelong friends, some from high school, quite a few from church. They wanted to do something for her. It has nothing to do with who she is other than she is their friend."
Huckabee said reporters should have written the "real"story.
He wouldn't give interviews on the subject Monday. News outlets instead quoted Huckabee's spokesman, Alice Stewart, saying that the party was being arranged by the first lady's friends. Stewart wouldn't answer specific questions Monday.
Huckabee cited no inaccuracies with the reporting of the registries. Asked how the registries were misrepresented, he cited critical quotes from legislators.
He said the Democrat-Gazette went "trolling through the Legislature"for quotes.
Tuesday, one legislator stopped by the Capitol pressroom to jokingly ask whether the governor planned to "register his dog at PetSmart."
On Monday, Senate President Pro Tempore Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, an ally of Huckabee's on public-school issues the past few years, said people have commented to him that the registries were "unbecoming"of a governor.
Last week Sen. Gilbert Baker, R-Conway, the chairman of the state Republican Party, said he saw nothing wrong with it.
"I'm glad you let me know about it so I can get online and buy him something,"Baker told Stephens Media.
The governor's salary is about $ 80, 000 a year, and he has had few living expenses in his decade as governor, since the state pays for his food, provides a vehicle and lets him live for free at the Governor's Mansion.
In July, the Huckabees bought a house in North Little Rock at 1134 Silverwood Trail for $ 525, 000. Royalties from the governor's book, Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork, released in May 2005, allowed the Huckabees to make a down payment and get a bank loan to buy a house of that size, he said at the time.
Huckabee, a Republican, has been governor since 1996. He was term-limited from seeking re-election this year. Attorney General Mike Beebe, a Democrat, won the election for governor this year and will be sworn in Jan. 9.
Huckabee said his wife initially told her friends she didn't want to have a registry but "they insisted. If you guys want to report on something, she encouraged the mansion association to set aside $ 10, 000 for the new first lady for transition expenses into the Governor's Mansion. She just knows that it would be a gracious thing for the incoming first lady if she wants to paint walls or change colors or get something else done."
Mansion administrator Don Bingham didn't immediately return a message late Tuesday about the details of that and whether the new first lady, Ginger Beebe, wouldn't have been able to make adjustments to the decor of the mansion without that $ 10, 000.
Janet Huckabee, in a brief telephone interview with the Democrat-Gazette later Tuesday, said news articles about the registries have done "permanent damage."She said the housewarming was a "private matter. Down South they give housewarming parties like this."
Asked why the Huckabees couldn't buy items themselves, the first lady said," I can buy any towel I want. That's not the purpose. It's like having a birthday. It's a congratulations. Conversation over."
At the sites where the registries are listed as "weddings,"the only other option is for a baby.
Gov. Huckabee said the registries were under weddings because it would have looked silly to place them under babies.
There is an exemption to the state's gift rules for wedding gifts.
The Ethics Commission considers a gift to be something valued at more than $ 100. Gifts are banned if they are meant to reward a public official for doing his job.
The combined value of the items on the two registries was about $ 7, 000. Items included a toaster, duvets, pillows, a juicer, a mixer and dishes.
The governor said he would disclose the givers of the gifts if the law requires that he do so. Gifts worth more than $ 100 must be reported.
Huckabee acknowledged that public scrutiny is "part of the deal"of being governor.
The registries are available to the public on the Internet, but Huckabee said the registries weren't meant for public consumption.
"There are hundreds of thousands of Web sites,"Huckabee said. "I'm not obligated to act on one. You portrayed that this Web site existed so that people can look and make a response."
Huckabee told reporters that his wife is entitled to have friends.
"Apply to her what you would want applied to your own wives,"Huckabee said. "If this is something you'd be comfortable with and you'd be happy with, you know what, you go ahead and you write the stories."
As he walked away from reporters, Huckabee was reminded that he could have avoided questions if he didn't have the registries.
"You have a great day,"Huckabee said. "You tell [your wives ] how much you appreciate all they do for you. Feel good about what you do for a living."
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