Huckabee Steps Up Attack on Romney

Dec. 19, 2007— -- WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- With some of the strongest language he's ever used -- words such as "ruthless," "dishonest," "desperate" -- Mike Huckabee, the normally sunny former governor of Arkansas criticized his chief challenger in Iowa, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has been attacking him fiercely in person, in TV ads and in mailings as Huckabee passes him in polls here.

"He's been attacking me just ruthlessly in the mail and on television and distorting the record," Huckabee told a throng of reporters in a mall parking lot. "And I think we need to get the record straightened up. And get the truth out. ... The attacks have been desperate, and I think they've been dishonest."

Asked if his and Romney's fighting might not create an opening for a third candidate, Huckabee smiled. "I don't plan to fight with him. He's throwing punches and I'm saying Merry Christmas."

"You need to look at this with some sense of sympathy," he continued. "Here's a guy who has outspent me 20-to-1 here, and he's behind."

Huckabee suggested that Romney's attacks on him have backfired, that "the negative attack ads have had the opposite effect of what was intended." But the fact that he felt the need to respond to Romney's attacks seemed to imply that Huckabee was concerned the attacks were having an effect.

"I wanted to clarify because there are some simple things on those that are either dishonest or misleading," Huckabee said.

Romney and former Sen. Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., have criticized Huckabee for arguing that the Bush administration has at times shown "an arrogant bunker mentality."

Huckabee said that both candidates have expressed misgivings about Bush policies as well, but he defended his remarks. "We need to have the kind of policies more that resembled when his father was president. When we didn't say that if you're not with us right now, our way, then that means you're with the enemy."