Huckabee: I'm Serious and Informed

GRINNELL, Iowa, Jan. 3, 2008— -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee rejected the notion that his mistaken belief that he would not be crossing a picket line to appear on "The Tonight Show" last night — along with his mistaken belief that Pakistan had not yet lifted martial law and his admission that he knew nothing about a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's nuclear program — meant that he was less informed and serious than a presidential candidate should be.

"I'm a very serious candidate. I'm very informed," Huckabee said, "and the fact is we had talked to the Leno people and they had an agreement with the president of the Writers' Guild that they were not going to bring replacement writers in, and the strike is really against the producers and the network, not against Jay Leno. What Jay Leno did is put 160 people back to work and, you know, make sure that they have a living."

Huckabee, who expressed support for the writers in their strike against Hollywood producers, suggested Wednesday that he didn't think he would be crossing a picket line because he believed that "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" "had been given some special dispensation." But when he arrived in Los Angeles, angry strikers greeted him with signs expressing disappointment.

Actor Jon Cryer from CBS's "Two and a Half Men" was one of them, saying, "I am actually a conservative at heart, and I didn't have anything against him until today. It says something about the governor's character if he is willing to do something that a lot of people consider to be immoral, to get publicity just before the caucuses."

Huckabee suggested it was "not a matter of not knowing" he would be crossing the picket line. "It's a matter of how people want to interpret and have come to view different events taking place."

As to the larger issue, Huckabee said he was "more than aware of the things that are important. And the thing that I'm aware of the most is that there are a lot of people in Iowa who want a president who's concerned about them and concerned about their job losses and concerned about their future."