Back in October, in one of the debates for Republican presidential candidates, Mike Huckabee bragged that of the “56 brave people” who signed the Declaration of Independence, “most…were clergymen.” As it turns out, Huckabee didn’t know what he was talking about — only one of the 56 was an active minister at the time. Huckabee later conceded his mistake.
Apparently, his new campaign chairman, Ed Rollins, missed the incident two months ago, because he offered a similar argument yesterday on CNN. (via Michael D.)
DOBBS: I have never, perhaps you have, but never in my experience have I seen so many candidates talking about God in a primary campaign and in a general election, I presume and it will remain there. How comfortable are you with that and is it appropriate for God to be in religion and faith to be this prominent in a secular campaign for president?
ROLLINS: You go back to the signing of the Constitution I think 26 of the people that signed it were ministers.
Granted, we’ve already seen plenty of more egregious errors of fact and judgment from the Huckabee campaign, but if they’re going to keep throwing around these numbers, we might as well set the historical record straight.
There were 40 signers of the U.S. Constitution, and one — not 26 — was a minister.
Besides, the response was a bit of a non-sequitur anyway — the question was about the role of near-constant religious rhetoric in a presidential campaign. Rollins’ ignorance of history is amusing, but it would have been far more helpful if he at least tried to answer a reasonable question.
And speaking of Huckabee and Rollins, yesterday’s announcement of the GOP consultant joining the former governor’s campaign was, at least to me, a little odd. For one thing, CNN carried the press conference live. Is Rollins so well known that his joining Huckabee’s campaign is worthy of breakaway, live coverage? He’s just a controversial political consultant who hasn’t won a race in a while.
That said, if the hiring of candidates’ consultants is going to be this big a story, maybe Huckabee could comment a little on his new buddy’s past.
Mike Huckabee, who sometimes seems to be running his presidential race entirely on his own, has finally found himself some high-profile professional help in the form of longtime GOP political consultant Ed Rollins.
Ed Rollins? Yes, that would be the same Ed Rollins who worked briefly — a lot of people did — for flame-out Florida Senate candidate Katherine Harris. More to the point, it’s the same Ed Rollins who boasted in 1993 that his client, Christine Todd Whitman, had won the governor’s race in New Jersey because the campaign had paid black ministers not to sermonize on behalf of Democratic Gov. Jim Florio and had given people who were supposed to be getting out the vote for Florio some “walking around money” to stay home instead.
Rollins is known for having managed Reagan’s 1984 landslide victory, though, just between you and me, that wasn’t too tough a race, and Rollins’ strategy probably wasn’t the deciding factor. Since then, his high-profile clients include Michael Huffington’s Senate campaign in California (huge loss), Kathleen Harris’s Senate campaign in Florida (huge loss), and Ross Perot’s presidential campaign (huge loss).
And in his big recent victory, in 1993, he bragged about illegally paying voters to stay home and “watch television.”
I’m sure Huckabee is very proud.