Candidate defends his foreign policy credentials
Clarifies remarks on issue of illegal immigration
By Charlie Savage
Globe Staff / December 29, 2007

PELLA, Iowa -Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee yesterday defended his foreign policy credentials, following sharp scrutiny of his response to the recent instability in Pakistan and a fresh attack ad by rival Mitt Romney.

During a campaign stop at the Pizza Ranch, a restaurant in central Iowa, the former Arkansas governor explained why he had emphasized the issue of illegal immigration in response to the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto on Thursday.

Huckabee said many Americans don't understand how events "halfway around the world" affect them, so he was trying to bring the issue closer to home by focusing on the threat that Pakistani terrorists might sneak across the southern border.

"The fact is that the immigration issue is not so much about people coming to pick lettuce or make beds, it's about someone coming with a shoulder-fired missile," Huckabee told reporters during a news conference after the rally.

Romney criticized Huckabee's remarks, saying it was wrong to lump Pakistanis in with Al Qaeda terrorists.

"It's very important for us to show solidarity with the people of Pakistan and not suggest in some way that Pakistanis are terrorists," Romney told reporters while riding a campaign bus in Iowa, adding, "They've been attacked. They're not the perpetrators of the attack."

Huckabee demurred when asked to name people he would consider appointing to key foreign policy positions in his cabinet were he to be elected president. But he listed several figures with whom he said he has been consulting on foreign policy issues, including John Bolton, President Bush's hawkish former ambassador to the United Nations.

Huckabee also mentioned Bolton at a campaign stop in West Des Moines late Thursday, saying: "I've corresponded with John Bolton, who's agreed to work with us on developing foreign policy."

But The Politico magazine reported yesterday that Bolton denied having spoken to Huckabee. "I'd be happy to speak with Huckabee but I haven't spoken with him yet," Bolton told the magazine.

The Huckabee campaign told The Politico that Huckabee and Bolton had exchanged e-mails.

Huckabee's rivals have sought to capitalize on the unrest in Pakistan by portraying Huckabee, who has surged to the top of the polls with less than a week before the Iowa caucuses, as lacking the foreign policy experience to be president.

Arizona Senator John McCain cited the Pakistan situation to declare that his foreign policy experience makes him the best qualified candidate for president among the Republican field.

And in Iowa, Romney yesterday unveiled a new TV ad attacking Huckabee's foreign policy credentials, among other matters.

Huckabee in turn had harsh words for Romney, accusing his rival of resorting to "negative, nasty, untrue dishonest advertising."

And last night, Huckabee hit the Iowa airwaves with two new TV ads, one extolling his record as Arkansas governor and tying it to the vision of the Founding Fathers, the other decrying attack ads against him as desperate and dishonest.

Huckabee has faced sharp criticism over his readiness to handle foreign policy matters ever since he appeared to be unaware earlier this month that a recent national intelligence estimate had concluded that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

Following the Bhutto assassination, Huckabee also suggested that the crisis could lead to martial law "continuing" in Pakistan. In fact, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf had lifted martial law on Dec. 15.

At his news conference late Thursday, Huckabee explained that he meant that the Pakistan government was continuing to use some repressive measures, even though martial law had been formally lifted.

Michael Levenson of the Globe staff contributed to this report.


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