Huckabee on religion and the government

HUCKABEE:  It’s been interesting that a lot of people have tried to read something into that ad that’s not there.  What’s there is, This is who I am.  I’m not saying anything about who somebody else is or who somebody else isn’t.  I’m trying to describe what I’m about, what drives my decisions, and that was the sole purpose of the ad.

I appreciate you showing it, and if you want to show it a few more times, feel free to do it.  We need the attention.

MATTHEWS: If I was the most fiscally conservative senator in the United States Senate or I had an ACA rating of 100 percent, that would be selling points.  I just want to know why is “Christian leader” a selling point for Mike Huckabee?

HUCKABEE:  Well, it’s a selling point only in that it’s a description of who I am.  You know, if I watch promos of "Hardball," we’re going to see things like “hard-hitting” or “truth telling.”  Does that mean that you’re the only person on television that tells the truth, that you’re the only one that has hard-hitting questions?  I think it’s a description of your show.

These are labels that are descriptive of who I am.  I think it’s a perfectly legitimate way to introduce myself to the voters of Iowa.

MATTHEWS:  But would it be appropriate for Joe Lieberman, who ran on the ticket of the Democratic Party in 2000 to say, “Jewish leader”? 

Would that seem right to you?

HUCKABEE:  It would be perfectly fine.  In fact, I would appreciate it.  I think Joe Lieberman is a tremendous individual.  I think one of the things that endear me most to him and that causes me to have enormous respect for him is that he is a person who not only believes his faith, he practices it.  And he practices it in not a showy way but in an honest, sincere way.  And Joe Lieberman is one of my favorite Democrats.  I wish he were a Republican, quite frankly.

MATTHEWS:  So when the Constitution says no religious test shall ever be used as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States, that phrase in the Constitution means what to you?

HUCKABEE:  It means just what it says, there shouldn’t be a religious test.  There’s no requirement that a person has a religious at all.  It may have been on your program, Chris, that a few weeks ago, we talked about Pete Stark, an avowed atheist. 

My point that day, and I’ll say it again, I’d rather have a person serving in Congress who’s an avowed atheist who’s honest about it than a person who tries to pretend he’s a Christian when he doesn’t live like it and he’s filled with hate and venom and anger toward people.

That’s hardly consistent with the Christian Gospel.

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