Hunter shocks with Huckabee endorsement

I was doing my daily read of Michelle Malkin’s site and came across the surprising news that Duncan Hunter has endorsed Mike Huckabee for President. According to CNN, who probably is as floored as anyone that Duncan Hunter endorsed one of their few favorite Republicans, this is what Hunter had to say:

“I got to know Governor Huckabee well on the campaign trail,” Huckabee (sic) said in a statement. “Of the remaining candidates I feel that he is strongly committed to strengthening national defense, constructing the border fence and meeting the challenge of China’s emergence as a military superpower that is taking large portions of America’s industrial base.

“Along with these issues of national security, border enforcement and protecting the U.S. industrial base, I see another quality of Mike Huckabee’s candidacy that compels my endorsement,” he added. “Mike Huckabee is a man of outstanding character and integrity. I saw that character over the last year of campaigning and was greatly impressed. The other Republican candidates have many strengths and I wish them all well.”

I’m not certain I agree with Duncan’s assessment, but I can see some logic in this. With that in mind though I’d love to know whether this would have changed had Fred Thompson stayed in the race. Huckabee may have been the least of all evils.

Let’s start with John McCain. While Hunter shared a military background with McCain, they part ways on the whole issue of immigration and border security, along with the area of taxation, since McCain wasn’t in favor of the Bush tax cuts initially.

Rudy Giuliani wouldn’t have fit well with Hunter since Giuliani is much more liberal on social issues than Hunter. Duncan was one candidate who advocated a Human Life Amendment to the Constitution, which incidentally is also part of Huckabee’s agenda.

With Hunter’s idea of projecting military power against a number of foes from without as part of a strong national defense, the isolationism of Ron Paul wouldn’t have appealed to Hunter, particularly Paul’s stance on Iraq.

That leaves Mitt Romney, who seemed to be the consensus endorsement choice of those commenting on Malkin’s site. But a business deal precludes any chance of an endorsement here. This press release was issued from Hunter’s campaign back on November 30:

Presidential candidate and U.S. Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) again called on Bain Capital, a company founded by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, to drop its strategic partnership with Chinese defense contractor Huawei Technologies in a bid to buy U.S. defense contractor 3Com.  Hunter also called on Romney to use his continued influence with Bain to terminate the proposed merger between Huawei and 3Com, which, according to a report in today’s Washington Times, would threaten U.S. national security.

“As the founder of Bain Capital, Governor Romney has an obligation to utilize his influence within the company to terminate the proposed merger between 3Com and Chinese defense contractor Huawei,” said Hunter. “In light of China’s refusal to port several American naval vessels last week, it is increasingly more important that American military technology be protected from foreign companies, such as Huawei, that are closely aligned with the Chinese government.”

The Washington Times reported today that U.S. intelligence agencies informed the CFIUS review committee, responsible for examining proposed foreign investment transactions, that a merger between 3Com and Huawei would threaten America’s national security. 3Com presently performs vital cyber-security work for the Department of Defense.

“This proposed deal, which Governor Romney can work to terminate should he choose to do so, is unpatriotic and damaging to national security,” continued Hunter. As further detailed in a resolution introduced in the House of Representatives, Huawei has close ties to the military of Communist China and allegedly aided Saddam Hussein and the Taliban.

Having eliminated the other four choices it turns out that Hunter and Huckabee have quite a bit in common, especially on the social issues. That may have been included in the reference to “character” that Duncan made.

It’s obvious that this move disappointed a lot of those who were previously in Hunter’s corner. But I think a lot of heads turned as well when former candidate Tom Tancredo endorsed Mitt Romney. On the other hand, Sam Brownback was expected to endorse John McCain and it wasn’t much of a stretch for Tommy Thompson to back Rudy Giuliani. So it’s not totally uncommon to see defeated candidates go against type.

This leaves only Fred Thompson to endorse a successor candidate, although many have speculated he’ll back John McCain as he did in the 2000 election. If that endorsement comes to pass, it may turn the heads (and stomachs) of a few Fredheads.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

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