Huckabee on Iraq WMD: "Just because you didn't find every Easter egg didn't mean it wasn't planted"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Transcript: Mike Huckabee on 'FOX News Sunday'

Sunday, January 27, 2008

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,325876,00.html



WALLACE: Governor, we have less than two minutes left, and I want to get into one last area with you.

You surprised some people at the last Republican debate when you said that Saddam Hussein may, in fact, have had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded in 2003. Let's take a look at what you said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUCKABEE: Now, everybody can look back and say, "Oh, well, we didn't find the weapons." It doesn't mean they weren't there. Just because you didn't find every Easter egg didn't mean that it wasn't planted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Governor, the Iraq survey group looked around Iraq for months after the invasion, could find no evidence that Saddam Hussein had an active program, a WMD program, when he was ousted, any active stockpile of weapons.

Do you have any evidence for that contention?

HUCKABEE: Oh, I don't have any evidence.

:spray:

But he was the one who announced openly that he did have weapons of mass destruction. He was also the one who had used similar weapons in the past.

I think let's remember, too, that both Democrats and Republicans and our intelligence agencies believed that he had them.

My point was that, no, we didn't find them. Did they get into Syria? Did they get into some remote area of Jordan? Did they go to some other place? We don't know. They may not have existed.

But simply saying, "We didn't find them, so therefore they didn't exist," is a bit of an overreach. And the bigger point is that at the time we went into the war -- and that was really the question, should we have gone in.

If we had not have gone in and he had unleashed weapons of mass destruction, then everybody would be second-guessing the president and saying, "We should have taken action. The president was derelict in his duty."

So it's so easy. It's like sitting down Monday morning at breakfast with your buddies and talking about why the quarterback of the NFL team didn't get the winning play.

But you know what? If you've been on the NFL field and you've taken a couple of hits from 300-pound linemen, it's a little, I guess, maybe different perspective in what you should have done.

So I think let's give the president some credit for taking action that he thought would, in fact, help America. And Democrats agreed with him. And now it's easy to second-guess, but I'm grateful that the president was willing to take what actions he thought would make America safer.

WALLACE: Governor Huckabee, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank you so much for coming in today. Always a pleasure to talk with you, sir.

HUCKABEE: Thank you, Chris.

[Rosemary2205]

1. Huck makes GW look sane.

Mark my words, if we end up with Huck in the White House we ain't seen NOTHIN yet.

[DiscussTed]

2. Wouldn't it be great...

if he would be their nominee?

I get all giddy when I think about it.

Its never going to happen.

The men behind the curtain at the GOP won't let it happen.

[Goat or Panic]

3. Earth to Mike

"Just because you didn't find every Easter egg didn't mean it wasn't planted"

We didn't find ANY Easter eggs ya moron.

[msongs]

4. umm, "easter" eggs are pagan Mr. Biblethumper... nt

[Hobarticus]

6. His point ZACTLY! Pagan idols are WMDs!!!! Weapons of Mass Devilishness!!!

:evilgrin:

[Goat or Panic]

5. HEY!!!!!!

Who ate the ears off of my WMD?

[patrice]

7. Can we afford to go looking for "easter eggs" all over the world? nt