I've been watching with some interest and more than a little dismay the rise of Mike Huckabee as a Republican candidate for president. The best response I can think of to the notion of his candidacy is a line from the film Ghost.
Whoopie and her compatriots are running from Prospect Place Willie who is out to kill them and they knock on the door of an old woman and tell her to let them in, that someone is trying to kill them.
Her response, "Who you kiddin'?"
Shortly after I moved to Fayetteville Arkansas for grad school, I read an article in the paper chronicling then Governor Mike Huckabee's move from the Governor's Mansion to a triple wide trailer on the grounds during renovations. I was sure I had read that and still can't understand why no one is talking about it. So I did a little checking and sure enough. I found what I was looking for.
The article stuck in my mind, for all the obvious reasons, but it also drove home a point that had been made on the first weekend I had lived there. That particular weekend the Sunday Paper featured full color front-page photos of the local chapter of the KKK in full regalia entering the Siloam Springs City Hall for their most recent meeting. Siloam Springs was less then five miles from my front door....I loved living in Arkansas.
So after that story the governor living in a trailer wasn't exactly surprising, but it was notable and I think very much worth repeating here today.
From Stateline.org August 23, 2000:
Arkansas Gov To Call Modular Mansion Home
A Special Report By Steve Barnes In Little Rock
"It is NOT a trailer," declares Mrs. Janet Huckabee, wife of Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee, though it was she who initially teasingly cautioned reporters against calling the home a double-wide.
"It's a triple-wide," Mrs. Huckabee joked.
House trailer or modular home -- and the Arkansas Manufactured Housing Association, which donated the $110,000 house, insists that the latter is accurate -- the Huckabee's move to temporary quarters on the grounds of the Arkansas Governor's Mansion has been a windfall for talk show hosts and late night television comedians.
At 2,100 square feet, the modular home is "big enough for your chin," Mr. Huckabee joked on-air with the Tonight Show's Jay Leno. The Huckabees and their provisional quarters have also been featured on the Today show, NBC Nightly News and the Don Imus radio program in addition to countless mentions in local media across the country.
Temporary housing for the Huckabees was made necessary by a $1.4 million renovation of the Governor's Mansion, the first major refurbishing since its completion in 1950. And Mrs. Huckabee is attempting to raise still more money from private sources -- as much as $4 million -- to significantly expand the stately Georgian brick residence.
Should she succeed, the Huckabee's could remain in the modular residence for as long as two and a half years. The renovations now beginning will require them to live outside the Mansion for ten months.
Every Arkansas governor in recent memory has complained of the inadequacies of the state's executive residence -- usually after leaving office. Its plumbing and electrical circuitry are hopelessly, even dangerously outdated and functions involving more than a hundred people can be accommodated only by erecting tents on the rear lawn.
At three stories and 11,000 square feet, the structure would seem more than spacious. However, one floor consists of administrative offices and meeting rooms, another of "public" spaces and a third, the smallest, is the private quarters of Arkansas First Family. And with no fewer than three official events per week and 16,000 visitors each year, the Governor's Mansion "has become more a small convention center than a home," Mrs. Huckabee told Stateline.org.
Given Arkansas's reputation as a backwater, it probably was to be expected that a modular home would be dismissed as a house trailer in the national consciousness, to the chagrin of many of the state's commercial and cultural elite. But their complaints about the state's image have been muted.
In a Stateline.org interview, Gov. Huckabee said he did not believe his family's living arrangements would embarrass the state.
"I've had dozens of letters and e-mails from across the country from people who appreciated that we were doing this with a sense of humor," Huckabee said.
Nor did he believe accepting a trade association's donation would compromise his adminstration.
"Even if they have some legislation pending, they'd have to deal with the 135 members of the legislature," Huckabee said.
Huckabee contended that the state would realize substantial savings by using the modular house since the Mansion's administrative and security elements would not have to be relocated to a rented property.
The modular home will include three bedrooms, two bathrooms and two living areas, and will provide Mrs. Huckabee with something she said she does not now enjoy in the larger Mansion -- a measure of privacy.
"I'm looking forward to being able to go get a Coke from the refrigerator without getting dressed," Mrs. Huckabee said. "I'll be happy to be able to walk downstairs in my nightgown if I want to and throw myself down on the couch and watch television without wondering what tour is coming through."
Now they aspire to the White House.
And we think we're reviled now.....
