Huckabee life story added for 2016 run

A copy of a biography about Mike Huckabee is displayed last week at a bookstore at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.
A copy of a biography about Mike Huckabee is displayed last week at a bookstore at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago.

WASHINGTON -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has something for his 2016 presidential campaign that was missing when he ran in 2008 -- an authorized biography.

W. Scott Lamb, the author of a book on All-Star baseball slugger Albert Pujols, penned the 344-page Huckabee life story, which arrived at booksellers earlier this month.

A review in Library Journal described Huckabee: The Authorized Biography as "absorbing reading," saying it is "well-written and important to get for the election season."

The book explains a lot about Huckabee's faith and how it influences his political view, the review said, adding, "His professional successes and failures are also covered, but in a one-sided way, with glowing praise from friends and enemies weighing against negative press or ill-advised statements from Huckabee."

Among other things, the book says that:

• Gov. Bill Clinton called Huckabee and asked him to meet with Department of Health Director Joycelyn Elders after she created a firestorm by saying, "Preachers need to get over their love affair with the fetus." Huckabee described the unproductive meeting with Elders, who would go on to serve as the nation's surgeon general, as "a tipping point" that spurred him to take up politics.

• Because of his unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate in 1992, the Huckabees had "burned through their life savings" and were in real financial straits. A lifelong Huckabee friend, Hope dentist Lester Sitzes, told Lamb, "They almost lost their house. They were broke; there's no other way to put it."

• Huckabee blamed the administration of President George W. Bush for mishandling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, telling Lamb: "They got a lot of grief. They should have gotten a lot more. It was absolute incompetence. It was just disgusting."

• In 2008, with the Republican presidential race all but over, President Bush called Huckabee, curious to find out the Arkansan's endgame. As Huckabee recalled, Bush said he was checking in to see "what you're thinking" and to ask "where do you think this thing is going." Huckabee says he told the president he'd stay in the race until John McCain clinched the nomination, adding, "I can't quit. I've gotten this far by gutting it out. My whole life I've had to fight as the underdog."

W Publishing Group, an imprint of Thomas Nelson and part of the HarperCollins empire, signed Lamb to write the book about a year ago, around the time that Huckabee began assembling his campaign team.

Serious work on the project began earlier, with the first formal interviews taking place in April 2014.

Before tackling the project, Lamb said, he had to decide whether Huckabee was compelling enough to keep him focused.

"When you write a book," Lamb said, "you have to ask yourself, 'Do I really want to spend 500 to 800 hours thinking about this person?'"

With Huckabee, Lamb realized he'd be covering someone who had a similar background. Both men are evangelicals, both are ordained Southern Baptist ministers, and both are big music buffs with a soft spot for classic rock.

Fearing that there'd be other authors crafting versions of Huckabee's life story, Lamb approached the Republican from Hope and asked if he could make his book the official version.

Huckabee obliged, enabling him to access Huckabee's gubernatorial papers, which are kept at Ouachita Baptist University and unavailable to the public.

Because the book had the subject's support and cooperation, Huckabee's family and friends in Arkansas opened up and shared stories stretching back more than a half-century.

Huckabee also set aside plenty of time, often squeezing Lamb in between speaking engagements and television appearances.

"I flew around with him a couple of times. I stayed in his house in Florida. I think I probably emailed him every day for six months straight," Lamb said. "I bugged the snot out of him."

The writer also traveled to Arkansas. He spent time in Little Rock, interviewing the ex-governor's friends and foes.

He journeyed to Arkadelphia, where Huckabee earned his college degree and where Huckabee's papers are stowed. And he spent time in Huckabee's hometown, digging through decades-old copies of the Hope Star, looking for items about Huckabee's early years. He visited the old Huckabee cemetery and saw the place where the teenage Huckabee got his start in broadcasting: KXAR-AM, 1490.

In the book, "I was trying to create a feel for what it was like to grow up in Arkansas in general and Hope in particular," Lamb said.

The town has given America two politicians who are champions on the campaign trail, people who know how to connect with average Americans, he said.

Clinton, the former president, is "the kind of guy you'd want to have a beer with. So is Huckabee, though it might be a root beer," he added.

Jim Harris, who is married to Huckabee's sister, Pat, spoke with Lamb.

"He seemed like a nice guy. He not only came to our home and talked to us ... but he even came to the Church at Rock Creek with us and talked to people there that had gone to church with Mike and Janet," Jim Harris said, referring to Huckabee's wife. "As far as I could tell, he did a very thorough job of research."

In Hope, his tour guide was Sitzes, the dentist. "I took him around and showed him where Mike grew up, the radio station, things like that," the old Huckabee friend said.

Lamb also interviewed Alice Stewart, communications director for Huckabee's 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns.

"Scott Lamb is a stand-up journalist. There was certainly a level of trust between he and the governor before taking on this project," Stewart said.

There weren't any restrictions on what Lamb could research or write.

"There's no reason to be afraid of someone telling your life story when you've led a pretty exemplary life," Stewart said. "Every facet of his political life has been under the radar and under intense scrutiny, and he has nothing to hide."

Huckabee is satisfied with the results. "[I'm] very pleased about the treatment and learned a lot about my own family history and my hometown," he said through a spokesman.

Metro on 11/30/2015

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