Huckabee Tells Right Wing Bloggers: "You’re Doing the Lord’s Work"

Posted by Amanda Terkel, Think Progress at 1:03 PM on January 2, 2008.

Yesterday in Des Moines, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee hosted an event thanking "roughly 700 bloggers who, he said, were responsible for keeping his campaign alive."

Calling them his "secret weapon," Huckabee urged the bloggers to "clog" up the wireless system in Des Moines so that reporters couldn't file any more "bad" stories about him. He added that by blocking the free press from doing their jobs, bloggers were "doing the Lord's work":

Mr. Huckabee had a rough time yesterday at the hands of the media when he announced he was canceling a negative ad against Mitt Romney and then showed the ad to the assembled reporters, who burst out laughing. Today, he turned the tables. He noted that the mainstream media might be "filing a bad story" right now, and if the bloggers were relying on the same wireless system at the hotel, they might be "clogging up the lines" and preventing them from filing.

If that's the case, "thank you," he said. "You're doing the Lord's work."

Huckabee has repeatedly made baseless claims that his conservative causes are sanctioned by God. At a Republican Governors Association Dinner speech in 2004, Huckabee had a mock three-minute telephone conversation with God. During that time, Huckabee said that "we kind of think you'd hang in there with us, Lord, we really do."

In 1997, Huckabee claimed that Jesus would have agreed with him on supporting the death penalty. In 1998, Huckabee spoke at the National Pastors' Conference and said he entered politics to "take this nation back for Christ."

Huckabee also promised the bloggers yesterday that he would host a similar get-together if he makes it to the White House. "You gotta dance with the one that brought you," he said.

Tagged as: religious conservatives, huckabee

Amanda Terkel is Deputy Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Deputy Editor for The Progress Report and ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress.