SIOUX CITY, Iowa
Huckabee: GOP will go for conservative
A blip in most of the early polling, GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Saturday that he believes his conservative views will prevail.
In a state whose precinct caucuses will launch the presidential nominating season, the former Arkansas governor has spent less time than better- known rivals and trails in most early polling.
Some Republicans said Huckabee’s conservative message appeals to the GOP base, but he needs to convince activists he is a serious player. Huckabee said that will happen naturally over the next few months as Republicans begin to sort through the field.
LITTLETON, N.H.
McCain: House bill on Iraq “shameful”
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain trekked to New Hampshire on Saturday, testing his appeal with rural voters and promising help for economically depressed areas while grappling with questions about the Iraq war.
At his first town-hall-style meeting in Plymouth, he criticized congressional Democrats who on Friday passed a spending bill in the House to end the war in Iraq by September 2008. “This is one of the most shameful things I’ve seen in my 24 years in Congress,” he said.
In Littleton, he faced questions about gun control, abortion rights and immigration.
WASHINGTON
Immigration-bill chances look iffy
Democrats may have support from President Bush on immigration, but they face other obstacles in getting a bill through Congress.
They lack enough votes within their party and must overcome lingering Republican disdain for what some consider “amnesty” for some people in the U.S. illegally, as well as union opposition.
Although Bush supported last year’s Senate bill, he also signed a House Republican bill calling for a 700-mile fence on the U.S.-Mexican border. And he did little to persuade Republicans to negotiate an immigration bill.
