GOP governor speaks, makes sense

The National Journal's Hotline blog took notes during a conversation that Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee conducted with reporters in Washington, D.C.

If Hotline got it right, Huckabee, a Republican, sounds less like a GOPer than most Democrats these days.

1. Huckabee, who supports guest worker programs and is not an immigration hard-liner, said he believes opposition to comprehensive immigration reform is 'irrational in many cases.' And he did not discount the causative factor of racism.

"If I were to say that some of it is driven by just sheer racism, I think I would be telling you the truth. I've had conversations with people that and it became very evident that what they really didn't like was that people didn't look like them, didn't talk like them, didn't celebrate ht holidays like they do, and they just had a problem with it. Now, that is not to say that everyone who is really fired out about immigration is racist. They're not."

2. Asked directly if he believes humans caused global warming, Huckabee says that while he is "not a scientist," he thinks "we ought to act as if that is the case. There is never a downside when it comes to conserving national resources."

3. "I think every American should have a visceral reaction," he said of the USA today on phone monitoring. "If we don't have a visceral reaction, I'd be worried about that. Now, I might come to a conclusion that I'm willing to let you troll through my phone records if you think you're going to find Mohammed Atta. But I want to make darn sure that you're going to do that." Government, he said, should be "very careful [about] getting into the private lives of American citizens."

How is it possible that the GOP governor of a southern state articulates Democratic principles and positions better than most national-profile Democrats? If Hillary Clinton talked like this, she would be cruising toward the '08 nomination with nothing in front of her but open road.

This is with the enormous caveat that I don't know much more about Huckabee than this Hotline entry and his appearance on the Colbert Report a few weeks ago, but I have to say that if I had to choose today between the Arkansas governor and the junior senator from New York, I might find myself voting Republican in a presidential election for the first time in my life.