Mike Huckabee is busy these days. The former Arkansas governor has a top-rated show on Fox News, he's talking politics all over the country and, in his spare time, he's written a new book titled A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit. We talked with him about politics and Christmas.
1. What are your thoughts about health care and what's before Congress right now?
It's really disturbing, because it appears that this has become not a battle about making health care more available to people, but about the government becoming more involved in an area of our lives and creating an incredibly large and very expensive government bureaucracy. So, rather than target some specific problems and work on those, this seems to be a Congress that is just determined to spend money until there's nothing left except government control, when it's all over.
2. You're out in the public a lot. What's your sense of what the American people want in their government?
First of all, they want accountability. They want a government that will be as responsible as they, the citizens, are expected to be. They want government officials to pay their own taxes and to own up to what they're doing with policies that are creating huge debt for their children. They want them to stop spending and live within their means, like they're doing in their own households. And they're very frustrated with the secrecy and the double standard of members of Congress getting benefits and raises for themselves while creating policies that are costing Americans jobs.
3. Given the political climate, how important are the 2010 elections?
They're going to be huge on two fronts. One, I think that it will show that there is a pendulum swing back to the center and to the right, which will be very significant, and I think will change the course of Congress over the next couple of years. But the second thing I believe will happen from the 2010 election is more Republicans being elected, more conservatives being elected. It will be much more difficult for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the hard liberals to get their radical agenda put through because people will realize that's a ticket home. And members of Congress who like staying in Washington will know that if they continue to vote those kinds of policies, the voters will just simply retire them.
4. Your latest book deals with Christmas. Why do you think Christmas is important for so many people?
Christmas gives us a sense of continuity. And it's also that defining moment each year when we look around, see our family, and are better able to say, "I have a better understanding of who I am." It is also where you reflect upon the most important things in life. I never hear somebody say, Oh, I can't wait until Christmas because I'm going to get away from home. It's always, I can't wait until Christmas because I'm going home for Christmas. Christmas for most of us, even if we're not necessarily strong believers, is a reference point that we navigate our lives around.
5. The book has 12 stories that embody the true Spirit of the season. What makes Christmas special for your family, and what's your favorite story of the 12?
It's the one time of year when we kind of get back to what's important. One of the things I've enjoyed about this book is that sometimes I get so wrapped up in all of the issues of the day and people want to talk politics all the time. Christmas is the one time of year when people look around and realize that what really matters to them is the relationships they have with their family and their close friends. I think one of the stories that probably will touch most people, I hope in a very deep way, is the story of the uncle that came to live with us when he was dying of cancer; and how that impacted my life permanently just to see what loneliness, is because he had no family. He was not married. He had no children. We were the only family he had. That's a very touching one. There are a lot of moments in the book that are, frankly, designed to be pretty funny because they sort of tell about Christmas experiences in an honest way, and I think there'll be people who will read it and say "Gosh! That's my family, too."
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