The Real Reason Why Huckabee Won’t Run?

Long-shot presidential aspirant Fred Karger of California told supporters in an e-mail earlier today that there is one less candidate in the Republican presidential race and he couldn’t be happier. “I know Mike Huckabee is supposed to be a nice guy, but his hateful words about the LGBT community will now be confined to his weekly show on Fox News,” wrote Karger.

Karger, the first openly gay man to seek a major-party presidential nomination, also would like to think he deserves come credit for Huckabee’s decision not to throw his hat into the ring in 2012.

Karger, who recently embarked on his first trip abroad since becoming a candidate — a five-day excursion to Israel where he’s meeting with members of Tel Aviv’s gay and lesbian community, followed by a trip to London where he will appear on one of BBC’s most prestigious talk shows on Thursday — said that the four columns that he penned about Huckabee’s huge “Willie Horton” problem might have been a factor in the former Arkansas governor’s reluctance to enter the fray.

“While Governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee commuted the 108 year sentence of Maurice Clemmons, who after being let out of prison early by Huckabee, murdered four Seattle police officers while they were having breakfast just eighteen months ago. Huckabee never apologized to the families of the four slain officers, nor showed any remorse,” said Karger.

One of Karger’s articles, “Why Mike Huckabee can‘t run for President,” was published last month in The Guardian, one of the UK’s leading newspapers.

Karger, 61, a longtime political consultant,  served as a senior campaign advisor to Presidents Gerald R. Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.