Mister Clean

The legislature's not in session this Wednesday morning, and the capitol building here is quiet. A peek inside the Arkansas governor's office reveals a couple of female staffers, one sitting behind a desk and the other sitting in a chair beside it. They're drinking coffee, talking softly, and seemingly ignoring the phones. Through the cold marble hallways of the capitol there's a hush. Even the small troop of Girl Scouts being toured under the dome whispers. But it's not necessarily a reverent hush; it's more a lingering shock and a quiet acquiescence.

Something bad has happened, on feels, though it's not clear on the surface exactly what it was.

One office is busy, an office that usually isn't: the lieutenant governor's. Mike Huckabee was elected to that office which is to politics what Double-A is to major league baseball, just a stepping stone. Still, a Republican winning a statewide office in Arkansas? This is taken seriously by the Democrat establishment: When he arrived at the capitol in 1993, Mr. Huckabee found that the door to his office had been nailed shut by the secretary of state.

Nowadays, the only hammering is that of a Little Rock judge's gavel, and who knows what doors will be shut behind the current governor, Jim Guy Tucker, convicted in late May of two felony counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, and misapplication of funds in connection with the Whitewater real estate development.

With doors closing for Mr. Tucker, who resigns July 15 to pursue his appeals, they're swinging open for Mr. Huckabee, who next week becomes Gov. Huckabee, Arkansas' third governor in four years, and only the second Republican chief executive in the state's history.

It's a more serious Mike Huckabee that greets reporters now. When WORLD interviewed him two years ago, he was free with his laughter and his famous-and quite good-imitation of Arkansas native daughter (and former Surgeon General) Joycelyn Elders. Mr. Huckabee is also noticeably thinner. He smiles and says it's not the stresses of office; it was his wife's insistence that he lose some weight. He's dropped 60 pounds since February. He's also dropped something else: his candidacy for a U.S. Senate seat that he was expected to win handily.

"Putting that aside has been difficult," he said. "When you've worked so hard for something, you funnel every ounce of your energy toward it, and your fingers are all but touching the prize, then abruptly something changes the whole structure of the world for you: Do you keep reaching or do you withdraw your hand?"

Politically, perhaps it would have been smart to stay in that race; what better podium from which to run for Senate than the governor's office? "Even though people would have understood going ahead with my run for the Senate, my conscience would never have understood it," he said. "You have to put duty above desire."

Still, the state's top job isn't an entirely unattractive position. "Governor is a wonderful job," he agrees. "I wake up with the thought that good grief, this isn't a sad thing. I'll get to do service for my state. I get to live here. That's the single most wonderful aspect. I don't have to move to Washington. I'll get to go fishing, I'll get to see my kids. I'll get to see people I like, I'll see the scenery I love."

He patiently dismisses the slightly cynical suggestion that he'll have another shot at a Senate seat in 1998. "Another run for Senate? Not in the near future," he said. "The decision to abandon this race was a decision to focus on this job, to master and learn this job. I believe a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."

It's not self-consciously that he's inserted Scripture into political philosophy. Mr. Huckabee, 40, was chosen president of the Arkansas Southern Baptist Convention in 1989 and served as a pastor in Texarkana before he entered politics. And it's without apology that he declares the Bible to be his mooring.

"I have long depended on Scripture not only as a refuge but also for direction," he told WORLD. "Since I was 18 I've read a chapter in Proverbs every morning, getting through the whole book each month. For me, that's a source of daily inspiration and guidance. I really believe most good, sound management decisions can be gleaned from the principles you'll find in the book of Proverbs and in other passages, such as the Sermon on the Mount."

He's turned to the Old Testament for help in handling the transition to governor. "I looked at the military structures and conquests in the Old Testament," he said. "A good example is Deuteronomy 7:22. When the Israelites were told to go in and occupy Canaan, they were told they were smaller than the Canaanites. Militarily, the Canaanites could have cleaned their clocks. They were told to take the land little by little, then, as they were able. I see the transition to governor in the same way. It's not my job to come in here and obliterate everybody, to eliminate all the [political appointees] all at one time. That's not the goal. It should be done as we grow into the capacity to fill those responsibilities and take charge of areas with conservative, strong fiscal practices and leadership."

But with the number of purely political appointments made by the governor-6,000 or so-is the temptation there to make the cuts with a buzzsaw instead of a scalpel?

"To go in and wipe everybody out? Not for me. That's not my style."

Mr. Huckabee says his faith was tested when he learned on May 28 that he would soon be governor. "I don't think there's ever been a time in my life when I've felt so pressed to my knees as when I heard the announcement," he said.

He and his staff were watching the events unfold on television on the afternoon the verdicts were read and Gov. Tucker held his news conference.

"There was no warning at all that Gov. Tucker would resign his seat," he said. "I was sitting right here, and at about the second sentence I realized he was going to resign. And two sentences later, he did. No one saw it coming. He'd indicated all long that he would fight through the appeals process and not step down."

In fact, few thought Gov. Tucker would be convicted. Mr. Huckabee calls the jury's verdict a brave decision.

"I think the jury hasn't been given the credit it deserves for blowing past all of the politics of this, moving past their own feelings, and even their own inclinations," he said. "Based on the evidence, they made perhaps the most difficult decision a jury has ever made in this state's history."

Was the verdict a surprise?

"It was a shock. It went well beyond surprise. It was an earthquake. The jury had to know, at least have an idea of the repercussions. It's like when the atom bomb fell on Hiroshima."

Or, perhaps, like when a Republican was elected lieutenant governor of solidly Democratic Arkansas?

Mr. Huckabee frowns. "My election was a powerful symbol, yes. But I had limited power to do much more than articulate things. On the other hand the governor appoints the heads of agencies, departments. Coming into this position with that kind of power to influence the state, not only in legislation but in direction and policy, that's something much greater. There's substance to back up the symbolism."

He says he'll use that power first to heal a sorely wounded state.

"We've all realized this is no time for us to henpeck and be cynical," he said. "It's time for us to shake ourselves awake, survey the storm damage and say, 'Let's get the chainsaws out, folks, and lets get things cleaned up and rebuild.' Right now the state isn't pointing fingers and questioning motives. What I sense and hear from people all over is, 'Bring us together, let's move beyond the nightmare.'

"It's not a partisan pain. I don't know any Republicans who have enjoyed this. How could they? This is my state; I love it more than any political party. Parties change and ultimately, the party isn't what you want to serve. We're Arkansans first."

The press seems to agree. Mr. Huckabee has enjoyed precious little positive coverage in his three years in office, but the newspapers are now rallying behind him. He won them over with his sincerity and skill in working with his opponents. And his decision to drop out of the Senate race was lauded by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

"When he first appeared in the public lists, they dismissed Mike Huckabee as somebody clearly out of his league," the newspaper opined. "Not only did he talk in that small-town, churchly, low-watt radio way, but he hadn't gone to Yale or Harvard or even Georgetown. And-here's another humorous aside-he was a Republican to boot. Who did this yokel think he was and where did he think he was going?

"...This strange decision to take the governor's job seriously is only Mike Huckabee's latest blow to the conventional wisdom, or rather the conventional cynicism. Obviously the man has no idea of what politics is about; he seems to associate it with quaint ideas like keeping his promises and doing his duty."

Mike Huckabee shifts easily to talk about his personal life. His son, John Mark, 18, is a freshman at Ouachita Baptist University-that's where Mike graduated magna cum laude, earning his four-year degree in just two years. His son David, 14, is working at a Boy Scout camp this summer, and daughter Sarah, 11, will be a freshman in high school next fall. Mr. Huckabee and his wife of 22 years, Janet, are both natives of Hope, Arkansas-Bill Clinton's birthplace.

Mr. Huckabee has spent much of his adult life in the broadcast industry. He established community television stations in Pine Bluff and Texarkana and produced documentaries in Central America and the Middle East. He's also served as pastor of several churches, including Beech Street First Baptist Church in Texarkana.

He won a special election for the lieutenant governor's seat in 1993, then won re-election in 1994 in a 60-percent landslide.

His ascension to governor comes at a volatile time, he acknowledges. Many of the big issues looming on the horizon will be battles fought at the state level. One of those is the issue of same-sex marriage. An impending Hawaii court decision might lead to pressure on other states to recognize homosexual "marriage." The U.S. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court may become involved, but Mr. Huckabee says Arkansas won't let itself be caught off guard.

"We think that in Arkansas we're already covered because we have a sodomy law on the books," he said. "However, we will be looking at that, because we certainly want to protect our state and its people from being forced to accept that sort of behavior as legitimate."

He thinks for a moment when asked if such protective measures might prove unpopular or be seen-in the press at least-as "bigoted."

"Frankly, it's one of those issues, whether there is popular support for it or not, it's the right thing to do and I'll do it," he said. "I think there would be popular support for it, but this is one of those that you do because of your conscience."

A similar battle may be fought over physician-assisted suicide, but Mr. Huckabee has already mapped out a strategy.

"We have in our constitution Amendment 68, which is called the Unborn Child Amendment," he explained. "It essentially deals with abortion, but it says the responsibility of the state is to protect human life from the time of conception until the time of natural death. Now part of that has been stricken by the federal courts and is currently on appeal. But I think that maybe it can be used to challenge physician-assisted suicide."

And he pledges to carry on the court fight to eliminate abortion from the state's Medicaid spending.

"I think Congress should fix this immediately," he said. "It's totally irresponsible for Congress to try to dictate through a Medicaid program what states can and can't do in relationship to the issue of abortion. The policy of our state is we cannot use Medicaid to fund abortions without violating our state constitution. Our people still value life. There's a respect for God, that he's the keeper of those keys."

But Mr. Huckabee is finding that those won't be the toughest battles. Some of those, he says, come from unexpected quarters.

"I find that sometimes the roughest part about this job is not that you have enemies," he said. "It's that your friends sometimes are the hardest folks to keep with you."

He offered a few examples.

"The most vicious critics I've had were not necessarily the pro-abortion, gay rights activists. Those are what I'd call natural critics, people who are certainly going to be fearful and/or critical of someone like me. It's that you have supporters or friends, particularly church people, who either are constantly critical because they feel that you are out of the will of God to get into politics, or that you don't do things fast enough, change everything."

Mr. Huckabee says he's seeing a lot of that lately.

"The governor's been resigned for two weeks, so when is the blood going to run to the curb level from all of these people being fired? I try to explain that I'm not going to do that, because it's not good government. They didn't send me up here with a chainsaw, but with a constitution and a mandate to bring good government. You do that in an orderly and methodical way."

Three years ago, the Arkansas secretary of state explained away his action-nailing the door of Mr. Huckabee's new office shut-as a "miscommunication." At the time, Mr. Huckabee smiled and let it go at that. It took patience and faithfulness to pry out the nails sealing a larger door, a door shutting not only Republicans out of Arkansas government, but others unwilling to be part of the apparent corruption of the Clinton-Tucker era. Mr. Huckabee hopes to redeem the reputation of Arkansas with his open-door policy.