Ark. governor defends gift registries

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Gift registries have been set up to help friends of Arkansas first lady Janet Huckabee choose gifts for the Huckabees' new half-million dollar home as they prepare to leave the governor's mansion.

Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, has tangled with the state ethics panel in the past over gifts.

On Wednesday, Janet Huckabee defended the gift registries.

"Have people never heard of a housewarming? ... Can I afford the towels? Yes. That's not the point," she told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "They're excited that we have a new house and they wanted to do something nice for us."

On Tuesday, the governor criticized media reports about the Web-site registries at Target Corp. and Dillard's Inc. stores.

Huckabee said the gift registries — first reported by Stephens Media Group — were put together by his wife's friends for a housewarming party.

"Tell me what she can do for somebody in the last month of her tenure when she's not even an elected official and has no power whatsoever," he told reporters. "Is she not entitled to have some friends ... that have nothing to do with me?"

Huckabee leaves office in January after 10 years. The couple purchased a $525,000, 7,000-square-foot home in North Little Rock this year, and friends of the first lady are giving her a housewarming party, Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart said.

Huckabee said the registries were set up as "wedding" registries because there was no category for housewarming parties. Target, where one registry is set up, is a leading rival to Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which Huckabee has publicly supported.

Items on the Target registry range from $2 for napkins and place mats to $250 for cookware. The registry also says gift cards can be purchased for up to $1,000. The Dillard's registry, which says, "Welcome to the wedding registry of: Janet and Michael Huckabee," includes a $300 mixer.

Huckabee said he didn't know the friends who set up the gift registries, nor did he know the names of the friends hosting a related housewarming party.

"This was an invitation-only event set up by her friends," Huckabee said. "If a person doesn't have an invitation to this event, there's not a reason in the world this has anything to do with them."

Even though the registries are accessible online without a password, Huckabee said they weren't intended for the general public.

"You've created the impression that my wife has gone out and solicited gifts, which is absolutely untrue," he said.

Huckabee said he would report gifts on financial disclosure forms if required by law but indicated he didn't see any ethical problems in accepting them.

Arkansas law prohibits public servants from accepting any gift worth more than $100, unless the gift is for personal, professional or business reasons independent of the recipient's official status. Wedding gifts are not prohibited.

The Arkansas Ethics Commission has five times found that Huckabee violated state ethics guidelines, including letters of warning and reprimand and fines after finding Huckabee failed to report a $43,150 payment he received from his 1994 lieutenant governor's campaign for use of his personal airplane.

Huckabee, governor since 1996, is leaving office because of term limits. Attorney General Mike Beebe, a Democrat, succeeds him.