A representative of a rival campaign drew my attention to this post at the Jawa Report.

In essence, Governor Huckabee yesterday repudiated the First Amendment and the concept of free speech by announcing that he would like to “outlaw” any political speech not expressly “authorized and approved by the candidate.”

According to Jawa’s Rusty Shacklford, the quote in question came from an interview with NPR yesterday morning. Rusty quoted Governor Huckabee as saying:

“I personally wish that all of this was outlawed. I think that every candidate should speak for themselves, and that every thing that involves the candidate’s name or another candidate’s name should be authorized and approved by that candidate, otherwise it shouldn’t be spoken….

“The point is that candidates can’t force these special interest 527 groups to stop. I wish we could.”

I really thought the basic tenets of Constitution were generally past debate. It never occurred to me that a candidate for President might simply come out against individual freedom. Even Senator McCain — no friend of free speech — has the sense to at least try to be subtle about it.

But one thing is clear: Anyone who believes such a thing is no conservative — regardless of the snake oil he’s trying to peddle — and he cannot be elected President.

It seemed so outrageous that I just had to listen for myself. I didn’t believe that a person who had served as Governor of one of these United States could have possibly said such a thing. But he did. Rusty’s quote is accurate. Word for word.

In case you have any doubts about the context or anything else, a more complete transcript follows. (And you can listen to the audio of the interview here. The discussion in question starts are 2:20 in.)

Q: Governor Huckabee, as we just said, the next important primary for Republicans is this Saturday in South Carolina.

People there have been reporting getting automated phone calls from an interest group supporting you, a group called Common Sense Issues. It’s what’s known as push-polling. It’s where a pollster asks voters leading questions that include negative or misleading information about other candidates. Your campaign may not actually be doing that — another group is doing it — but will you demand that this group or any group doing push polling on your behalf, stop.

A: We have done that. And we’ve done it every state where we’ve participated. We don’t know who these people are.

I personally wish all of this were outlawed. I think every candidate ought to speak for himself, and, uh, that everything that involves the candidate’s name or another candidate’s name should be authorized and approved by that candidate. Otherwise, it shouldn’t be spoken.

Q: Can’t you get an interest group that is supposedly doing something on your campaign’s behalf — can’t you get them to stop?

A: No. How can you? The law prohibits us having any conversation with them. I can publicly call for it, but if I have a conversation with them — even to ask them to quit — it’s called coordinating, and it’s against the law. So I don’t want to go to jail because someone is doing something that I don’t like. There’s also special interest groups that are coming down here to attack me today. Now, some of the donors to those groups are major donors to Mitt Romney and others. You know, I haven’t heard Mitt Romney call out for these people to stop.

The point is that candidates can’t force these special interest 527 groups to stop. I wish we could, cuz frankly, they’re not doing me a favor by carrying out things and tactics that I don’t personally approve of.