Jennifer Jacobs

jejacobs@dmreg.com

CEDAR RAPIDS, Ia. – Mike Huckabee says he finds it interesting when well-meaning conservatives say they don't want the GOP to talk about moral issues.

"They say, "I don't want to hear about social issues. All I want to hear is about liberty and low taxes. Well, that's just delicious. Let me tell you something," said Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor. "... Liberty cannot function unless there are people who are willing to live with integrity."

Huckabee, who is "very seriously" considering running for president again, was in Iowa Friday on the heels of liberty movement conservative Rand Paul, a U.S. senator from Kentucky who is the front-runner of the field of GOP potential 2016 presidential candidates, national polling shows.

After Paul spent three hectic days in Iowa meeting with every faction of the GOP, Huckabee flew in to give a speech to Christian conservative pastors and community leaders at an Iowa Renewal Project event in Cedar Rapids. Huckabee leads polling as the Republican front-runner in Iowa, riding on popularity he built in 2008, when he won the GOP caucuses here.

Asked if his "liberty" remarks were directed at the liberty movement that sprang from 2012 presidential candidate Ron Paul's campaign, and the activists who are now rallying around his son, Rand Paul, Huckabee told The Des Moines Register: "No, not at all. It's just the bigger picture. ... It's a word I would use regularly anyway."

Although it has been 25 years since Huckabee was a Southern Baptist pastor, he was back in the pulpit today, preaching about how churches don't exist to be social clubs, but "to be a spiritual change agent to make this country different, to make this world different."

"Freedom can never function apart from a moral society," he told an audience of about 300 Iowans at a private event at the Hilton Doubletree hotel in Cedar Rapids. "And where is that going to come from? It had better come from the churches, and it had better come from pulpits and the people who are grounded in the word of God."

Both Huckabee and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal were the stars of Friday's Iowa Renewal Project event, a two-day, all-expenses-paid forum organized by David Lane, an evangelical Christian activist from California who has been quietly mobilizing conservatives in politically important Iowa for seven years. At last summer's pastors gathering in Des Moines, Paul and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas were the featured speakers.

Friday's event was closed most press, and two uniformed security officers were stationed at the doors. But organizers gave full access to one reporter, from The Des Moines Register.

Huckabee, after a fundraiser in Austin, Texas, last night, arrived in Cedar Rapids at 1 a.m. but couldn't fall asleep until after 2 a.m., he told the Register. He was up at 5:15 a.m., gave a 7 a.m. speech, which seemed to hold the audience's attention throughout the 30 minutes (he earned a sustained standing ovation), then spent more than 15 minutes with a handful of Iowa reporters.

At 9 a.m., a black SUV waited out front to ferry him to the airport. He was flying back to New York City to tape his Fox News show "Huckabee," then was to dash back to Iowa on Saturday for the Family Leadership Summit, an Ames event organized by Christian conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats. Four other possible 2016 Republican presidential candidates are scheduled to speak there, too - Cruz, Jindal, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

Here are excerpts from Huckabee's 30-minute speech to the Iowa Renewal Project:

ON THE UNITED NATIONS: "That's the most worthless organization. Not another dime should go to the UN."

ON THE U.S. SUPREME COURT: "We have a very weak Supreme Court right now. We've got to quit believing the Supreme Court is the supreme being. It's only one of three branches of government. It's not above the other two. ... And all three branches are under the tutelage of the people of this country in whom the ultimate power and authority power resides."

ON THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE: "One of the reasons that I suggest we repeal the 16th Amendment and implement the fair tax is because we need to rid ourselves of this criminal enterprise known as the IRS."

THE HARDEST JOB HE'S EVER HAD: "I've won and I've lost and believe me winning is a lot more fun. When you win, you actually have some responsibilities. I've told people that the easiest job I've ever had is the one I have now, which is hosting a talk show. I can say all the things I want to say. I can propose dramatic things, but I'm not responsible for their implementation or whether they succeed or fail. The hardest job I've ever had was governing – to actually lead. The second hardest job I've had is campaigning in order to get the job."

PIZZA RANCH STRATEGY: "Our strategy running back in 2008 was essentially, we didn't have a whole lot of money so we couldn't afford fancy ballrooms, nice digs. But every little town in Iowa has a Pizza Ranch. And it might be a town of 1,800 people, but they've got a Pizza Ranch. We learned that a Pizza Ranch always has a meeting room. And you can use it for free if you buy food. ... We'd use the free room and for the price of a couple of cheese pizzas we'd have an opportunity to have a meeting. ... So every time I come back, I always feel like I need to go to some Pizza Ranch somewhere just to pay homage to once again thank them."

HOW TO SAVE THE COUNTRY: "It is important to elect the right people all the way from the city council to the White House. But if we want to change America, the real prescription is not to go out and just get certain people elected and hoping that they will bring spiritual revival. It's to pray for spiritual revival. And if God awakens this country spiritually, this country will elect the right people and they will do the right things."

ON PASTORS WHO SHY AWAY FROM POLITICS: "I hear pastors say, 'I'm just a shepherd of God, and I don't want to get involved in politics. It's a dirty business.' My brother, my sister, it is a dirty business. But It's dirty because the clean people have decided to leave it to the people who don't care whether it's dirty or not. ... I've never ever ever ever encouraged a pastor to endorse a candidate. Unless it's me. No, I've even said, 'Don't use your pulpit to endorse me.' As much as I would enjoy that, don't do it. Endorse the principles of God's words. Endorse the value of human life. Endorse the institution of marriage. Endorse those which are eternal and holy things."