Batter up

Mike Huckabee to Rand Paul: ‘This is the big leagues’

By Nick Gass

Mike Huckabee has a message for Rand Paul after his contentious interview with “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie on Wednesday: batter up.

“I think the questions are fair,” the former Fox News host and Republican presidential contender said on “Fox and Friends” on Thursday morning. “When you’re running for president, all is fair in love and war. This is war. This is the big leagues.”

Huckabee said those bruising interviews with the media are all part of the package that comes with running for president, while conceding that it is sometimes hard to know how much is too far.

“You’re going to have to expect that you’re going to have a lot of fastballs aimed right at your nose, and how you handle them is part of the process, it’s part of the game, if you will,” he said.

The former governor of Arkansas previously ran for president in 2008, finishing behind Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Republican primaries.

“It’s like, the pitcher can throw what he wants,” Huckabee said, extending the baseball metaphor. “The question is, can you either put it in the third deck or do you rush the mound and take the pitcher on?”

Later in the day on Wednesday, Paul admitted that he has been “universally short-tempered and testy” with both male and female members of the media.

“It’s hard sometimes. During our interview right now I’m looking at only a camera, I can’t see you. It’s hard to have a true interaction sometimes, particularly if it’s a hostile interviewer,” Paul told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.