Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is getting more heat both online and in person from critics who scold the former governor for consulting the president of the Council on Foreign Relations on issues of international affairs.

Last month, Huckabee confirmed to CNN's Wolf Blitzer that he consults CFR President Richard Haass on foreign affairs matters – a fact that has circulated among bloggers and anti-globalism activists.

"Who are your principal foreign policy advisers, Governor," asked Blitzer.

Huckabee responded: "Well, I have a number of people from whom I get policy. I'm talking to Frank Gaffney. I talk to Richard Haass."

The National Expositor website pointed out Haass penned a column in the Taipei Times that called on sovereign nations to cede power to global bodies.

"States must be prepared to cede some sovereignty to world bodies if the international system is to function," Haass wrote. "This is already taking place in the trade realm. Governments agree to accept the rulings of the WTO because on balance they benefit from an international trading order even if a particular decision requires that they alter a practice that is their sovereign right to carry out.

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" … [S]overeignty must be redefined if states are to cope with globalization. At its core, globalization entails the increasing volume, velocity, and importance of flows – within and across borders – of people, ideas, greenhouse gases, goods, dollars, drugs, viruses, e-mails, weapons and a good deal else, challenging one of sovereignty's fundamental principles: the ability to control what crosses borders in either direction. Sovereign states increasingly measure their vulnerability not to one another, but to forces beyond their control."

Haas then argues that sovereignty "needs to become weaker."

Writes the CFR chief: "States would be wise to weaken sovereignty in order to protect themselves, because they cannot insulate themselves from what goes on elsewhere. Sovereignty is no longer a sanctuary."

Haass also strikes a global-socialism note in arguing that world neighbors must provide for one another:

"Necessity may also lead to reducing or even eliminating sovereignty when a government, whether from a lack of capacity or conscious policy, is unable to provide for the basic needs of its citizens. This reflects not simply scruples, but a view that state failure and genocide can lead to destabilizing refugee flows and create openings for terrorists to take root."

The National Expositor railed against the Huckabee-Haass connection, asking, "Who needs individual rights in the techno-futuristic world police state? And you thought liberty was in jeopardy now? Just wait till you see what your children will have to deal with. Get activated, folks. These police state freaks want to shape your future into a control grid enforced through the fear-based reaction to sponsored false flag terror."

On Sunday, a heckler confronted Huckabee at a rally in New Hampshire, shouting out repeatedly: "Why is Richard Haass, the president of the Council of Foreign Relations, your political adviser?"

According to a report in the Boston Globe, Huckabee first ignored the man and then joked, "Don't make me send Chuck back there!" – a reference to actor and WND columnist Chuck Norris, who has been campaigning with Huckabee.

Security eventually ushered the man out, and the candidate emphasized the fact the heckler had a right to speak out.

"The great thing about America is that we're not going to take him out and shoot him," Huckabee is quoted as saying. "You don't have to agree with the politicians and you can throw them out of office. But if you do like them, you can put them in office."

The candidate did not address the issue of why Haass is one of his advisers.

Columnist Chuck Baldwin hammered Huckabee for his CFR connections in a commentary last week, mentioning that the candidate spoke before the Council last fall.

Wrote Baldwin: "As you read Huckabee's speech, you will find that he is George W. Bush on steroids! This is a man who intends to meddle in the affairs of nations around the world like you can't believe. Talk about entangling alliances: Huckabee intends for our State, Energy, Housing, Education, Justice, Treasury, and Transportation departments to spend untold billions of tax dollars on just about anything and everything, including schools, medical facilities, roads, sewage treatment, water filtration, electricity, and legal and banking systems in countries all over the globe. And that is exactly the kind of man the Council on Foreign Relations wants in Washington."

The CFR itself has downplayed the Huckabee-Haass connection, with spokeswoman Lisa Shields telling USA Today Haass has "briefed Huckabee on foreign policy issues as well as [briefing] many other candidates" in both parties. Shields stressed that the relationship was not exclusive and that Haass was not affiliated with the campaign.

Huckabee has seen his share of barbs from his GOP competitors on issues of foreign affairs, including criticism for a line he wrote in an article for Foreign Affairs.

"The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad," the candidate wrote.

Rebutted candidate Fred Thompson at a recent GOP debate: "I think that maybe the governor has rethought his comments that he made about an arrogant foreign policy, because it seems now what he's saying is that we were arrogant because we didn't go in with enough troops. I think that's kind of a different impression than the one that he originally sought to leave."

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