The BJ tries to report a story - and doesn't

THE BEACON JOURNAL'S strange coverage of the Summit County Republican Lincoln Day dinner in its Sunday edition left me wondering whether most of it wasn't handled by remote control with pre-program comments from a few admiring folks standing in line to buy Mike Huckabee's book. A couple of things stood out in the boilerplate article:

Although the BJ reported there were 1, 300 who assembled to hear the probable presidential candidate, Quaker Station's on-line reference in the Akron hotels list says the Grand Station Hall's capacity is 850. Huh? It's not unusual for pols to inflate the attendance and it does appear that the paper went for the hook.

The bigger hole in the story was the absence of Party Chairman Alex Arshinkoff, who is rehabbing away from home from critical foot surgery. A Republican source mentioned to me that it was Arshinkoff's first absence from a major county party event in 39 years. Seems to me, that deserved a place in an article stuck together as Journalism-Lite.

Finally, it was noted that Huckabee did not make himself available to the media; no questions, no answers, thank you. Folks, he gamed the BJ. He got the favorable publicity that noted that he is running second only to Mitt Romney, in Republican approval even though such polls tell us nothing. .

Newspapers should never allow this to happen. You want some positive free coverage, Mike, you damned well better make yourself available. But I am regressing to the days when it wouldn't have happened..

Besides the business about the book hustle, the only other thing we learned was about the fellow waiting to buy the book. He described Huckabee as a "good man" and a "Christian."

As matters stand in the GOP these days, invaluable style points, I'd say, for the ex-Arkansas preacher.

For a modest $50, you get the Arshinkoff-Huckabee tandem

IF YOU WANT TO spend an evening with a fellow who suspects that President Obama is a Mau Mau, Summit County Republican Chairman Alex Arshinkoff has created an opportunity for you. He's scheduled Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas preacher and governor, to be the guest at the party's Lincoln Day Dinner on April 9 at Quaker Station. It's $50 a plate, and my guardian angel has sternly warned me against going to the event. Besides, what do Arshinkoff and Huckabee have to do with Lincoln?

Huckabee will be in town to sign his new book - whose title is A Simple Government - and help Alex advance his boast of a bountiful Republican spirit hereabouts.

In a review, New York Times Columnist Gail Collins described the book as "one long howl about the Obama White House," where the author finds an A student who is an arrogant nerd, who "can't hit, he can't throw and he can't run." Nice.

By the way, did I mention that Huckabee is running for president if the crick don't rise ,even if George Will dissed him as "implausible"? Still, sitting through a dinner with a Razorback guitar player who autographs books is worth something, I guess, at least for Arshinkoff, whose political skills reside in inviting Southern politicians to his bashes. The vintage list includes Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and now Huckabee.

One Republican who won't be there is indicted auto dealer Tom Ganley, who was enthusiastically endorsed as a leader when Ganley, as a congressional candidate last year, appeared as a guest on Huckabee's Fox TV show. Indeed, Ganley returned the favor by hiring Huckabee's midwest presidential campaign coordinator to be his own campaign manager. Not that it did any good.

Trust me. Alex will be his usual effusive self with Huckabee. For fifty bucks, the steak had better be tender.