Benjy Sarlin April 21, 2011, 3:34 PM

Glenn Beck has seriously irked fellow FOX News host Mike Huckabee, whom he labeled a “progressive” on his radio show yesterday over the once-obese governor’s support for Michele Obama’s campaign to promote children’s health. A clearly upset Huckabee fired back at Beck today with a statement that not only addressed the individual incident but broadly condemned the host’s trademark fearmongering against the left.

“This week Glenn Beck has taken to his radio show to attack me as a Progressive, which he has said is the same as a ‘cancer’ and a ‘Nazi,’” Huckabee said. “What did I do that apparently caused him to link me to a fatal disease and a form of government that murdered millions of innocent Jews? I had the audacity — not of hope — but the audacity to give respect to the efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign to address childhood obesity.”

While noting that he’s “no fan of her husband’s policies for sure,” Huckabee said Beck misrepresented the First Lady’s program “either out of ignorance or out of a deliberate attempt to distort them to create yet another ‘boogey man’ hiding in the closet that he and only he can see.”

Defending Michelle Obama’s approach as “about personal responsibility” and not big government, Huckabee repeatedly took dead aim at Beck’s notorious penchant for conspiracy theories.

“He seems to fancy himself a prophet of sorts for his linking so many people and events together to describe a massive global conspiracy for pretty much everything,” he said.

He added that “Beck needs to stick to conspiracies that can’t be so easily de-bunked by facts. Why Beck has decided to aim his overloaded guns on me is beyond me. But he ought to clean his gun and point it more carefully lest it blow up in his face like it did this time.”

It was the second time this week Huckabee accused conservatives of unfairly labeling potential 2012 candidates as liberal. Earlier this week Huckabee defended Donald Trump from accusations by Club For Growth that his past support for universal health care tied him to the left, saying that “Under their criteria the things that Ronald Reagan had to do as governor and as president probably would have made him a tax-loving socialist unfit for the White House as well.”

Huckabee’s full statement:

This week Glenn Beck has taken to his radio show to attack me as a Progressive, which he has said is the same as a “cancer” and a “Nazi.” What did I do that apparently caused him to link me to a fatal disease and a form of government that murdered millions of innocent Jews? I had the audacity—not of hope—but the audacity to give respect to the efforts of First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign to address childhood obesity. I’m no fan of her husband’s policies for sure, but I have appreciated her efforts that Beck misrepresented—either out of ignorance or out of a deliberate attempt to distort them to create yet another “boogey man” hiding in the closet that he and only he can see. The First Lady’s approach is about personal responsibility—not the government literally taking candy from a baby’s mouth. He seems to fancy himself a prophet of sorts for his linking so many people and events together to describe a massive global conspiracy for pretty much everything. Sadly, he seems equally inept at recognizing the obvious fact that children are increasingly obese and that we now see clinical evidence of diseases in children that as recent as 20 years ago were found only in adults, such as Type 2 diabetes. The costs to our nation are staggering in increase health care expenses, but it even effects national security with now 75% of young men between the ages of 17 and 24 are unfit for military service primarily due to obesity! His ridiculous claim that John McCain and I collaborated and conspired in the 2008 campaign is especially laughable. Is he not aware that McCain and I were competitors—-not cohorts? Beck needs to stick to conspiracies that can’t be so easily de-bunked by facts. Why Beck has decided to aim his overloaded guns on me is beyond me. But he ought to clean his gun and point it more carefully lest it blow up in his face like it did this time.

Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee