The American Spectator

p> SELF-EMPLOYED br> One line of questioning former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is sure to get next week on Meet the Press (despite reports otherwise, Huckabee had not confirmed his appearance as early as a week ago): how he makes a living. /p>

According to his financial disclosure documents for 2007, Huckabee’s income appears to come from a small pension and his wife’s salary — as well as speaking honoraria placed solely through “12 Stops, Inc.,” a company set up to handle funds he made from book sales, and for which he is a named corporate officer. A Huckabee campaign aide said that Huckabee’s speeches were placed by a speaker’s bureau and the honorarium was paid for by Huckabee’s company. “Essentially, he paid himself to speak,” says the aide, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the press.

This isn’t the first time Huckabee has paid himself. As Arkansas lieutenant governor Huckabee was embarrassed when it was revealed that he supplemented his state income through payments he made to himself via the nonprofit he had set up, Action America.