Clinton blasts Huckabee, touts energy plan

DES MOINES - Democrat Hillary Clinton clashed Monday with another presidential candidate from Arkansas, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, declaring as 'totally unacceptable” his comments that President Obama was marching Israelis 'to the door of the oven” via a nuclear deal with Iran.

Clinton, who stopped by a LEED platinum-certified transportation center to tout her energy plan, told reporters it was 'fair game” for Republicans to disagree with particulars of the Iran agreement, but she said Huckabee crossed the line with remarks tying the issue to the World War II-era Holocaust in which millions of Jews died.

'Comments like these are offensive, and they have no place in our political dialogue. I'm disappointed, and I'm really offended personally,” said Clinton, who noted she has a 'cordial” relationship with Huckabee dating back to their Arkansas days.

Huckabee's comments to Breitbart News over the weekend also drew criticism from Obama during his visit to Ethiopia, which prompted the former Arkansas governor and 2016 GOP presidential candidate to issue a response Monday.

'What's ‘ridiculous and sad' is that President Obama does not take Iran's repeated threats seriously,” Huckabee said in a statement. '‘Never again' will be the policy of my administration and I will stand with our ally Israel to prevent the terrorists in Tehran from achieving their own stated goal of another Holocaust.”

Responding the Clinton later in the day, Huckabee said, 'Hillary Clinton came out of hiding today to attack my comments on Iran, calling them unacceptable, but what's truly unacceptable is a mushroom cloud over Israel.”

Clinton made her comments after touring the Des Moines Area Regional Transit state-of-the-art facility. DART general manager Elizabeth Presutti said it has reduced carbon emissions by nearly a half-million pounds, returned 86,000 kilowatts of electricity to the power grid, saved 2.8 million gallons of water via rainwater collection, and achieved other conservation savings that mirror goals Clinton hopes to produce with her energy proposal.

Under her plan, Clinton said she hopes to have 500 million solar panels installed nationwide by the end of her first four-year term and generate enough renewable energy through incentives and partnerships to power every American home within a decade.

'I want to get back to our country setting big, ambitious goals,” Clinton said in likening her plan to the space exploration goals set by President Kennedy in the 1960s.

Clinton didn't offer specifics on how much her plan would cost or how she would pay for it but used the efficiencies of the DART facility, which was funded by state and federal money, as evidence that 'a lot of these changes will pay for themselves.”

'This is one of the most urgent threats of our time, and we have no choice but to rise and meet it,” she added.

Clinton conceded that impediments likely will be 'powerful corporate interests” and Republicans in Congress who deny climate change.

Fred Brown, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, called Clinton's energy plan 'vague” and an attempt to change the subject away from the new developments in her secret email fiasco.