As ThinkProgress and The Progress Report have documented, there is a growing coalition of both Tea Party-backed conservatives and stalwart progressives who are coming together to call for reining in the bloated defense budget.

On Saturday, during an interview with Fox News, former Arkansas Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee joined this coalition by advocating for sensible cuts to the defense budget where they are warranted. When asked by host Dave Briggs about “some of the defense cuts” proposed in a recently-released report from President Obama’s deficit reduction commission, Huckabee responded by saying, “we’re still designing a lot of military hardware for a war that we don’t plan to fight.” He went on to say that our military “priorities don’t have to be bloated with a lot of stuff that really is not about keeping us safe and protecting and caring for veterans. So yes, there are areas of the defense budget that need to be looked at honestly”:

DAVE BRIGGS: I was surprised, though, that the right wasn’t as outspoken about some of the defense cuts that we need to make. A hundred billion dollars slashed out of that beast of a defense budget. It’s unpatriotic to come out and talk about the defense budget, but the Pentagon is accepting airplanes that they don’t even need.

HUCKABEE: They don’t need and that they don’t want. And what happens is, we’re still designing a lot of military hardware for a war that we don’t plan to fight. And, Robert Gates the Defense Department secretary, who I think has done an excellent job, and he has been one of those willing to grind sacred cows into hamburger and serve it rare, has really helped to identify ways in which we can keep ourselves strong, not cutting the military strength and not hurting veterans. There are two things Americans don’t want to do, number one, get weak and, number two, hurt the veterans who kept us free. But those priorities don’t have to be bloated with a lot of stuff that really is not about keeping us safe and protecting and caring for veterans. So yes, there are areas of the defense budget that need to be looked at honestly.

Watch it:

If Huckabee is really serious about reining in the defense budget, he can look to the Sustainable Defense Task Force (SDTF) report released earlier this year. The SDTF — which was chaired by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and staffed by some of the nation’s leading defense and budget experts — identified nearly $1 trillion in waste that can be cut from the defense budget over the next ten years simply by eliminating outdated Cold War-era programs. He could also reference a recent report by Center for American Progress experts Lawrence Korb and Laura Conley that lays out $108 billion in defense cuts in the current 2015 budget forecast.

By admitting that the Department of Defense is “bloated” and that the defense budget needs to be “looked at honestly,” Huckabee is joining a wide-ranging Tea Party-progressive coalition that includes major conservatives like Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Bob Corker (R-TN), along with proud progressives like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Jeff Merkely (D-OR).

However, this coalition will face resistance from establishment Republicans. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), speaking at today’s Foreign Policy Initiative conference “Restoring America’s Leadership of a Democratic World,” appeared to address this growing coalition. “Rand Paul, he’s already talked about withdrawals, cuts in defense,” said McCain. “I worry a lot about rise of protectionism and isolationism in the Republican Party.”

Today, Congress welcomes for orientation a new class of fresh-faced Republicans to Washington, DC. These newcomers also usher in a whole new brand of congressional leadership because, with the new House majority, the GOP’s veteran extremists are set to become Committee chairmen.

But not all Republicans are thrilled by this right-wing swing. Last week, a Republican Latino group — the Somos Republicans — wrote an open letter to presumptive House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and current House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) requesting that they reconsider entrusting Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) with House subcommittee on immigration and the House judiciary Committee chairmanships, respectively. Due to both King and Smith’s “defamatory” anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, the group warned that their leadership would insult Latinos and wreck the GOP’s chances in 2012:

As we are already looking toward the 2012 Presidential Elections, we respectfully ask you to take heed to our request out of concern for our nation. Congressmen Smith and King have repeatedly engaged in rhetoric that is aimed negatively toward Hispanics. Steve King has used defamatory language that is extremely offensive to Hispanics, which is found in numerous congressional records. We believe Steve King’s behavior is not appropriate for a high-level elected Republican who might be in charge of a committee that handles immigration rules. Steve King and Lamar Smith have adopted extreme positions on birthright citizenship, and promise legislation that would undermine the 14th amendment of the constitution, which both swore an oath to uphold.

While it is indeed the duty of the Judiciary and Immigration committees to oversee and enforce existing immigration laws, Representatives Smith and King have engaged in an ill-advised platform and rhetoric that has been perceived as insensitive with their inflammatory “immigration statements,” and this has caused an exodus of Hispanic voters to the Democratic party. We ask that you review Mr. King’s and Mr. Smith’s congressional statements desiring to “pass a bill out of the House to end the Constitution’s birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants,” or what Steve King has made reference to “anchor babies.” We find both this rhetoric and this un-constitutional conduct reprehensible, insulting and a poor reflection upon Republicans because we don’t want our Party to be viewed as the Party of changing the United States Constitution.

Failing to receive a response last week, the Somos Republicans sent an “urgent letter” Friday regrading King’s continued use of “defamatory language that is extremely offensive to Hispanics,” referring to another instance in which King used the term “anchor baby” when asked a question pertaining to Harry Reid and the DREAM Act on FOX News. King said that children qualifying for a path to citizenship under the DREAM Act “are illegal. They aren’t anchor babies that were born here and that received this practice of birthright citizenship. They came here illegally.”

The Somos Republicans are right to be worried. King has become “the right’s biggest anti-immigration flamethrower” by comparing “border-crossers to livestock,” describing illegal immigration as a “slow-motion terrorist attack,” and defending racial profiling because “looking illegal” is “common sense.” Earlier this month, King even announced his plans to advance legislation to “put an end to the anchor babies in this country.” In a quick look at Smith’s anti-immigration efforts, including ending birthright citizenship and preventing non-existent “de-facto amnesties,” the Wonk Room’s Andrea Nill notes that Smith will similarly “use his leadership position to push through his anti-immigrant agenda.”

Despite the seniority of these two bosom buddies, the GOP should heed the Somos Republicans warning. As Nill points out, the “GOP is quickly losing the few Latino leaders it once had.” And with a third of the incoming class chomping at the bit to end birthright citizenship and thus reduce legal immigration, Republicans are giving Latinos more incentive to abandon the Party. (HT: Iowa Independent)

Cross-posted at ThinkProgress.