· Ex-Gov. Huckabee (R) Skeptical of Effectiveness of Condoms

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) – Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister campaigning for president here Wednesday, cast doubt on the effectiveness of condom use in combating AIDS in Africa.

Asked by CNN if he would direct US funds to health programs that provide condoms in Africa, Huckabee demurred.

"I’d want to see how that’s used … I've been a little reluctant to think that condoms alone are the most effective way,” Huckabee said. “It certainly is more effective than not having them. But I think helping people understand that condoms do have a failure rate, and they are not totally 100 percent successful. And it gives some people a false sense of security thinking that they can still live dangerously and recklessly and that that’s going to be a fail safe protection when it obviously is not.”

· Sen. Grassley (R-IA) Says Pres. Bush Misunderstands Bill

With the Iraq war dominating the debate in Washington, President Bush has picked a fresh fight on the domestic policy front with his threat to veto bipartisan legislation that would expand a popular children's health care program.

And that veto threat has angered one of the most important Republicans negotiating on the bill: Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

After hearing Bush say Thursday that he was going to veto the bill in part because it would allow families of four making $80,000 to place their children on the the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), Grassley blasted the president, saying his assertion was dead wrong.

"The president has been served wrong information about what our bill will do," Grassley said Thursday between Senate votes. "There's nothing in our bill that would do that. His understanding of the bill was wrong."

Bush, in a morning news conference, told reporters that "Congress has made the decision to expand the program up to $80,000. ... This is a step toward federalization of health care."

Grassley said that a waiver to allow higher income families to utilize SCHIP has been taken out of the conference committee compromise forged between House and Senate negotiators over the past two days.