Mike Huckabee said Friday that he does not remember if he even wrote the line in a controversial journal article calling President Bush's foreign policy "arrogant bunker mentality," after the article drew criticism from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The Republican presidential candidate's piece in the January-February edition of Foreign Affairs said that Bush's foreign policy is "counterproductive," and urged a shift in diplomatic tone. GOP rival Mitt Romney afterward condemned the comments and Rice called them "simply ludicrous" on Friday.

But Huckabee told reporters aboard a bus in Iowa that he was not the sole author of that piece.

"I wrote most of the article, but I had help ... There was probably eight or 10 people involved," he said, explaining that it went through several re-writes.

Asked if he wrote the "bunker mentality" line, he said: "I certainly approved it ... I don't remember if that was mine but I take responsibility for it."

He said he had "nothing but respect and admiration" for Rice, and that the article "was not an attack on President Bush. It was in fact a specific observation about that part of (the Bush administration's) policies."

Rice made a brief foray into election politics on Friday when she denounced Huckabee's assessment.

"The idea that somehow this is a go-it-alone policy is just simply ludicrous," she said at a State Department news conference. "One would only have to be not observing the facts, let me say that, to say that this is now a go-it-alone foreign policy." 

Huckabee later suggested Rice's comments weren't based on the entire article, saying, "Did she actually read the article or is she reacting as others have to the headlines and to the synopsis that has been printed?"

Rice, though, did not mention Huckabee by name in her response to a question about his criticism and at first declined to respond, saying dismissively: "Look, I don't comment on other people's comments. I don't have time, all right. I really don't have time to worry about this."

But she then launched into a vigorous defense of the administration's multilateral diplomatic efforts on Afghanistan, North Korea and Iran, and pointed to improving ties with traditional allies in Europe, some of which were strained by the Iraq war.

"We have right now probably the strongest trans-Atlantic relations ... I would say in a very long time," Rice said, noting in particular Britain, France and Germany.

"We're working with allies in Europe, Russia and China on Iran. The (NATO) alliance is mobilized together in Afghanistan," she said. "We had 50-plus countries at Annapolis to launch the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. We're working together with allies in Lebanon.

"I can go on and on and on and on," Rice concluded. "And so, I would just say to people, look at the facts.

Romney defended Bush last Saturday, and said Huckabee's comments sounded like they were coming from a Democrat.

In the article, Huckabee -- or at least his advisers -- wrote: "American foreign policy needs to change its tone and attitude, open up, and reach out ... The Bush administration's arrogant bunker mentality has been counterproductive at home and abroad. My administration will recognize that the United States' main fight today does not pit us against the world but pits the world against the terrorists."

In one specific criticism, Huckabee said Bush did not send enough troops to invade Iraq. And he accused the president of marginalizing Gen. Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, who said at the outset of the war that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the invasion. "I would have met with Shinseki privately and carefully weighed his advice," the article said.

Even if Huckabee didn't write the "bunker mentality" line, he's still espoused that criticism before.

The former Arkansas governor said at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event in September that the "administration's bunker mentality has been counterproductive, both at home and abroad. They've done a poor job of communicating and consulting with other countries, just as they have, frankly, with the American people."  

FOX News' Serafin Gomez and Carl Cameron and The Associated Press contributed to this report.