Every politician has things in their past that can and will be used by their rivals and critics in an effort to bring them down. The smart ones frankly assess those gotchas and start formulating responses right away.

The dumb ones get caught flat-footed.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, surging in Iowa polls in the Republican presidential race, wrote on a questionnaire while running for U.S. Senate in 1992 that homosexuality is "aberrant" and "sinful."

"I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk," Huckabee wrote in the questionnaire for The Associated Press, which reported the answer on Saturday.

This is the kind of stuff you want to get out early and innoculate yourself--not what you want to come out a month before the primary. It follows quickly on the heels of Huckabee's deer-in-the-headlights imitation when asked about the NIE on Iran.

The man-who-would-be-our-leader blamed his staff for his ignorance.

He may be the Jesus party nominee already, but he's in way over his head for presidential politics.

Drudge reports that Democrat insiders have revealed that orders have come down from the highest levels to hold all fire on Mike Huckabee to enhance his chances of winning the Republican nomination and providing a easy kill in the general election.

Within the DNC, Huckabee is known as the "glass jaw -- and they're just waiting to break it."

In the last three weeks since Huckabee's surge kicked in, the DNC hasn't released a single press release criticizing his rising candidacy.

The last DNC press release critical of Huckabee appeared back on March 2nd.

[DNC Press Release Attack Summary:

Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) – 37% (99 press releases)
Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R-NY) – 28% (74)
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) – 24% (64)
Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) – 8% (20)
Governor Mike Huckabee – 2% (4)]

It quite clear who they fear most...

Update: Here's why they think so.

Mitt Romney apparently did well telling a 98% non-Mormon country that he doesn’t want to be a Mormon president; instead, he’s a man who wants to be President who happens to be Mormon. Meanwhile candidate Mike Huckabee showed himself to be a Baptist preacher first and foremost. That has long been a suspicion of Huckabee held by that small number of people who actually pay attention to politics 24 and 7. Huckabee’s remarks demonstrated that there is some basis to that fear–just as real voters are starting to pay attention. Not wise.

Huckabee cultifies Romney's religion more openly now with his query about Satan being Christ's brother. Romney should just let this stuff wash by. His speech on religion in American politics was necessary, more than sufficient, and will not be enhanced by explaining himself on Huckabee's terms. The Democrats are right about Huckabee's glass jaw in a general election, but he's also fragile in the GOP primaries. His broad conservative record is so lousy and his demeanour so, well, hucksterish, that rational conservatives actively dislike his candidacy (cf Powerline). An exception is John Hawkins who has a knack for picking losers in Hunter, Thompson and Huckabee His dislike of Romney is hard to explain on rational grounds altho he seeks to rationalize it with the idea that Romney is unelectable against Clinton.

Huckabee's rise has helped expose Thompson's and Giuliani's vulnerabilities. National Review's pragmatic endorsement of Romney takes those weaknesses into account and is hard to refute. I wonder if Huckabee may run as a populist independent when he loses the GOP nomination.

I guess it was inevitable--Mike Huckabee has advanced on a winning personality and unassailable Evangelical bona fides. Until now he hasn't been tested the way a leading candidate would be.

He's not ready.

What kind of frontrunner slings mud?

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, asks in an upcoming article, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

The article, to be published in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, says Huckabee asked the question after saying he believes Mormonism is a religion but doesn't know much about it. His rival Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, is a member of the Mormon church, which is known officially as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The authoritative Encyclopedia of Mormonism, published in 1992, does not refer to Jesus and Satan as brothers. It speaks of Jesus as the son of God and of Satan as a fallen angel, which is a Biblical account.

A spokeswoman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said Huckabee's question is usually raised by those who wish to smear the Mormon faith rather than clarify doctrine.

"We believe, as other Christians believe and as Paul wrote, that God is the father of all," said the spokeswoman, Kim Farah. "That means that all beings were created by God and are his spirit children. Christ, on the other hand, was the only begotten in the flesh and we worship him as the son of God and the savior of mankind. Satan is the exact opposite of who Christ is and what he stands for."

...a moron front-runner, that's who.

Notably, the obvious distortion masks the lesser known, but much more serious one--Huckabee doesn't know anything about the Mormons?

Bullshit.

In 1998, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) descended on Salt Lake City for their annual meeting. If you think that's an unusual choice, you'd be right. The number of SBC members in Utah is negligible, but the message would be unmistakable. In spite of nearly identical political and social mores, the SBC disdained association with Latter-day Saints in Jerry Falwell's abortive Moral Majority. As is custom for such annual meetings, there is a massive proselyting effort in the environs of the city, but for Salt Lake, the SBC produced a 50 minute video entitled, "the Mormon Puzzle" and distributed to ALL 40,000 Baptist congregations sending delegates to the meeting. In addition, the SBC also printed over 12,000 copies of "Mormonism Unmasked" The materials characterized Mormonism as a dangerous cult (a dehumanizing Evangelical perjorative) and a major threat to SBC interests. However it mainly instructed "messengers" on how to attack the beliefs of their Mormon targets. There was little doubt that this provocative action by the SBC was designed to be a showdown--the mainstream press sent its largest contingent ever to the Salt Lake City annual meeting, hoping for open warfare. In the end, Mormon church leadership simply encouraged its members to be courteous to their Baptist brethren and the story evaporated.

It is simply not credible that Mike Huckabee doesn't know anything about the religion (you can almost hear him say 'cult' under his breath). The SBC has spent decades and millions of dollars fostering hatred of Mormons.

Huckabee may well have jumped the shark with this ill-advised remark.

UPDATE: Huckabee apologizes personally to Romney after Iowa debate. Smart move, perhaps even genuine, but it still doesn't change the fact that Huckabee is being disingenuous about what he knows about the Mormon faith and how he regards them. Its telling that Huckabee has refused to release his sermons...

UPDATE II: Dave Calder commented that Mike Huckabee was a keynote speaker at the 1998 Salt Lake City annual meeting of the SBC. I've found corroboration for that claim.

Little Rock Newspapers 1998, July 2, 1998, Linda S. Caillouet

On Sunday evening, Gov. Mike Huckabee was the keynote speaker at the Pastors' Conference preceding the convention. His wife, Janet, accompanied him to Salt Lake City.

The Anchoress

My post on Huckabee's dissembling about what he "knows" about Mormonism got picked up by Hugh Hewitt on the Townhall blog and then subsequently by others.

Notably, some Huckabee boosters are reluctant to attach too much seriousness to the issue, but I believe they are being short-sighted. Let me explain.

Huckabee has repeated his feigned ignorance about Mormonism, and frankly its like former Klansman Robert Byrd claiming that he doesn't know much about 'negroes'.

Objectively, Huckabee probably doesn't know much about Mormonism in a theological sense, but he undoubtedly knows a great deal about the Southern Baptist Convention's vast body of apologetic work on Mormons. As I pointed out yesterday, the entire 15 million member conference were threatened enough by Mormons to hold an annual conference in Salt Lake City where theme was understanding the Mormon threat.

Dressed in Christian terminology, advocating traditional family values, and upholding conservative personal lifestyles, Mormons claim they are a Christian movement founded on the principles of Jesus Christ. Yet, Christians are confused by Mormons’ use of extra-biblical scriptures such as The Book of Mormon, unorthodox doctrines, and aggressive missionary efforts to convert them to the LDS church. So they ask, "What is the truth about Mormons?"

Its not just Huckabee who, as a SBC ordained minister, "knows" Mormonism--its an institutional "knowledge". One that produces distorted pictures of Mormon beliefs in a fashion indistinguishable from "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion"--the notorious anti-semitic tract that like anti-Mormon literature, survives in circulation for decades and centuries (regardless of how many times its refuted...)

The stuff is already making its way into the hands of Democrat flying monkeys. Oliver Willis posts a rather notorious cartoon produced by the Saints Alive Evangelical ministry lampooning Mormon beliefs.

If Huckabee wins the nomination, you can be sure that the Democrats will hang this body of "hate literature" around his neck and rhetorically ask the question of whether we really want a religious bigot as president. Its not just the Mormons. There is plenty of anti-Catholic stuff to go around as well.

The real issue though is more fundamental--Huckabee, as an institutional representative of the SBBC, will alienate Mormon voters. Democrats will work hard to make sure that happens.

So what does it matter if 5-6 million Mormons sulk at home? Well, its not the number of Mormons, its the concentration.

If you live in the Northeast, you may well have never met a Mormon, but Mormons are densely represented in a series of states that stretch from Montana to Arizona. They dominate states like Utah, Idaho and Wyoming and have very significant populations in Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Montana, California and Oregon.

Mormons can--all by themselves, deliver 10 electorial votes. (Utah, Idaho, Wyoming)

The can strongly affect 24 additional electoral votes in Arizona, Nevada and Colorado--all of which are going to be strongly contested in this election cycle.

If you depress the Mormon vote, you essentially gift-wrap these electoral votes for the Democratic nominee.

Lest we forget--the last election was won by 20 electoral votes.

As an ordained minister, Huckabee has an inherent authenticity with Evangelical voters, but his strength is also a weakness. Bush, as a mere congregant, never had to accept responsibility for anything except his personal faith, but Huckabee, as a former SBC convention president, has a direct responsibility for the policies of the institution. He very much needs his own "Faith in America" speech to assure all those of us who are unsuitably churched in the eyes of the SBC, that he won't establish a state religion.

Its going to be a little tough, since as Governor of Arkansas, he had the poor judgment to address the SBC as keynote speaker.

UPDATE: Rich Lowry bemoans the Republican party's flirting with huckicide.

Code Huckabee:

Even more troubling is the way he deals with questions about Romney's Mormon faith. Huckabee studied theology as a seminarian, yet when asked about Mormonism he becomes a country bumpkin who doesn't know anything beyond the rumors he has heard. He apologizes later -- as he did this week for his false suggestion that Mormons believe Satan is Jesus's brother -- but by then, of course, the damage is done. Huckabee could easily allay fundamentalist voters' qualms about Romney's beliefs, or at least put them in context. He chooses not to.

The Anchoress

A month ago, Mike Huckabee had a theology degree.

People look at my record and say that I’m as strong on immigration, strong on terror as anybody. In fact I think I’m stronger than most people because I truly understand the nature of the war that we are in with Islamo fascism. These are people that want to kill us. It’s a theocratic war. And I don’t know if anybody fully understands that. I’m the only guy on that stage with a theology degree.

When Jim Geraghty wrote that Huckabee's claim that the New York Times reporter interviewing him knew more about Mormonism that he did was so much crap, Huckabee's director of research, Joe Carter emailed him this "clarification"

Governor Huckabee doesn’t have a theology degree. He only spent a year in seminary.

Also, it’s not surprising that he doesn’t know much about the specific beliefs of the LDS church. There aren’t a lot of LDS members in Arkansas; they comprise just .007 percent of the population (about 20,000 out of 2,810,872 people). Most Southern evangelicals don’t have much exposure to that particular religion. Even in seminary you’re not likely to study the LDS faith unless you take a class on apologetics.

My bullshit meter is redlining.

Its true that the southern states have rather small populations of LDS, which begs the question why the SBC is so exercised over the Mormon threat--enough to provocatively hold an annual meeting focused on the "Mormon threat" in Salt Lake City?

If seminarians don't study Mormons, is it safe to say that they don't study Islam either? Muslims constitute 1/6th the number of Mormons in Arkansas and Huckabee still managed to brag about how well he understood Islam.

For a Christian, he sure is a good liar. For a politician, he sure is a bad one.

First job for Ed Rollins--save the candidate from himself.

"I have a bachelor of arts in religion and a minor in communications in my undergraduate work. And then I have 46 hours on a master's degree at Southwestern Theology Seminary. So, my degree as a theological degree is at the college level and then 46 hours toward a masters -- three years of study of New Testament Greek, and then the rest of it, all in Seminary was theological studies, but my degree was actually in religion."

Hmmm. Sounds like Mike has a lot more theological education than his director of research claimed.

Governor Huckabee doesn’t have a theology degree. He only spent a year in seminary.

Let's remember what this is all about--Huckabee desperately trying to throw the media off what he knows and doesn't know about Mormon theology.

"I don't know much about Mormonism..."

"The reporter knew more about Mormonism than I do..."

"I do know a lot about Islam..."

"I have a theology degree"

"I don't have a theology degree"

"I only spent a year study theology"

"Actually I have an undergraduate degree and 46 hours of a masters degree..."

All this avoid too many questions about what Huckabee actually "knows" about Mormonism, Catholicism and any other religion the Southern Baptists label a "cult". A little sleight of hand--take the small hit to avoid the really big one...

Huckabee spends big money of Christmas greetings and displays the cross in the background so you can sure he's the candidate of the "right" Jesus.

Who's your favorite philosopher Mike?

Huckabee presents an interesting paradox. He is where he is because he's an authentic Christian, but he keeps getting caught in very unChristian-like lies about his motivations and actions.

I was shocked when his interview with the New Yorker magazine included the throw-away line, "I don't know much about Mormonism", when not only is it a significant element in the education of any Southern Baptist minister, Huckabee while governor of Arkansas, was a keynote speaker at an anti-Mormon themed annual meeting of the SBC provocatively held in Salt Lake City in 1998.

When several media people picked up on this, his campaign supported his claim of ignorance by claiming that he had never completed his theology degree. That statement proved problematic because he had publicly stated that he was particularly well-situated to deal with Islamofascism because he was the only candidate with a theology degree.

Clarification ensued, but it hasn't changed the fact that Huckabee had the intent to deceive, claiming expertise and ignorance when it was political convenient to do so.

The Huckabee campaign then spends big bucks to wish everyone a Merry Christmas

"If we are so politically correct in this country that a person can't say enough of the nonsense with the political attack ads could we pause for a few days and say Merry Christmas to each other then we're really, really in trouble as a country," Huckabee said.

Notably, he was only wishing the folks in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina a Merry Christmas--nothing political about that. The floating cross in the background was of course code to Evangelical voters--Jesus want you to vote for me...not the first time Jesus has been used to promote bigotry.

I'm just wondering if this actually works or not. I'm used to hypocrisy from the left, but my impression of Evangelicals is that they take their principles seriously. A lying Christian is a pretty dramatic contradiction

A leader must have vision, must be trusted and must be accountable. Other than that, they can be short, tall, bald, black, female or gay.

What they cannot be are whiners.

I have policy differences with Mike Huckabee and I think other candidates (Romney) are better qualified, but until very recently I wouldn't have said that Mike Huckabee was unqualified to be president.

Now I am saying it.

"Everything but the kitchen sink is being thrown at me," the Republican leader in Iowa polls complained at nearly every stop. "If the only thing some of these candidates have to run on is what's wrong with somebody else, they must not have much of a platform to talk about."

The former Arkansas governor recently soared from behind the pack of GOP presidential candidates to overtake Mitt Romney in Iowa and now finds himself in an intense battle with the former Massachusetts governor. Fred Thompson, the one-time Tennessee senator trying to turn his soured fortunes around in Iowa, also has assailed Huckabee.

At one stop Thursday, Huckabee told an audience that the flood of "dishonest and desperate" criticisms were akin to candidates taking a hammer to his kneecaps. "It's amazing I'm still walking," Huckabee quipped to laughter.

Poor Mike, trolling for sympathy, complaining about all those big meanies questioning his record. Next thing we know, he'll be talking to us with a sweater on, complaining about malaise in America.

UPDATE: The whining from the Huckabee camp turns into drunken company Christmas party foolishness.

"Honestly, because Rush doesn’t think for himself. That’s not necessarily a slap because he’s not paid to be a thinker—he’s an entertainer. I can’t remember the last time that he has veered from the talking points from the DC/Manhattan chattering class. If they were praising Huckabee, he would be too."

"Also, I have to think that he’s dying to have Hillary in the White House. Bill Clinton made Rush a megastar. Having another Clinton back in power would make him the Leading Voice of the Opposition once again."

Diss Bush, diss Limbaugh. Load gun, put to temple, pull trigger.

Only a fool would misunderestimate either one of them.

The Southern Baptists have politics. There are liberal and conservative Baptists, just as there are liberal and conservative Jews, Catholics and Mormons.

Robert Novak observes that Mike Huckabee isn't just liberal on taxes, but liberal on Jesus too, and that its a mistake to assume the Evangelicals will line up behind him.

When Mike Huckabee went to Houston on Tuesday to raise funds for his fast-rising, money-starved presidential candidacy, a luncheon for the ordained Baptist minister was arranged by evangelical Christians. On hand was Judge Paul Pressler, a hero to Southern Baptist Convention reformers. But he was a nonpaying guest who supports Fred Thompson for president.

There has been a tendancy in the media and by some bloggers to characterize social conservatives as single issue voters, separate and distinct from security and fiscal conservatives. John Hawkins Huckenfreude post

All year long, when Rudy Giuliani was looking like the strongest candidate, despite the fact that he was completely blowing off social conservatives, we kept hearing that social conservatives should suck it up and vote for him anyway.

That's all well and good. In fact, it's exactly the same thing that I said.

However, then when Mike Huckabee started producing burly enough poll numbers to put the shoe on the other foot, a lot of the same people who were telling social conservatives to suck it up started freaking out. Oh, he's so religious! He doesn't buy into evolution! He's a former preacher! I'd rather vote for a Democrat than Huckabee!

This is entirely misleading. While there are single issue conservatives, they are vanishingly small minorities. I live in arguable the most Republican county in the most Republican state in the country (and I love it...), but I've never talked to anyone who came remotely close to being one of these mythical single issue voters--fiscal, social or security.

What we have instead of people with varying intensity on the range of conservative issues.

As demonstrated by his Christmas Greeting, the floating cross and the subsequent denial that he was doing anything "political" with the now infamous commercial, Huckabee thinks his co-religionists are morons.

I suspect he'll soon discover that they are far more sophisticated and smarter than he gives them credit for.

Slate did some digging into the dynamics underlying, presidential candidate and Baptist pastor, Mike Huckabee’s smear on Mormons:

In the early 1980s, Southern Baptist Convention leaders discovered—much to their horror—that 40 percent of Mormonism's 217,000 converts in 1980 came from Baptist backgrounds.

…And the SBC got serious about tempering the expansion of what was becoming the fastest-growing religion in the world. They developed programs, trained pastors, hosted Mormonism-awareness conferences, and published articles to help spread the message to Southern Baptists that Mormonism was a dangerous cult religion they had to avoid.

Huckabee may obfuscate what he knows or doesn't know about Mormons, but rest assured he knows Baptists and is making no subtle attempt to tap into their fears about Mormons.

Bob Dole writes an open letter to Mike Huckabee published in the Des Moines Register.

"As a veteran, I worry about the future security of the good people of Iowa and all other Americans. We are engaged in a global war on terror which will not disappear because you imply a willingness, without any preconditions apparently, to sit down with the enemy. Sure we can all find fault with President Bush and his Administration on policy matters and phases of the Iraq policy. I doubt however Iowans will applaud second guessing more than five years after the agony of 9-11, particularly since you have been either silent or supportive during the interim as far as I can determine.

"The Foreign Affairs piece is a perfect example of 20-20 hindsight, and wishful thinking in most instances. You make knotty foreign policy issues sound so easy if we would just change our ways. I never was a foreign policy expert though I followed it closely for nearly three decades under Democrat and Republican Presidents.

"The great majority of Americans regardless of party, place liberty, freedom and security as top priorities. I'm certain you do too but I am troubled about some of the statements attributed to you in the Foreign Affairs article."

Bob Dole won the Iowa primaries on two occasions. This might sting a little.

Its remarkable how much Mike Huckabee has changed my opinion of him in a few short weeks.

I used to think he was a charming fellow...

Romney got criticism for saying he saw his father march with Martin Luther King, which of course wasn't accurate while still being true. Huckabee seems to have mastered the modern liberal skill of lying accurately.

I took a $200 million deficit and turned it into an $850 million surplus; he left Massachusetts with over a billion dollars of unpaid bills,'' Huckabee said. ``He left them with a road system that was in shambles, bridges that are about to collapse. I left my state with a road system that was completely rebuilt, went from being one of the worst in the country to one of the best in the country.''

OK, so sometimes he just outright lies.

Romney erased a 3 billion dollar deficit and produced a 700 million surplus in his final year in office. He radically cut spending. Romney did raise fees by 259 million in fees, mostly on deed registration fees. What is the difference between a tax and a fee? Fees are assessed in exchange for a government service and taxes imposed broadly as an obligation. You can avoid a fee by simply not purchasing a particular service, but you can't avoid a tax.

Huckabee on the other hand, left office with 37% higher sales tax in Arkansas, 16% higher motor fuel taxes, and 103% higher cigarette taxes according to Americans for Tax Reform (01/07/07), garnering a lifetime grade of D from the free-market Cato Institute. He increased spending 65.3% over his term--three times the rate of inflation. The size of government increased 20%. Debt obligation increased by 1 billion.

So what about the title of this post?

I don't think a person's faith ought to be a plus or minus,'' Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital with Al Hunt,'' scheduled to air today. ``I would not want to think that people vote for me only because I'm a Christian.''

Well, you certainly can't vote for him because of his conservative economic or foreign policy views, so the only reason left is because he's a Christian.

Take him at his word.

Addendum: What kind of social conservative takes $52,000.00 in speaking fees from an embryonic stem cell research group?

UPDATE: Huckabee claims Bolton as foreign policy advisor. Bolton responds, "huh?"

The Huckabee campaign is scrambling to assemble some sort of advisory board on foreign policy, emailing Newt Gingrich and others. My question is--shouldn't a presidential candidate do this before announcing?

Mike Huckabee has referred to the Romney campaign as "desperate", which is good political rhetoric at this point because it suggests both that his own victory and his rival's defeat is inevitable.

More recently though, Huckabee has added a very curious adjective that at very least amounts to a personal attack on Romney.

“Mitt Romney is running a very desperate and, frankly, a dishonest campaign,” Huckabee said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in Des Moines. “If you aren’t being honest in obtaining the job, can we trust you if you get the job?”

Huckabee doesn't say whether Romney is dishonestly characterizing his record as governor in Arkansas, or if he referring to the hullabaloo over the claim that George Romney marched with Martin Luther King. His own website has no repudiation of Romney's charges regarding his record, but it does have a main page link to a blog post that suggests that George Romney never marched with Martin Luther King.

More importantly though, the repeated claim of Romney's dishonesty may be more than it appears--it may in fact be code for his Evangelical supporters that they have to rally against the Mormon

For over 150 years, anti-Mormon literature prominently features the accusation of dishonesty above virtually all others. Evangelicals have been inundated with a torrent of literature, film and guest speakers who relentless hammer the theme of Mormon dishonesty in much the same way Jews are associated with sharp-dealing (I got "jewed"...).

The premise of the charge of Mormon dishonesty is based on Mormonism's most fundamental claim:

My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.

I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.”

Fighting words...Joseph Smith, and by extension the Mormon church, has to be dishonest, because if they are not, then Evangelical Christianity is a "false".

Politicians usuallyprefer more polite terms like "disingenuous" and "dissembling", but Huckabee eschewed them for a code word to his Evangelical supporters.

Stop the Mormon.

WIth an estimated 40% of Republican caucus goers uncommitted at this point, any mistake by a campaign is potentially fatal, and Huckabee blew a hole in his head with the laughable tactic of having a negative Romney ad ready to go and calling a press conference to say that he wasn't releasing it...and then showing it to the media.

Today, the campaign is working furiously on damage control, claiming that Huckabee's sentiment that they shouldn't run negative ads is genuine and not contrived.

Good luck with that.

Politico is reporting that the cost to pull the ad was actually considerably more than the $30,000.00 Huckabee claimed during the press conferences--$150.000.00 of scarce campaign cash. This is supposed to impress us with how principled Huckabee is, but the reality is that it demonstrates how completely unprepared this man is to go up against the likes of Hillary Clinton.

It actually brings up the issue of whether Huckabee has the stones to compete against street-fighters like the Clintons. If principles are what you stand for, the you're willing to lose the election to maintain those principles. I personally don't want a candidate who won't go to the wall to win.

I actually don't believe it is a matter of principle but rather a simple calculation of whether a negative ad would damage Huckabee's "affable" image more than it would spike Romney.

More importantly, how can he claim to be the Christian candidate by acting "unChristian"?

This simply highlights the larger problem--Huckabee isn't a candidate that appeals to the broad coalition of conservatives. Even among social conservatives, Huckabee narrowly appeals to Evangelicals and not even to all of them. The peculiar demographics of Iowa are working for him, but its hard to see how he translates that into a national candidacy.

UPDATE: Chuck Norris wants to choke Mitt Romney. Mitt should just crush him with his wallet.

Rush Limbaugh damned Huckabee with faint praise today:

"Ladies and gentlemen, Gov. Huckabee, mighty fine man and is a great Christian, is not a conservative, he’s just not," Limbaugh said. "If you look at his record as governor, he’s got some conservative tendencies on things but he’s certainly not the most conservative of the candidates running on the Republican side."

Does this make a difference?

Quite possibly. Who you hear something from is often far more important than what is being said. Rush Limbaugh is perhaps one voice that can compete with Pastor Mike's. He has that kind of trust even among Evangelical social conservatives.

If this article is accurate, then Mike Huckabee might want to take a day off and think about his campaign.

As in Iowa, where he won the Republican caucuses, the cash-strapped Huckabee is relying on pastors to help get out the vote. And he also has the support of some in the political establishment - Beasley is one - giving him organizing power he lacked in other early voting states. That could make a difference to pragmatic evangelical voters, who want a candidate who could actually win the nomination.

His background has given him some advantages. He spoke in early November at a "pastors' policy briefing" similar to those staged in Iowa and New Hampshire, where local pastors can meet with national Christian Huckabee supporters.

"He's had wonderful opportunities to talk to the 'grasstops,' these pastors who preach to hundreds of people, while not spending any money," said Oran Smith, executive director of the Palmetto Family Council, an anti-abortion group that has remained neutral on the presidential race. "Being a Baptist minister and a candidate for president, no one would want to turn him away."

White evangelicals account for 53 percent of the state's likely Republican voters, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Is this a winning strategy?

I don't mean can you win a primary with it, but rather can you win the presidential election solely on the backs of Evangelical voters?

I think the answer to that is rather obvious. Evangelicals are a major political force in the country, but only as part of a coalition, and Mike has done precious little to reach past his natural constituency.

That presents a problem, not just for Huckabee, but for the Republican party, the Evangelical community and for the country.

For years, Liberals have expressed concern about the separation of church and state, doubtless in a self-serving manner, but the claims get more credibility every time Evangelicals give the appearance of a naked power grab. Its fine to have a President who is an Evangelical, but its a problem when you want an Evangelical President.

There is a difference--a rather obvious one, between advocacy of policy and the will to power. One is an argument, the other is a war.

Huckabee has the will to power, and I don't think he cares how much harm he does on the road to realizing his ambitions. After Iowa, he had a chance to broaden his appeal, but its fairly clear at this point that he's failed and that he doesn't care. His strategy, his rhetoric, his debate performances--all clear, narrow and unambiguous appeals to his coreligionists to vote for him purely on the basis of their mutual confession.

The problem is that Huckabee is a Christian, but not a conservative. He is a walking, guitar-playing deal-breaker. To nominate him would create a Pyrrhic victory--a broken coalition of social, economic and foreign policy conservatives and a Democrat victory in November. Some may argue that he's better than Clinton and/or Obama, but voting for the lesser of two evils is hardly a recipe for a winning GOTV effort.

I find myself wishing for his political immolation at anyone's hands.

Andy McCarthy on Taliban Huck:

Huckabee is made to order for the Left: his rhetoric embodies their heretofore lunatic indictment that we're no better that what we're fighting against. Let's "amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards"? Who needs to spin when the script speaks for itself? Where has Huck been for the last seven years? Does he not get that our enemies — the people who want to end our way of life — believe they are simply imposing God's standards?

While Jihad Joe and Taliban Huck have the same slogan, they answer to different gods - and that's the problem for the rest of us, including those on the left seeking to esconch their god, Gaia, into our country's pantheon. The only religion I want from the Constitution is to be free to exercise mine as I please and for you to do likewise.

H/T Hugh Hewitt

I'm not at all sure that Mike Huckabee understands where he is in the race at this point. From a senior campaign advisor:

"I think the free pass for McCain is over. The next few days in South Carolina will be rough and tumble. Although we will continue to take the high road I think you will see a message develop; us vs them. Governor Huckabee is the only one in the race not from Washington and does not have a cadre of Washington consultants and special interest in his campaign. The Club for Growth attack ads have been funded by many of Mitt Romney's top fundraisers and they continue to attack Gov Huckabee with distortions and untruths. South Carolina knows the difference between K street and Main street. Governor Huckabee is from Main street and understands the struggles that most of Americans are going through. He is only one talking about Kitchen table issues and jobs, been talking about all year. Most of the other folks are jumping on that bandwagon but the people here know the truth."

Perhaps you're aware of the aphorism that if you're in a card game and you don't know who the patsy is--you're the patsy. This isn't quite true for Huckabee--he thinks McCain is the patsy.

He's wrong.

Huckabee hopes that the other candidates will beat up on McCain, but Romney has already hinted that he needs McCain to win in South Carolina to split the vote in Florida with the other foreign policy candidate--Rudy Giuliani. Thompson is clearly more focused on wooing potential Huckabee supporters.

Huckabee of course has painted himself into a corner on his so-called principled and positive campaigning style. At first he couldn't afford to do otherwise, but now he's made it a hallmark of his campaign. If he doesn't slam McCain, who will?

Huckabee also seems to think that he can continue playing the victim of the power structure. Those nasty Club for Growth guys are being mean to him.

I think he's going to need a bigger devil.

Rich Lowry apparently has more in common with Chris Matthews than you might expect.

Both he and Matthews figure discretion to be the better part of valor, or at least a smart way to keep getting invited to the swell parties in Washington.

Lowry credits the media's fawning coverage of Huckabee to the Huckster's superhuman PR skills.

If he won't tell you, I will: Occams' razor suggests that this is simply a matter of the liberal media working to pick the sacrificial lamb Republican nominee.

While living in Virginia I couldn't plant a garden without having it overrun by squirrels. I never really had much sympathy for them since. They must have really bothered Mike Huckabee:

"... When I was in college, we used to take a popcorn popper, because that was the only thing they would let us use in the dorm, and we would fry squirrels in a popcorn popper in the dorm room."

There's even a recipe!