Huckabee Watch

Benjamin Franklin once reportedly quipped, “Never pick a quarrel with someone who buys their ink in barrels.”

Nowadays, that adage can be extended to other forms of media: cable news, blogs, and — especially for conservatives — radio.

Emboldened by his sustained momentum in the face of snipes from the Left and Right, Huckabee’s campaign is cavalierly dissing Limbaugh. It started with a quote attributed to an unnamed “ally” within the campaign:

“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.”

When seeing this, I immediately thought, “Romney.” I thought it was pretty clever, too. So far, they’ve done a spectacular job at shoring up establishment support, even without The National Review endorsement. Drudge certainly hasn’t held back in linking to negative stories on Huckabee, leading many to assume he’s in the tank with Romney.

(more after jump…)

(more…)

“Hello all you happy people. You know what? I’m still going to win Iowa.”

The gloves are coming off, particularly on the Right…

You know you’ve rocked the boat when, as a Republican, you get this kind of rough treatment from Fox News Sunday.

Andrew Sullivan is (unsurprisingly) dismayed by Huckabee’s non-apology for the AIDS quarantine remarks, finds echoes of Bush.

National Review jumps Huckabee on foreign policy.

Huck (playa) hates Mormons? Drudge started this story by posting the speech - with friends like these…

Romney is “convinced as people take a good hard look at Mike Huckabee’s record, they’ll see this is a guy who is soft on criminals, soft on illegal aliens, but hard on taxpayers. And that’s not what’s going to lead the Republican party to take the White House.”
And Mitt will be the first to air a GOP-on-GOP attack ad, targeting Huckabee on immigration.

On the other hand - is all this Huckabee-bashing too little too late?

No wonder Mitt’s scared. From the WP: “Huckabee may well advance to the nomination finals,” said John Weaver, who was McCain’s chief strategists until they had a parting of the ways last summer, “and in doing so accomplish something neither Rudy or McCain could do: eliminate Romney.”

We already knew South Carolina would be a pitch straight into Huckabee’s wheelhouse, but keep an eye on what is sure to be an emerging story: Huckabee’s Iowa surge is starting to impact the New Hampshire polls.

And last but not least, Frank Rich asks whether Huck could be “The Republican Obama”. This is great press, but I’m more intrigued by Cornel West’s endorsement!
Even Barack can’t claim that.

Dawning the cover of this week’s Newsweek (as we kind of predicted), Mike Huckabee’s last few days with the press have been tumultuous, and as of noon today, everything seems to indicate this week could be worse than last.

A few noteworthy developments:

First there was the Huffington Post’s piece with Murray Waas unearthing new details in the Wayne Dumond scandal. Then on Saturday, the main Drudge headline ran an AP story of a questionnaire response in 1992. Huckabee implied those afflicted with HIV/AIDS should be quarantined. He also called homosexuality “sinful”. On Sunday he defended himself against both, but didn’t apologize. The Newsweek piece is mostly positive, but it raises some new questions about Huckabee’s past dealings with the tobacco industry. And today, the National Review carries a piece by conservative David Sanders discussing Jackson Stephens’ bankrolling a campaign against Huckabee based on his tax record, along with a diatribe on Huckabee’s foreign policy stances.

Where does all this leave Huckabee?

After reading Drudge’s Saturday headline on how “HUCKABEE WANTED TO QUARANTINE AIDS PATIENTS”, I initially thought, Wow — this is pretty radioactive stuff. Yet now I’m not so sure.

First of all, a 2:1 lead in Iowa against Romney will be hard to dent. Then we have to remember only 100,000 republicans in Iowa will show up to caucus. That number is very low. These 100,000 caucus-goers are hard line republicans. I’m still digging around for data to back this claim, but conservatives’ perceptions on HIV/AIDS and homosexuality aren’t too different than what Huckabee was saying in ‘92 (and stands by today). Huckabee could actually gain support based on his comments.  The Newsweek cover / story is a huge plus for Huckabee; anyone who isn’t taking him seriously now is just stupid.  He’s bruised at best, but still poised to win Iowa.

I’m on the edge of my seat over the latest polls in IA, NH and SC — if he gets a bump after his toughest week of press yet, he will be the nominee.

At this point, he has everything to lose.