Mike Huckabee To The Rescue?

Examining this photograph of Hillary Clinton and John McCain taken at a military ceremony in Texas yesterday, GreenMountainPolitics1 has to assume that Senator McCain did not get the John Weaver/Mark Halperin memo.

So Noted.

Therefore, we were not surprised to read our new friend Jon Martin's piece, GOP Right Sees Lemons in White House Race, in today's Politico (which also made Drudge. Nice Jon).

Contemplating the current field of Republican presidential candidates, Rush Limbaugh sounded like a man with malaise.

"To be honest with you, there's nobody out there that revs me up," he confessed to his audience of several million conservative sympathizers on his radio show last week, "so why should I pretend there is?"

What for much of the past year has been an undercurrent of grumbling on the right about the top tier of Republican contenders -- Sen. John McCain of Arizona, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani -- is lately on the rise in both frequency and volume. Limbaugh's sour note is the most striking of examples.

From consultants to bloggers to talk show hosts, there is a climate of suspicion -- at times bordering on contempt -- among conservative activists about their 2008 choices.

Good Conservatives are clearly upset. And when Good Conservatives are upset I'm upset because this New England Yankee is proud to claim several friends as Good Conservatives.

Just not you Rush.

The only two things that you prove is that small men can master radio and that if you're a pill-popping hate monger who uses a servant to buy illegal drugs, well, you're most likely going to get caught.

Not that it was your fault.

But we digress.

While we are unapologetic supporters of Senator John McCain, we understand that there are members of the Republican Party who are "Anyone But McCain" and who are looking for an alternative.

It's what politics is all about.

And so far the only alternatives to John McCain have been Governor Big Love and Hiz Honor.

But there is hope.

Hope, Arkansas to be exact.

GreenMountainPolitics1 asks, yet again, what about former Southern Fat Boy Mike Huckabee?

We've been following the former Arkansas Governor for months and we like what we see. I mean, we really like what we see.

We think Huckabee is the most legitimate "Anyone But McCain" candidate out there and has a far better chance of winning the Republican nomination than either Love or RUDEy.

And, Governor Huckabee's politics aren't really our politics, which means that Governor Huckabee should be picture perfect for my friends on the Right.

Watch Huckabee on The Daily Show. A true social conservative who gets loud cheers and applause on a liberal New York City comedy show? That's something.



Read Huckabee's transcript from last weekend's Meet The Press. He talks easily about abortion, gay marriage, personal faith and why (shudder the thought) good fiscal conservatives are sometimes forced to raise taxes.

And while the shakedown machine Americans For Tax Reform might disagree, Pete Peterson and I would like to go on the record and say that tax and spend Democrats are just as bad for our economy as borrow and spend Republicans.

We will not argue that Governor Huckabee has an easy road. He will need to fight Big Love and Hiz Honor to raise $15 million by the end of this quarter. He will need to fight them for campaign staff.

But Huckabee's candidacy is for real.

The Anyone But McCain crowd could do themselves a large favor and realize who they've already got.