I've been sympathetic to Huckabee during the nomination, but that's over now. All of those who were warning that Huckabee was a flim flam who would lead the GOP in the wrong direction, hear this loudly. You were absolutely right, and while McCain is another wrong direction, Huckabee would have been no better.

This all stems from this blog post at The Next Right detailing Huckabee standing up for Don Young, the pork king of Alaska (and sadly, a Republican). It concludes:

Huckabee's followers understand enough about fiscal / social conservative fusionism that you don't throw your weight behind an unelectable Republican whose "Bridge to Nowhere" branded the Congressional GOP as beyond redemption. And you don't do it by touting his ability to bring home highway funds!

I detected more than a little bit of anti-religious right bias in the opposition to Huckabee, but this goes to show that you don't need to distrust the religious light to conclude that Huckabee's no good. He doesn't understand conservative principles, he doesn't understand that the bridge to nowhere branded the 2004-2006 GOP as a bunch of corrupt pigs, and he is definitely not going to lead an effort to reform the GOP for the future. The faster we are rid of him, the better.

It's not a bad idea:

An increasingly favorable attitude toward Mike Huckabee inside the conservative movement, nurtured by his presidential campaign against Sen. John McCain, is threatened by the former Arkansas governor's refusal to run against Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor this year.

Polls show Huckabee is the only Republican with a chance to unseat first-termer Pryor. He has until March 10 to file against Pryor, six days after what could be his final presidential campaign effort in the Texas primary. During a recent Washington breakfast with reporters, Huckabee wrote off a Senate run by saying, "It's more likely I'll dye my hair green, get a bunch of tattoos and go on tour with Amy Winehouse."

March 10th is coming up close and I am tempted to say that Huckabee should jump at this chance to help his party. The GOP is up against the wall and they will need every senate seat they can get. Huckabee also gained an incredible amount of national exposure, given that he was running on loose change, hopes and dreams, and this could turn that into something. Furthermore, the job would keep him in the national spotlight for a return in 2012 and 2016 and give him a chance to build conservative credentials with a strong record in the senate.

The problem is that he would have to give up his stated goal of denying McCain the nomination, but this is a long shot. He's also not a shoo-in for the senate seat either, one poll taken last year had Pryor up by 7, but again that was before the national exposure. Huckabee might do better now. Or worse. Certainly he knows his own state and can judge his own chances accurately.

There is a short window of opportunity between March 4th and March 10th. We'll know soon.

Well it may not be very sexy, but the new strategy does have the singular advantage of being a semi-plausible reason to stay in the campaign.

In an interview with 1200 WOAI news during his swing through Texas, longshot Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee outlined a strategy which has him not winning the GOP nomination outright, but pushing the nomination to the September Republican National Convention, which he says will turn to him as the most 'conservative alternative.'

The 'brokered convention' plan is in stark contrast to Huckabee's previous sunny predictions of a sweep to victory in the primaries and caucuses on the shoulders of adoring family values conservatives.

Another advantage is that it gives disillusioned conservatives (like me) a reason to vote for Huckabee even though he might not be their first second or even third choice. A vote for anyone else is a vote to deny McCain the delegates to a majority status.. The hope then would be for a reset at the national convention. This is a long shot, but it's the only hope for those (again, like me) that Huckabee is a disaster in the making.

It's pretty much over I think, but Huckabee doesn't want to admit it yet:

The former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher was in Newport Beach for a fundraiser at a supporter's home before traveling to Los Angeles for an Americans of Faith event and to Simi Valley for the GOP presidential debate.

Huckabee also pledged not to drop out of the race, despite his poor showing in recent primaries. He said he would focus his campaign on Southern states that are slated for the Tuesday round of primaries.

"Those are all states where we believe we are not only in play, but we are poised to win," he said.

There was a moment in the first couple weeks of December when it was all in his hand. But instead of pivoting his economic message into a tough foreign policy message and addressing his weak parts, he kept up with the economic message which instigated a huge negative reaction from right wing media. And so after winning Iowa, he lost Michigan and New Hampshire and a nail biter in South Carolina.

One of the items on Huckabees Christmas list is to repair the damage done by an apparent staffer on his campaign Friday. As reported by Marc Abinder, an anonymous staffer told Marc that Rush was primarily an entertainer and part of the establishment crowd.

If, and that's a big if, this was a official position of the Huckabee campaign, it was remarkably stupid, for on Friday, Rush took to his last live broadcast of the year, and spent most of his three hours telling his twenty million listeners why Huckabee was wrong and that he was engaging in identity politics. So that was dumb.

Over the weekend, Huckabee has tried to repair the damage and get things patched up with Limbaugh, saying I hope Rush loves me as much as I love him. but El Rushbo is having none of it:

Considering his recent performance, this should not be a surprise. Huckabee is now attracting quite the media gauntlet:

This first-personer from NBC/NJ's Mike Memoli, who is in Concord today covering the former Arkansas governor:

"I've covered Huckabee up here at lets say at least a dozen events since September. Many of those events, I was the only camera there, and a few times I was the only reporter, period.

"Today, as he's about to begin speaking in Concord, there are, that I know for sure, at least two network crews (NBC and CBS), the Boston CBS affil, a CNN crew and Anderson Cooper, the CNN embed, and myself. Some national print folks, and plenty of local press, including John DiStaso, who doesn't come out to candidate events that often.

Michael Duffy at Time explains that Huckabee's surge is helping Giuliani reevaluate where and when to fight Romney:

The new pivot point is this: now that Huckabee seems likely to slow down Romney in Iowa, does Team Giuliani now shift its own pre-Florida efforts from Iowa to New Hampshire? Why bet any money or time on Iowa now that someone else is doing your work for you - and you could wind up in fourth place even if you play your cards well? My guess is that this calculation is already being embraced by some at Giuliani headquarters. Last week, with their man's polls sagging, Giuliani's team finally spent some of its cash on ads in New Hampshire. And Giuliani spent two days there over the weekend, touring the Granite State by bus. On Saturday, Giuliani said he hoped to pull even with - or pass - Romney in New Hampshire. "We think we can catch him," he told the Washington Post, "and get ahead of him."

This is in response to James Carney at Time who suggests exactly that:

Fred Thompson is finally getting the hang of running for president. In the last few weeks, the former actor and senator from Tennessee has sharpened his message, picked up the pace of his campaign, leveled some clean shots at his opponents, cut two effective television ads, received one very big endorsement and issued some of the most substantial policy proposals of any of the Republican contenders.

But it may be too late.

Mike Huckabee was on Fox News Sunday and by my account did a great job. Along with Chuck Norris's endorsement, he's collected some other, ah, interesting endorsements, including Wrestler Ric Flair, and Authors Zig Ziglar and Jerry Jenkins. He's also visited my home area, the northeast suburbs of Cincinnati collecting campaign cash and firing up the troops. This area of Ohio is deep red Republican and a great place to kick start a campaign for the 2008 GOP nomination.