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I don’t recall any Republican Christian politician using and abusing his religion for political gain as much as Huckabee. It smacks of Bill Clinton’s photo ops walking to church with a Bible in his hand, or photo ops John Kerry going to Mass during the election so all the little old churchgoing Catholic ladies will vote for him notwithstanding his votes on abortion issues. Real Christians shouldn’t use their religion to gain votes, or imply that someone shouldn’t vote for someone else because of their Mormon beliefs.

Amen, brother (if you'll pardon the expression).

For so many years, people on the left have been reading undercurrents of over-religiosity into the words and actions of every Republican President since Ronald Reagan. They pilloried George W. Bush for saying that Jesus was his favorite philosopher and for saying he was comforted by knowing millions of Americans are praying for him. They see fascist Christians everywhere, like they had a nightmare after reading Margaret Atwood's ludicrous novel The Handmaid's Tale and don't realize that they're awake. Many years ago, I actually had a conversation with people who believed that Reagan might deliberately trigger a nuclear holocaust to fulfill prophecies of the Book of Revelation.

Neither Reagan nor Bush 41 nor Bush 43 fit the mold of prospective uber-Christian, but the left tried to squeeze them into it. Huckabee is embracing the label, but, unlike Reagan or either Bush, he is not yet really providing reasons why he would be a better President. Heck, the author of this smarmy opinion piece didn't give a real reason beyond halting abortion being priority #1 and the concept of "good government" largesse without explaining how in the world this offers a contrast to what the Democrats will proffer in November.

Is there something about Arkansas politics that produces folksy, amiable guys that are slick as slugs? Dale Bumpers, Bill Clinton, and now Huck. But Huckabee has taken it to a new level; rather than dirty tricks like hiring ethically challenged private detectives to intimidate former mistresses, he's putting subliminal messages in his TV ads (oh, no, it was just a bookcase, except it didn't have any -- how you say? -- books in it), and he's stretching his campaign dollars by producing an nasty ad, showing it to the media, and saying he's going to be a nice guy and not run it, while it is leaked to the internet and every newscast in the country.

But these aren't dirty tricks. Huckabee doesn't do dirty tricks. He does CLEAN tricks.

Rush is right, and the author's wrong. This IS identity politics (it's neither a "Rush-ism" nor a new concept, Einstein), and it's why so many conservatives are made uneasy by Huckabee. Most of us have spent years rejecting the concept out of hand as a matter of principle, and darned if the Dems in Iowa aren't doing so as well in rejecting Hillary and embracing Obama. Don't sweat the details about "fundamentalist" and "evangelical"; he's embracing Huck because he is willing to imply he's a better "Christian leader" than the rest. It's almost as if the people who wanted Harriet Miers to be a Supreme Court justice just because she was an anti-abortion evangelical have been biding their time, and Huckabee is their revenge.

If this is not just a one-off and is the beginning of a trend, this could be just as long a year for conservatives as it could be if Giuliani catches fire. And if the choice comes down to the two of them? More effective than syrup of ipecac.