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“I’m not denigrating the messenger. I’m sure he’s a nice guy.” For the record, I’m not so sure. “From my experiences with state politicos, there are always rivalries and many get very personal. Anyone can create a list of grievances.” David Thompson’s suggestion that those accusations are based on some kind of firsthand knowledge is patently absurd. The letter is essentially a compendium of talking points and out-of-context quotations from every major smear campaign waged against Governor Huckabee in his entire political career.

That is what I was mentioning before. Much in this list is not only out of context, but exaggerated, or a fixation of blame on Huckabee for things staffers did, or some, mistakes of various kinds. But this kind of list caould be generated about Bush-43, Reagan, Bush-41, and the last governor of your own state.

The details will be different, but the theme is the same.

One plain, factual error on the list is that Huckabee's support among Arkansas Republicans is low. The polls have him something like 40-50% or more -- even polls from last year. You wouldn't see Gov. George Ryan of Illinois getting those kinds of poll numbers.

It is pretty common for the "jilted lover" kind of effect to cause someone to make a list and turn it into a little "jihad."

Bottom line is that Huckabee is experienced (including learning from mistakes, one would think) and much better than John McCain.