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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Mike Huckabee is living proof that just because you're an ordained Southern Baptist minister, it doesn't mean you can't crack a joke about snorting cocaine. The former Arkansas governor appeared on Fox News' Red Eye to talk about Sarah Palin's views on marijuana use. He wrapped up the segment with a smoothly delivered punch line: "After Sarah Palin made these comments she then produced a gram of coke from her purse and did line after line on the glass table."

I received an astonishing email today from a concerned friend who has been very influential in the fight to end the scourge of abortion. Apparently, a 2012 Republican presidential prospect in an interview with a reporter has made the suggestion that the next President should call for a “truce” on social issues like abortion and traditional marriage to focus on fiscal problems. In other words, stop fighting to end abortion and don’t make protecting traditional marriage a priority. Let me be clear though, the issue of life and traditional marriage are not bargaining chips nor are they political issues. They...

Sarah Palin's endorsement of Establishment candidate Carly Fiorina over grassroots conservative favorite Chuck Devore triggered some grumbling among her supporters and offered an opportunity for Mike Huckabee -- who backs Devore -- to take a bite out of her right flank. Huckabee has been waging a kind of passive-aggressive new media campaign on the issue. Soon after Palin's announcement, he changed his Facebook status to read, "Just wanted to reiterate my support today for the strongest, proven conservative in the California Senate Race: Chuck DeVore."

A new CNN/Opinion Research poll tests some 2012 general election matchups for the first time, and finds that President Obama leads four potential foes: Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee. 2012 Presidential General Election Matchup (907 RVs, 4/9-11, MoE +/- 3.5%) Obama 53 -- Romney 45 Obama 54 -- Huckabee 45 Obama 55 -- Palin 42 Obama 55 -- Gingrich 43

Republican Poll of Iowa Voters Has Mike Huckabee Leading Romney, Palin Washington, DC -- With pro-life advocates longing for 2012 thanks to the extensive pro-abortion record of President Barack Obama, it's never too early to think about the next election. A survey of caucus voters in Iowa, the state that will kick off the battle for the Republican nomination, Mike Huckabee has the lead. http://www.LifeNews.com/state4880.html

Like Mike Huckabee did in the 2008 GOP Primary, a dark horse candidate from the South could rise up to win some big races in 2012. But who could that little known candidate be? I’ll offer some suggestions about who could be a household name in two years. In my last column “Why Republicans are in trouble in 2012” I described the woes of the Grand Old Party for 2012. A combination of weak candidates with surprisingly thin resumes and potential nominees with bad luck in their state’s history could hand what might be a winnable race against President Obama...

Washington (CNN) - The organizers of the Conservative Political Action Conference are hitting back at former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who argued over the weekend that the annual convention's influence among conservatives is waning. CPAC is becoming "increasingly libertarian and less Republican," Huckabee told Fox News on Saturday, one reason he said he decided not to attend this year....

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee fares the best against pro-abortion President Barack Obama in a polling of voters previewing potential 2012 presidential election matchups. This is the first time in the PPP poll that any of the potential candidates has led Obama. The Public Policy Polling firm, which is Democratic by respected for fairly accurate results, found Obama trails a pro-life opponent for the first time. Huckabee has a 45-44 advantage over Obama, aided largely by a 44-38 lead with independents. The former governor's 35/29 favorability breakdown, with 35 percent of all voters saying they have...

Former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.) on Wednesday sought to put distance between former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska) and himself. Huckabee, in an interview with Christianity Today, stressed that the two potential 2012 presidential candidates have different "political direction[s]" and questioned both of their statuses as presidential contenders. "We're both Republican, we're both pro-life—there are a lot of similarities that way—but she has a very different political direction than I do," he said. " I'm not sure of her future politically, and I'm really not sure of mine either." Questions about Huckabee's political future have sprouted up after it was reported...

“I think that she’s not anywhere near the person that sometimes she’s been portrayed to be –- as completely lacking of any intellectual capacity.” –Mike Huckabee, subtly putting the stress on the word “completely.” Is this emerging as the new party line on Palin among other top Republican politicians? Last week, Haley Barbour told Chris Matthews that Palin is “a lot brighter than she gets credit for,” and on yesterday’s @katiecouric, Fox News Channel host and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee trotted out a similar-sounding soundbite. Huckabee did go with the ‘Palin has more executive experience than Obama’ line, which...

Mike Huckabee, like Sarah Palin, is pitching his books and persona to potential voters. Romney and Pawlenty take a more traditional tack, focusing on strengthening ties with the GOP establishment. Reporting from Grand Rapids, Mich. - Team Huck rolls into the bookstore like a NASCAR pit crew, red shirts adorned with the corporate logos of Mike Huckabee's website, his speaker's bureau and his publisher. "Huck" is emblazoned on their epaulets. They strip the protective wrapping off the large lectern that they install at all such appearances. Huckabee doesn't sit at tables. He stands, as a president would, even to sign...

A two-day book-signing blitz at a local book store by two key players in last year's presidential race began Sunday. First, a crowd estimated at one point to be about 1,800 by Homewood police, lined up at Books-A-Million in Colonial Brookwood Village. They were there to get 1,000 wristbands that assign places in line for this afternoon's book signing by Sarah Palin. The former governor of Alaska, who was last year's Republican vice presidential nominee, will sign copies of her just released book, "Going Rogue." Many left after they realized they could not get a wristband. On Sunday afternoon, about...

The Huckster took a swipe at Sarah Palin and he did it with a smile. He does everything with a smile, being far from the first snake I've seen that has himself one of those. At least she isn't a Mormon. He might cut her a little bit of slack. Why am I thinking Huck has now read every Palin column Andy Sullivan has ever written? The Hucky puck doesn't like it that he's being overshadowed by both Palin and Romney, who comes up in the interview, as well. Is Huck's real problem that Sarah may have blown him off...

In 2008, a charismatic right-wing populist Republican governor won the heart of the party's base despite being forced to take a backseat to a more respectable "moderate" Republican. He was Mike Huckabee, and he is sad, and mad. Ben Smith followed Mike Huckabee around for a while as he sold his new Christmas book. Huckabee was the governor of Arkansas. He used to be fat, and then he got skinny, and now he is getting fat again. He's also basically as crazy Christian as they come, but he masks this with a genuinely likable sense of humor, which is why...

A governor for 10 years and the winner of the Iowa caucuses in 2008, Huckabee should by all rights have a claim to be the early favorite for the Republican nomination. But former Gov. Mitt Romney, the candidate he bested in Iowa 2008 and for whom he does not attempt to contain his contempt, is riding high, credited by many Republicans as the best person to run against President Barack Obama in a down economy. And as Huckabee works his way through a 22-state tour for his new book, “A Simple Christmas,” he knows that he and the book will...

According to a "tweet" from Jonathan Martin of Politico.com , Huck has endorsed Doug Hoffman: Huck now behind Hoffman, praises Scozza for her "very unselfish announcement." about 5 hours ago from web jmartpolitico

Here is video of Gov. Mike Huckabee last night saying Rush Limbaugh has been wronged by the baseless attacks against him to prevent him from being part of an ownership group to buy the St. Louis Rams. Huckabee defended Limbaugh, and at the same time took a shot at him by asserting that during his own Presidential campaign, Limbaugh and others accused Huckabee of being a "big-Government Liberal," an attack Huckabee likened to what Rush has just been through. From the tenor of his commentary, it is unclear whether his main point was to defend Rush, or to defend himself....

If the choice for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 comes down to a choice between Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, Huckabee has a slight edge. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Republican voters finds that 44% prefer Huckabee, 39% favor Romney, and 17% are not sure. Data released yesterday showed that Huckabee and Romney lead all hopefuls in an early look at the 2012 race. Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich also attract double-digit support. Both Huckabee and Romney are viewed favorably by 78% of Republican voters. However, intensity leans a bit in Huckabee’s favor. Forty-six percent (46%)...

(snip) Mike Huckabee and Tim Pawlenty — both potential 2012 presidential contenders — urged restraint. "There will be an outcry from those on the right who will say that Obama's nomination, made two weeks into his Presidency, is impossible to justify, but I think such an outcry will sound like right-wing whining," Huckabee said in a statement. "The better response is simply to allow those on the left to explain what he did in his first two weeks as President that merited such recognition." Pawlenty, speaking on NPR, said there "will be some people who are saying 'Was it based...

A day after former Baptist minister and likely presidential rival Mike Huckabee offered a withering critique of Mitt Romney's record, the former Massachusetts governor made his pitch to the same group of religious conservatives. Romney appealed to attendees at the Values Voter Summit in Washington on Saturday, using a speech that drew heavily from his address to social conservatives at the same hotel earlier this year. "Putting such a spirit-crushing, back-breaking debt burden on our children is unworthy of our national character," he said. "That is why I believe that this spending and borrowing is not just economically irresponsible, it...