The Romney-Rush Limbaugh Connection

There have been less than six degrees of separation between the Republican's richest candidate and the Masters of the Talk Radio Universe since Mitt Romney's former partners at Bain Capital took over Clear Channel Communications, owner of 1,000 radio stations and home to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and other ornaments of the right-wing enlightenment.

Blind trusts insulate Romney from any direct connection, but it's hard to imagine what the Javerts of Whitewater would have made of it if the Clintons were this closely tied to a mass media empire.

A headline this month reads, "Limbaugh 'non-endorses' Mitt after the Speech!!" leading to Rush's "I want to start with Mitt Romney today, Mitt Romney’s speech. Frankly, I thought what we saw today, folks, was a Republican candidate for president giving an inspiring speech. It was an inspiring speech about American values."

As far back as February, Limbaugh was defending Romney from "drive-by media attacks" against his Mormon faith. In his usual elegant style, he drew parallels with the Kennedys:

"Let me explain the difference in this Mitt Romney business and the way Democrats are treated in this regard. Ted Kennedy’s father...was a Third Reich sympathizer. Franklin Delano Roosevelt had to pull him as ambassador of the Court of Saint James...Now we don’t hold this against Teddy. Teddy had nothing to do with that. Just as we don’t hold Mitt Romney’s grandfather, or great-grandfather, against him. But the lib media, the Drive-Bys, are definitely trying to do that."

Limbaugh, of course, is not a drive-by kind of guy, so if he seems to be steering in the direction of his new bosses' former partner, we will have to take it on faith that nothing venal is involved.

Cutting Up Huckabee, Left and Right

In the Washington Post today, the new Republican White Hope is being carved up like a Christmas turkey from both sides of the political spectrum.

"Is the thought of Mike Huckabee as president just vaguely scary?" Eugene Robinson asks. "Or have we learned enough about the man that we should be hair-on-fire alarmed at the prospect...that he could actually win?

"Huckabee," former Bush speech writer Michael Gerson notes, "is managing to compromise his most distinctive virtue at the very moment the attention of the public is focused on his candidacy. In politics, a candidate can bend over backward so far that his spine snaps."

Robinson's complaints are that the former preacher is "anti-reason" in denying evolution, a "country bumpkin" in his uninformed attacks on Romney's Mormon faith and "the last person in the country to learn that U.S. intelligence agencies now believe Iran ended its nuclear weapons program four years ago."

Gerson faults Huckabee for accepting the endorsement of "one of the most divisive figures in the most divisive debate in American politics," Jim Gilchrist, founder of the anti-immigration group, the Minuteman Project, who has called for Bush's impeachment over failure to enforce border security and proclaims, "I will not promote violence in resolving this, but I will not stop others who might pursue that."

After being sliced from both directions, the Huckabee candidacy is left as a spineless carcass with no intellectual meat on its bones. Can somebody send the man a recipe for making turkey soup?

Here Comes Huckabee...

Last week's news is translating into this week's poll numbers.

A new national Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg Poll today shows Mike Huckabee threatening the national lead of Rudy Giuliani, who is apparently being damaged in voters' eyes by the montage of scandals building up around his campaign.

Nationally, Guiliani's lead has shrunk from 32-7 percent in October to only 23-17 now. Meanwhile, Huckabee seems to be solidifying his lead in Iowa where 60 Iowa pastors, some of them former backers of Sam Brownback, have endorsed the ex-Governor of Arkansas.

Huckabee leads Giuliani 20-18 percent when Republicans are asked which candidate says what he believes rather than what voters want to hear. Fifty-two percent say Giuliani's pro-abortion stance doesn't bother them, and 73 percent are untroubled by Romney's Mormon faith, an issue he will address in a speech tomorrow night.

As the primaries get closer, so does the race for the Republican nomination.