Bush: "I'm Just a Simple President"

George W. Bush certified John McCain as a "true conservative" yesterday.

In emeritus mode on Fox News, the President told Chris Wallace his successor-in-waiting "is very strong on national defense" and "tough fiscally. He believes the tax cuts ought to be permanent. He is pro-life. His principles are sound and solid as far as I'm concerned."

Asked about resistance from the Rush Limbaugh-Ann Coulter wing of the GOP, the President was confident McCain can "convince people that he is a solid conservative and I'll be glad to help him if he is the nominee."

In view of Bush's iffy record on the domestic agenda of the Rabid Right, that may not solve McCain's problem, but the Decider is upbeat about the party's prospects for November.

He pooh-poohed Barack Obama's popularity with his customary political acumen and accuracy: "The only foreign policy thing I remember he said was he's going to attack Pakistan and embrace Ahmadinejad."

"Why do you think he's gotten this far if people don't know what he stands for?" Wallace asked.

Bush's answer was on the money. "You're the pundit," he said. "I'm just a simple president."

Limbaugh Bites Huckabee

In politics, they say, if you want a friend, get a dog. But El Rushbo, as he dubs himself, is showing remarkable loyalty to the folks who pay his salary, the former partners of Mitt Romney.

Not only has he been deifying their friend but Rush Limbaugh is now going the extra mile by getting into a hissing contest with Huckabee supporters over his attacks on the preacher who is now leading Romney in the polls.

"Huckabee forces are attacking me, ladies and gentlemen," Limbaugh told his listeners the other day. "Yes siree, Bob, the Hucksters are on the warpath!...

"If you missed it, somebody went out there and asked a Huckabee supporter in a Huckabee Universe, actually, why I don't like him. Frankly, I haven't attacked Huckabee. You know, I've raised some questions, but they're pretty sensitive out there about this."

Hinting that he might just endorse somebody, as he did George Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary, Limbaugh noted that "McCain was going so far off the conservative reservation, so far off of it, that it was necessary to step in. Huckabee is getting close, I'm going to have to tell you. Huckabee's getting close to the same stuff. Huckabee is using his devout Christianity to mask some other things that are distinctively not conservative. He is against free trade. He's really doesn't believe in free market."

Remembering what a dog did to his car, Mitt Romney may be grateful to have this kind of friend when it all hits the fan.