The Discerning Texan

The commenters at Hot Air are speculating as to the whys and wherefores of Rush Limbaugh's response to Huckabee as reported at The Politico. But Rush's response comes with a landmine that Huckabee doesn't dare go near.

“Gov. Huckabee’s campaign is engaged in identity politics at this moment, ....

That charge is key to why so many conservatives have a problem with Huckabee. As most realize, he seeks to do the same thing with being Evangelical as the Left has been doing for years with identities such as Black, Hispanic, Female, gay, etc. Huckabee would have it so that his qualifications and positions on many important issues don't matter - only his religion, or identity, does.

If he or his people engage Rush's premise it opens the door for Limbaugh to take him down and make the argument that Evangelicals, of which Bush is one btw, shouldn't be fooled. Conservatism and evangelical-ism are two different things. I wouldn't look for Rush to drop this anytime soon. He'll have to at least comment on it when he comes back.

Given that any conversation could be so dangerous for Huckabee, he's going to look as though he turned tail and ran from a talk show host. So, the question for Huckabee is, how are you going to stand up to terrorists, if you can't even stand up to Rush? He may not realize it, yet, but Huckabee has already lost this confrontation.

He can come away looking weak, or being exposed for his non-conservative views. He'll probably try to finesse it by responding indirectly, but Rush's mentioning of identity politics in his email makes it clear Rush isn't backing down.