Social conservatives should take note before supporting Tax Hike Mike:

Since Mr. Huckabee’s success in Iowa, however, his campaign has faced a barrage of attacks on his conservative credentials. Rush Limbaugh has accused him of “class warfare.” The Wall Street Journal editorial page has called him “religious left.” And his Republican rivals have escalated their criticism. In a debate on Thursday, Mr. Thompson called Mr. Huckabee a “Christian leader” who would support “liberal economic policies” and “liberal foreign policies.”
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Richard Land, the top public policy official of the Southern Baptist Convention, argued that just as small-government and foreign-policy conservatives could not win a primary without evangelicals, “I don’t think evangelicals can win without most of the rest of those coalitions.”

In a Huckabee administration, nothing is certain but hope and taxes. Did he poll-test the line? Was it originally “What I didn’t raise was tobacco”? Or did he misread the line? Did he mean to say “hogs”? Is there any correlation between taxes and hope? If you cut taxes by 20 percent, does hope nosedive off the cliff? Not for those of us who were hoping for a tax cut. And is there any evidence that he “raised hope”? Hope of what? Huck’s line is a degradation of FDR: We have nothing to hope for but hope itself.

Huckabee continues to use his faith as a weapon against those who question not his faith, but his political populism — much of which he shares with secular progressives. And he is clearly hoping to stir up resentment among Evangelical Christians against the other elements of the conservative movement and Republican Party as a way of encouraging them to vote in the caucuses and primaries. This is a tactic right out of Saul Alinsky's playbook. Of course he wants us to believe the Reagan coalition is dead because he cannot win with it intact. But he cannot win either the nomination or presidency with the narrow focus of his appeal. This is why I find Mike Huckabee's tactics and candidacy so deplorable.

"It seems that some people don't like to have their records talked about. Sorry to disappoint them," Thompson said as he wrapped up the day at a packed barbecue house in Mount Pleasant. "You can't run a presidential campaign in South Carolina without putting your cards on the table."

Thompson called out Huckabee for supporting a national smoking ban and for an endorsement he got from a teachers' union, the National Education Association. Thompson also criticized McCain and Rudy Giuliani on immigration issues and Mitt Romney on health care.