Huckabee stirs up third-party fear

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A bitter fight is taking place behind the scenes over Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee.

Influential conservatives are clashing over whether Mr. Huckabee is capable of keeping evangelicals from fleeing the GOP to form a third party or if he's too liberal fiscally for the Republican electorate.

The battle is bubbling into the public arena, fueled by fears that a three-way race could hand the presidency to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton or another Democrat, and by murmurs of Mr. Huckabee as a vice-presidential candidate on the party's ticket.

"We called him a pro-life, pro-gun liberal, when I was in the state legislature and he was governor," said Randy Minton, chairman of the Arkansas chapter of Phyllis Schlafly's national Eagle Forum.

Mr. Minton voices the concerns of many conservatives that while Mr. Huckabee governed as a social conservative in opposing abortion and same-sex "marriage," he was a treacherous liberal on taxes, social welfare spending and illegal immigration.

But Mr. Huckabee's backers say he's just who the conservative party leaders should be looking to if they hope to prevent a dangerous fracture.

"The talk of a third party is not only political suicide, it is political homicide, with Hillary a co-sponsor of the so-called 'Freedom of Choice Act' that would wipe off every pro-life law from parental notice to the ban on partial-birth abortions in all 50 states," said Christian radio talk-show host Janet L. Folger.

"Do you know another Republican besides Huckabee who got 48 percent of the African-American vote?" she said. "Add to that a mobilized Republican base, and there is no one better than Huckabee to take on Hillary."

Kelly J. Shackelford, president of the Free Market Foundation, said the former Arkansas governor "doesn't just talk about conservative issues, he breathes them and has a passion for them."

The fight is only growing more bitter as Mr. Huckabee's poll numbers and reception improve.