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Having seen some of the attacks on Mike Huckabee this past week, I was thinking of some other attacks that might be launched for next week:

“In 1982, Mike Huckabee didn’t tell his neighbor that his shoe was untied, which put his neighbor’s life in danger. Imagine what might have happened if he’d tripped!”

“In 1996, Mike Huckabee rolled through a stop sign without coming to a complete stop, demonstrating his blatant disregard for traffic laws and public safety.”

“In 1998, Mike Huckabee removed one of those ‘Do not remove’ tags from his pillow.”

“In 2003, on at least three occasions, Mike Huckabee left the toilet seat up, demonstrating his disregard for his wife.”

… and, to tell the truth, this would be only slightly sillier than the nonsense that has been spewed this past week. He’s been attacked with ethics investigations (in reports that failed to mention that he was exonerated), a citizens’ referendum, and (my personal favorite) that he wouldn’t sign a piece of legislation that referred to natural disasters as “acts of God.”

If this is the best his detractors can do, then the rest of the primary season should be a cakewalk for the Huckabee camp.

Now the Fun Begins

Very few can deny that Mike Huckabee is now a “top-tier” candidate.

The scrap between Ron Paul supporters and Mike Huckabee supporters, to see which of us would get our guy into the top tier, is over.  Sam Brownback has withdrawn, it remains to be seen when Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo will do the same.

This week has had its share of excitement. Mike Huckabee broke into the double-digits in nationwide polls, topping Mitt Romney.  This will result in a sort-of snowball effect, as people take more and more notice of Gov. Huckabee, and realize that he is the social conservative that Gov. Romney isn’t, and that we don’t have to back the “inevitable” Romney.

Of course, now it’s time for the attack dogs to come out. Sure enough, the Club for Growth, Wall Street Journal, and American Spectator came out. Their attacks were pretty feeble, when it comes down to it, and easily answered by Gov. Huckabee here.

On the other hand, this is what happens from here. Until now, the big guys haven’t bothered with Huckabee because they didn’t think he was worth the effort. Now, he presents a problem.

No doubt, many Huckabee supporters are disappointed to see attacks against him, thinking that this might be something new. It’s not. It happens to every candidate, every race. Even the legendary candidates had their opponents — Ronald Reagan had his detractors within the Republican Party establishment.

Challenges are to be answered. Fights will be had, and there will always be someone unhappy with an outcome here and there. Still, this is part of the process.

I do counsel those who question whether Mike Huckabee is really a “real conservative” to look at the various records: Do your complaints about Huckabee supporting a gasoline tax increase really add up to the same kind of closet-dwelling skeletons as the other candidates have? How does it compare to McCain-Feingold, supported by McCain and Thompson, or Romney’s choices to appoint homosexual judges and reject conservative choices, or Giuliani’s … well, … anything Giuliani’s ever done? It’s time for the mud to start flying, I suppose. As a “Huckabeeliever,” though, I know that I’ll come through it all a lot cleaner than the press-ordained front-runners.

We’ll see how much power the big guns bring to bear on this situation.

To Mike Huckabee’s detractors: Do your worst. We know his record and the truth.

At the Values Voter Debate (the one that McCain, Thompson, Giuliani, and Romney couldn’t be bothered to attend), Huckabee was asked about these hard questions. When asked how he would answer these critics, Huckabee summarized his answer simply:

“With the truth.”