This morning’s Washington Times reports that an assortment of tax and immigration conservatives are ratcheting up their opposition to Mike Huckabee based on his tenure as Arkansas Governor. This quote pretty much sums up the story:

“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.

Such sentiments hint at a little-remarked upon possible explanation for the Christian Right’s continued refusal to back Huckabee, a seemingly natural ally: For all their public statements about Huckabee’s lack of viability, are the big wheels of the Christian Right actually opposed to him because of his positions? Does his support for the environment, arts in education, and the occasional tax hike make him the kind of new generation evangelical that makes the old guard nervous? Is he simply not Republican enough?
An “exasperated” Huckabee began calling the Christian Right on that kind of attitude in yesterday’s New York Times Magazine:

“They finally have the soldier they have been waiting for, and they shouldn’t send me out into the battlefield without supplies,” Huckabee told me in exasperation. He argued that the movement’s leaders would “become irrelevant” if they started putting political viability or low taxes ahead of their principles about abortion and marriage.
“In biblical terms, it is like the salt losing its flavor; it’s sand,” Huckabee said. “Some of them have spent too long in Washington. . . . I think they are going to have a hard time going out into the pews and saying tax policy is what Jesus is about, that he said, ‘Come unto me all you who are overtaxed and I will give you rest.’”