Huckabee, Limbaugh, Saltsman, York And I

Reader Jim Welsh writes:

You don't give the name of the Huckabee ally. To be fair just becauses some unnamed Huckabee supporter criticises Rush doesn't mean the whole Huckabee campaign is against Rush. Rush's beef should be with the "Huckabee ally" instead of the Huckabee campaign. Allies are not necessarily official campaign spokespersons.

Very true.

The person quoted was not a campaign spokesman. But neither is he or she a person who prayed on my gullibility to identify as a Huckabee ally. After hearing and reading about Limbaugh's criticism, I put the question to someone I knew was familiar with the thinking of many (though by no means all) of Huckabee's campaign advisers. And the response I received was the response I printed.

Chip Saltsman, Huckabee's campaign manager, tells a curious Byron York that he's a huge fan of the man behind the golden EIB microphone.

And while it's certainly correct to suggest that one ally does not represent the view of the Huckabee campaign, from what I've been able to gather from conversations with various members of Huckabee's team, on this one issue -- the motivation of Rush Limbaugh -- neither does the campaign manager.

I wish I could name names, but I won't, and if that presents a credibility problem then so be it. The truth is that Limbaugh does not want to see Huckabee nominated, and it's not terribly surprising, or terribly newsworthy, that folks who think Huckabee should be nominated have developed a theory or theory to explain his opposition.