Leading Christianist Tony Perkins is happy that Mike Huckabee did not disown his previous hateful statements about people with HIV and homosexuality. And he predicts a backlash if the scrutiny continues:
There is clearly a reverse religious standard being applied to Mike Huckabee, a standard that says there will be no defining religious beliefs. I would hope the other candidates, including the Democrats, would clearly and absolutely denounce this reverse religious test and keep the media from going further down this path. If not, I predict that bible-believing Christians will step over policy differences they have with Mike Huckabee to stand by and support a candidate who is being attacked because he believes, as they do, that their Christian faith should actually impact the way they live. If that happens, the recent meteoric rise of the Huckabee campaign in the polls could look minuscule compared to the tsunami of support that he will get from Christians who are tired of the elites who belittle their beliefs and attempt to rob them of every public reflection of their faith.
A tsunami for Huckabee? We'll see. But the consequences of Rovism are getting quite dire for the GOP, aren't they?