Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) reiterated Friday that he will not run against Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.).

The filing period began March 3, the day before Huckabee withdrew from the presidential race, and ends Monday.

In an interview with The Hill, Huckabee said he is still “decompressing” from his presidential campaign, and reaffirmed past statements that indicated he had no interest in challenging Pryor or serving in the Senate.

In a mid-February breakfast with reporters, Huckabee joked, “There’s a greater chance that I would dye my hair green, cover my body with tattoos and go on a rock tour with Amy Winehouse.”

Huckabee repeated that joke Friday, adding: “That was a pretty apt description of my total lack of interest in running for the Senate.”

The Hill

I guess we can write off any possibility of picking off Pryor this year.  The Arkansas GOP is pretty much dysfunctional.  Huckabee is really the only big Republican name in the state that I am aware of.

Update 10:36PM - It’s not been called, but I am fairly certain Clinton has won Ohio.  She has a sizable lead.  In Texas, her and Obama are neck and neck, each with 49% of the vote.

Update 9:40PM - Clinton has won Rhode Island.

Update 9:09PM - The Huckabee Campaign has announced that he will drop out of the race tonight. Maybe now someone can convince him to run for the Senate against Pryor. He would be the only one with a chance to beat him.

Update 9:00PM - McCain has been declared the winner of Texas and Rhode Island and that now gives him enough delegates to clinch the Republican nomination.

Update 8:18PM - McCain and Obama have won Vermont. McCain has also won Ohio.

McCain has already been declared the winner of the Virginia primary, which was really the only competitive one. Maryland’s primary has been extended to 9:30 EST due to hazardous weather, but I have no doubt McCain will win Maryland. I also imagine that all four Republicans that live in Washington D.C. will vote for him as well.

Update: McCain has been declared the winner in Maryland.

It’s very clear at this point (actually it already was) that John McCain will be the nominee.  Huckabee needs to drop out of the race and instead run against Pryor for his Senate seat.

Huckabee eeked out a win in Louisiana by about 2,000 votes:

1. Huckabee - 43%
2. McCain - 42%
3. Romney - 7%
4. Paul - 5%

Washington was just the opposite, with McCain just winning by 2 points. Notably, Ron Paul came within in 5% of winning the state.

1. McCain - 26%
2. Huckabee - 24%
3. Paul - 21%
4. Romney - 16%
5. Uncommitted - 13%

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will win the Kansas Republican caucuses, CNN projects.

With 76 percent of precincts reporting, Huckabee had 62 percent of the vote, compared with 22 percent for Arizona Sen. John McCain and 11 percent for Texas. Rep. Ron Paul.

Kansas has 36 delegates at stake Saturday.

CNN

Keeping my fingers crossed on this one!

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is being mentioned as a possible Vice-Presidential running mate for John McCain. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich predicted that McCain would choose either Sanford, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, or his current opponent Mike Huckabee as his running mate.

WSPA TV

With 64% of precincts reporting, Romney has 52% of the vote, followed by McCain with 21%, Ron Paul with 19%, and Mike Huckabee with 6%. While the race hasn’t been officially called, I think it’s fairly obvious that Romney has prevailed.

It’s been made official now. He has narrowly beat out Mitt Romney, but Florida is a winner takes all state so to the victor goes the spoils. Rudy Giuliani made a speech that sounded very much like the one Thompson made in regards to tone after South Carolina. I believe, as do the Fox News pundits, that he will be dropping out of the race within the next couple of days, possibly tomorrow. The conventional wisdom is that he’ll endorse John McCain.

9:00PM with 47% in:

Nothing has really changed. McCain at 35%, Romney 32%. The others are the same. Huckabee is already making his “concession” speech for this primary. It’s between McCain and Romney the rest of the night and if it stays this close we may not know until very late or even tomorrow.

8:20PM with 31% in:

1. McCain - 34%
2. Romney - 33%
3. Giuliani - 15%
4. Huckabee - 14%
5. Paul - 3%

7:50PM with 10% in:

1. McCain - 34%
2. Romney - 31%
3. Giuliani - 18%
4. Huckabee - 13%
5. Paul - 3%

7:34PM with 1% in:

1. Romney - 31%
2. McCain - 30%
3. Giuliani - 18%
4. Huckabee - 15%
5. Paul - 3%

As RedState puts it, “The Craptacular Capitulation of a Lame Duck.”

WASHINGTON — President Bush is unlikely to defy Congress on spending billions of dollars earmarked for pet projects, but he will probably insist that lawmakers provide more justification for such earmarks in the future, administration officials said Monday. (story here)

Translation: “Don’t do it again! But I’m going to let you do it just this once…” (Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle snicker with glee)

Fiscal conservatives in Congress and budget watchdogs have been urging Mr. Bush to issue an executive order instructing agencies to disregard the many earmarks listed just in committee reports, not in the text of legislation.

More than 90 percent of earmarks are specified that way, not actually included in the texts. White House officials say such earmarks are not legally binding on the president.

Emphasis mine. The next logical step for a real conservative President would be to gut these non-binding earmarks, right? Well, yeah, but Bush isn’t exactly a conservative President.

Congressional leaders of both parties, who are scheduled to meet on Tuesday with the president, said Mr. Bush would provoke a huge outcry on Capitol Hill if he ignored those earmarks.

Waaaaah! We want our pork and we want it now!

Lawmakers, including the House Republican whip, Roy Blunt of Missouri, have cautioned the White House that a furor over earmarks could upend Mr. Bush’s hopes for cooperation with Congress on other issues, including efforts to revive the economy.

Moreover, Republicans shudder at the possibility that a Democratic president might reject all their earmarks.

Again, all emphases are mine. Heaven forbid a Democratic president striking favors earmarks from a bill! Why? Well, because there’s an “R” next to that legislator’s name!

So it goes. Fiscal conservatism, who needs it?

Fred Thompson was the ONLY candidate (well, serious candidate, Ron Paul did as well) to say outright that he would issue the executive order against these “air-dropped” earmarks.

Ridiculousness like this is why people like me aren’t taking the “but you’ll let Hillary win!!” line when it comes to the “Republican” candidates.

What’s the difference, honestly?

Sen. McCain will interfere in the market (and give taxpayer dollars to people who lose manufacturing jobs - so why would they look for another one?), be against tax reform, embrace Al Gore’s Global Warming Government Expansionist argument, and appoint judges who will side with him on McCain-Feingold - meaning not judges like Alito, Scalia, Roberts, and Thomas. He’ll close Guantanamo Bay and argue that intense interrogation of terrorists to save American lives is actually “torture.” Not to mention, he has a temper and a vindictiveness similar to that of the Clintons.

Gov. Romney still supports the federal “assault weapons” ban. He’s an advocate of government mandates for healthcare (see RomneyCare). He recently said he was disappointed that there wasn’t a federal program to help Detroit automakers, and basically pledged to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to “save” Detroit if he becomes President. Michigan voted for him, so they will expect results. He’s a friend of Ted Kennedy. I haven’t even touched his convenient “conversion” to social conservatism - he turns me off enough today with stuff he’s saying now, so his “change of heart” is just icing on the cake.

Huckabee? Do I really have to go to the John Edwards wannabe? Yeah, he’ll be a real strong advocate for fiscal conservatism and limited government, let me tell ya! (snark off). Not to mention he’s one of the most immature, unserious candidates on either side of the race.

If we’re going to give this country to statists, by all means do it under the Democratic banner, not the Republican one.

UPDATE: Stop The ACLU has more of this line of thinking, referencing Stephen Bainbridge and even Rush Limbaugh.

UPDATE II: The Club for Growth has more details on the fallout from this move by the Bush Administration, and a round-up of conservative response around the blogosphere and in the media.

UPDATE III: Michelle Malkin has an excellent round-up of McCain’s ridiculous position on illegal immigration, which I failed to mention originally.

The AP and Fox News have both called the race for John McCain. Tonight’s race means several things. Since 1980 the winner of the South Carolina Republican primary has gone on to be the party’s nominee. South Carolina also has more military families than any other state and they seemed to gravitate towards him as well, according to the reporter on Fox News.

Huckabee finished a very close second, but I don’t see where he really goes from here. Florida is next followed by Maine and he won’t win either one of those. He won’t even come close in Maine. That will be a Romney state I am thinking. Florida is up in the air between him, Romney, McCain, and Giuliani and Giuliani has already got the shop up and running in Florida while the others were working South Carolina. Super Tuesday will be a lot of liberal minded states that won’t take to Huckabee either.

Regarding Fred Thompson, I think he will drop out of the race. He has said repeatedly for the past two weeks that he has to do very well in South Carolina and that wasn’t the case tonight. Judging by his speech this evening I got the impression he was giving his supporters and staff a final hoorah. I think we will hear an announcement within the next few days.

Duncan Hunter has officially dropped out of the race.

With 82% in this race is still too close for the media to call, but I think we are looking at a McCain victory.

1. McCain - 33%
2. Huckabee - 29%
3. Thompson - 16%
4. Romney - 15%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 60% in:

1. McCain - 33%
2. Huckabee - 30%
3. Thompson - 16%
4. Romney - 15%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 40% in:

1. McCain - 34%
2. Huckabee - 30%
3. Thompson - 15%
4. Romney - 14%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 27% in:

1. McCain - 35%
2. Huckabee - 28%
3. Thompson - 15%
4. Romney - 15%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 16% in:

1. McCain - 34%
2. Huckabee - 30%
3. Thompson - 15%
4. Romney - 14%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

As predicted Fred came up short. He’s either going to place third or a close fourth, not at all what his campaign was hoping for. I also heard a blip about Duncan Hunter dropping out of the race, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Nevada has a caucus, not a primary.  The delegates to the caucus voted as follows:

1. Romney - 236
2. McCain - 79
3. Paul - 79
4. Thompson - 74
5. Huckabee - 47
6. Hunter - 15
7. Giuliani - 14

I wanted to write about this last night, but I was freezing my bum off in Green Bay in a hotel with a crappy wireless network that kept disconnecting me. So as everyone knows by now, Romney was the big winner last night and by more than I expected.

1. Romney - 39%
2. McCain - 30%
3. Huckabee - 16%
4. Paul - 6%
5. Thompson - 4%
6. Giuliani - 3%
7. Uncommitted - 2%
8. Hunter - <1%

I kind of figured come late afternoon that Romney would win because I heard on the radio that McCain and Huckabee had already left and headed down to South Carolina. And what the hell is Duncan Hunter still in this race for?

Romney has surged ahead in number of delegates now:

1. Romney - 46
2. Huckabee - 19
3. McCain - 15
4. Thompson - 6
5. Paul - 2
6. Hunter - 1
7. Giuliani - 0

I don’t think Giuliani’s super duper Tuesday strategy is going to work. He is putting himself way in the hole now. I think his time may be done.

The Nevada Caucuses and the first in the south, South Carolina primary are coming up on Saturday.

One thing we haven’t really done yet is speculate who the VP running mate might be for each of the candidates. I thought I would strike up that subject and start with my thoughts.

I’ll start with McCain since he has recently become the front runner. I think a very likely choice for John McCain would be Mark Sanford. Sanford is probably the most fiscally restraint governor of all 50 and a McCain/Sanford ticket would send a message that Republicans are serious about fixing the run away spending problems in Washington. They are good friends and Sanford endorsed McCain in 2000. It also doesn’t hurt that Sanford is a southern governor ( proudly my governor!) and his running with McCain might help quell some of the disdain conservatives have with some of McCain’s past shenanigans in the party.

With Romney I used to think that Huckabee might be a probable choice for him being a southern governor, but at this point I don’t think there would be a salvageable relationship between the two of them. I have always viewed Mitt to be the establishment candidate, or the Bush neo-con backed candidate, so based on that I turn to Condi Rice, perhaps?

I could see Giuliani aligning with Huckabee to woo the social conservatives who are aghast at his social liberalism. A Giuliani candidacy is looking less likely at this point though. He is no longer leading in Florida and only leading in New York by three points now over McCain. I don’t think Super Tuesday is going to save him.

Fred Thompson is a hard one. He can’t pick a southerner so he has to go either west or to the north/northeast. Duncan Hunter might be a good fit for him. I had actually suggested a few months ago to a friend of mine who is affiliated with the Thompson campaign that he should consider Spencer Abraham. The Michigan economy is in a shambles. Years of left wing economics have shriveled it away to practically nothing. Combine that with Howard Dean’s boneheaded decision to strip them of their delegates I think that if the GOP worked hard in that state they could deliver it. Having a Michigan running mate wouldn’t hurt the effort.

Then, of course, there is Huckabee and on that one I have no earthly idea.

There was a little creaking and cracking heard, a shot of some blown dust and loose cobwebs and shazaam!  We saw an animated Fred Thompson tonight.  He was great.  I think a lot of people have been waiting for this.  I wish he would have came out of the shell a bit earlier, but better late than never.  I hope this debate will help him here in South Carolina.  The latest Rasmussen reports the following:

• McCain - 27%
• Huckabee - 24%
• Romney - 16%
• Thompson - 12%
• Giuliani - 6%
• Paul  - 5%

So what’s next?  Huckabee won the Hawkeye Caucii, Romney took Wyoming, and McCain made his money in New Hampshire.  Romney is leading the pack with 30 delegates, Huckabee with 21, McCain 10, Thompson 6, Ron Paul 2, and Giuliani and Hunter each have 1.  Conventional wisdom says that Romney should win the next primary, Michigan, because he is from there and his dad was the governor back in the 60s.  However, with McCain’s resurgence he could ride in on a white horse and sweep victory off its feet.  He did win the state in 2000.

South Carolina is a must win for Fred Thompson otherwise he is finished in my opinion.  It’s too bad.  The man really does have all the Reaganesque qualities about him, except he’s lacking Reagan’s personality which had the gravitas to pull everyone in.  He is starting an 11 day bus tour throughout the state as what I would suspect is a last ditch effort.  Should he prevail we will be in a really interesting situation coming up, because Florida and Super Tuesday follows.

Huckabee, Romney, McCain, and Thompson all still in the race by February 5th may very well set up a perfect storm for Rudy Giuliani.  He has everything banked on making big wins in Florida and on the states on Super Tuesday when many of the larger liberal states that would go for Giuliani are voting.  Giuliani will most certainly win New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Delaware by large margins, and most likely California as well.  I also think he will have a good showing in Florida the week before.  Since he won’t be facing just one opponent by that point the non-Rudy vote gets diluted and that could set him up very well.  Granted, nobody has ever made it to the White House using this strategy but he is looking to be the first.

Regardless, I don’t think this race will be decided even on February 5th.  We could easily see a scenario where these five candidates all have enough delegates accumulated to keep chuggin along down the line.

Final Score:

1. McCain - 37%
2. Romney - 32%
3. Huckabee - 11%
4. Giuliani - 9%
5. Paul - 8%
6. Thompson - 1%
7. Hunter - <1%

8:12PM - Fox News has just declared John McCain the winner!

8:10PM - With 11% in:

1. McCain - 37%
2. Romney - 28%
3. Huckabee - 12%
4. Giuliani - 9%
5. Paul - 8%
6. Thompson - 1%

7:48PM - Most of the polls in New Hampshire are closing in 15 minutes. I’ll try to keep this post updated with what I find out. Some polls closed at 7:30.

With 9% in:

1. McCain - 37%
2. Romney - 28%
3. Huckabee - 12%

I just wrote a response to an email from my father concerning the FOX News debate, the state of the race right now, and where each candidate goes from here. Without meaning to, I wrote what turned out to be a pretty comprehensive review of the situation, so I’ll put the bulk of the email right here:

Here’s how I thought the candidates did:

1. Mitt - he pushed back against attacks against him pretty well without looking mean (like McCain). He made a fool out of Huckabee by forcing him to acknowledge that he raised taxes in Arkansas by a net of $500,000.

2. Fred - he didn’t get his fair share of speaking time, but when he did he was his same laid back yet knowledgeable self. He schooled Huckabee on Habeus Corpus in the U.S. versus Gitmo, and looked like a law professor chiding a “know-it-all” student. His answer on immigration was great and had substance behind it concerning Mexico, which Mitt completely missed in his immigration opinion. Mitt had more at stake in this debate, since he’s battling McCain for NH and Fred isn’t running in NH at all, so Mitt gets 1st.

3. Rudy - His answers were pretty good, but he is like McCain on immigration. He managed to stay out of the Huck-Mitt-McCain brawl but still got some good material in. He is waiting for Florida to compete so he didn’t really have much to gain or lose in this debate.

4. McCain - he came across as a bully (even more so Saturday night, don’t know if you saw it, but he tempered it Sunday night). His retort to Romney about leading for patriotism rather than profit was a cheap-shot and unnecessary and childish. Patriotism and military service is all well and good, but so is creating jobs and managing a giant company. He is still terrible on immigration and taxes since he voted against both Bush tax cuts. If he loses NH to Romney he’s toast.

5. Huckabee - he came across as ignorant on foreign affairs. He’s clearly the lightweight in this race since all he does is spew populist John Edwards-style rhetoric. He was owned by both Thompson and Romney concerning Guantanamo and taxes respectively.

From here, Mitt has to win NH and if he loses he’s not quite out, but severely damaged after losing 2 states that he poured millions into.

Rudy has to hope that his waiting-til-Florida-and-Super-Tuesday strategy works. For him he wants different candidates to split victories in IA, NH, SC, and MI so that there is still no “frontrunner” when his strong states come into play.

Fred has to win SC or get 2nd within just a few percentage points to be seen as a viable candidate. He has a Southern State strategy so SC is crucial and will determine whether he continues or not.

Huckabee needs to be stopped at all costs. He is terrible on economics (trade policy, taxes, spending, bashing CEO’s and corporations like a Democrat) and I personally really dislike him for blatantly exploiting his religion and having a holier-than-thou attitude while acting innocent. Evangelicals better wake up to realize they are being exploited, not embraced, by Huckabee. Huckabee is alllll about big government.

UPDATE: I realized something I left out and also emailed my father this quick email:

One more thing - if I here the words “Ronald Reagan” (especially from Giuliani, who must have a shrine to Reagan and a requirement to say his name 10 times daily) or “change” one more time I’m going to throw something.

Wow, this one was even better. I couldn’t pick a winner for this one because they all did pretty well, but I do think that Huckabee was the least impressive. Mitt Romney was awesome tonight and definitely got himself back together after his ABC debacle. He also nailed Huckabee good right at the beginning about how he raised taxes in Arkansas. Huckabee kept dancing around the question but Romney kept repeating it three or four times and just made a fool out of the guy.

This primary on Tuesday is going to be really exciting. I still think that McCain will be the winner and Romney will place second, but it might be a very close second and I think Mitt will still be in the game after New Hampshire.