TAMPA, Fla. — When Mike Huckabee speaks to Republicans lately, it’s to eviscerate those like Mitt Romney who have called on Todd Akin to drop out of the Missouri Senate race.
But on Wednesday night, Huckabee played nice, telling the crowd at the Tampa Bay Times Forum here that Republicans of all stripes are united behind Romney, mostly because he’s not President Obama.
“Four years ago, Mitt Romney and I were opponents. We still are, but we’re not opposing each other,” Huckabee said. “We are mutual opponents of the miserably failed experiments that have put this country in a downward spiral.”
That’s not entirely true. Romney, along with most of the rest of the establishment GOP, has condemned Akin over his “legitimate rape” comment and urged him to get out of the Missouri Senate race.
Huckabee has become the most prominent member of an evangelical wing of the GOP that’s stood with Akin and called out its fellow Republicans for, as they see it, turning on him.
Last week Huckabee likened Republicans vowing not to help Akin to “union goons” who are “breaking people’s kneecaps.”
“Todd Akin has done nothing but make a mistake for which he has roundly repudiated the comment and apologized,” Huckabee said. “There’s nothing else he can do.”
On Wednesday there was none of that. Instead Huckabee played the role of evangelical Christian standing up for the GOP’s Mormon nominee.
“I care far less as to where Mitt Romney takes his family to church than I do about where he takes this country,” Huckabee said.
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