Ron Paul caused a stir in the latest Republican presidential debate in Durham, New Hampshire on Wednesday, September 5, delivering a warning to his rivals that to voice support for the calamitous Iraq War policies of Dick Cheney and George Bush risked a calamitous defeat for Republicans in the 2008 election.

Given the venue in which such a dire warning was delivered, it was virtually certain that a strong response would be forthcoming.  It came from Mike Huckabee and seemed  appropriate considering where the Arkansas governor stands in the Republican field.

Huckabee is attempting to demonstrate that he deserves the support of the red meat rightists who diet regularly on Fox News and diatribes by drug-addicted Rush Limbaugh while Rudy Guiliani and Mitt Romney backpedal and work overtime to re-define themselves after having to adopt what the hard right deemed heresies they embraced to voters in New York City and Massachusetts to get elected.  

Guiliani and Romney are therefore compelled to make the case that they surely had not previously pandered to Eastern voters, but have since seen the true light and embraced principles that would prevent Pat Robertson from gagging, a good first step to displaying legitimacy with the party's stalwart rightist base.