Mr. Border Fence is backing a guy who accused opponents of Bush’s immigration plan of nativism? Two days after Fred drops out because he can’t pull enough conservatives to beat John McCain?

Dude?

“I got to know Governor Huckabee well on the campaign trail,” Huckabee said in a statement. “Of the remaining candidates I feel that he is strongly committed to strengthening national defense, constructing the border fence and meeting the challenge of China’s emergence as a military superpower that is taking large portions of America’s industrial base.

“Along with these issues of national security, border enforcement and protecting the U.S. industrial base, I see another quality of Mike Huckabee’s candidacy that compels my endorsement,” he added. “Mike Huckabee is a man of outstanding character and integrity. I saw that character over the last year of campaigning and was greatly impressed. The other Republican candidates have many strengths and I wish them all well.”

The man who wants his foreign policy driven by the golden rule is the man to tame the Chinese dragon?

Am I hallucinating?

Update: What’s even odder is that Hunter’s often touted as a SecDef in the next Republican administration. Endorsing McCain, the frontrunner, would have helped him in that regard and given Maverick a boost with conservatives. Instead he throws his endorsement away on someone who’ll be done by February 6th.

I guess he just likes the guy.

Update: Joe Carter, Huck’s former research director, e-mails to say the nativism quote is being taken out of context:

Here is what he really said:

“I do believe some of it is driven by racism or nativism,” he said of the opposition within his party to Mr. Bush’s view that illegal aliens should not be deported but rather fined and eventually allowed U.S. citizenship.

When asked directly by the reporter if there wasn’t some xenophobia behind the opposition, Huckabee made the error of telling the truth. Having talked to more than a few anti-immigration extremist while on the campaign trail, I can attest that there is a segment of voters that is all for “throwing out the brown people.” Is that the majority of Republicans? Of course not. But it’s silly to pretend that the GOP doesn’t include its share of extremists.

Fair enough. Huckabee’s record on immigration goes way beyond that quote, though. Trot through Lonewacko’s archives sometimes and drink it in.