There is no love lost, of course, between Huckabee and the Club. “The problem is when very strong conservatives who have actually effectively governed and innovated are called ‘moderates’ by divisive and strident groups like Club for Growth,” retorts Huckabee in an e-mail. “How anyone with serious political perspective or depth could call Tommy Thompson or David Dewhurst a ‘moderate’ is silly on its face.”

“Huckabee still blames the Club for sabotaging his presidential race in 2008,” argues a conservative activist. (Sample line from a Club ad against Huckabee: “There was once a governor from Hope, Arkansas, who raised taxes like there was no tomorrow.”) But it is not only the Club for Growth that has questioned Huckabee’s conservative credentials. “He’s a social conservative, but he never struck me as a fiscal conservative,” e-mails Chris Edwards, director of tax-policy studies at the Cato Institute. Huckabee, he notes, received an F from the Cato Institute in 2006 for his work as governor of Arkansas, for reasons such as “his insistence on raising taxes at almost every turn throughout his final term.”

But Huckabee maintains that he’s no supporter of moderates.