Huckabee Watch: The "Impeccable" Conservative?

Does darkhorse Republican candidate for president Mike Huckabee really have a chance in Iowa?

The Des Moines Register pens a piece with the headline, "No individual in the presidential race completely matches the values of the state's conservatives."

A wide-open field among the G.O.P herd in Iowa leaves an opening for the former Arkansas Governor?

The Plymouth County G.O.P. chairman says a dark-horse candidate like Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback or Huckabee could have a shot. Both are reportedly "popular with the base."

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"I don't think we have to give up on any of the tenets of true conservativism," Huckabee said on a recent Iowa trip. "My record on conservative litmus-test issues is impeccable and consistent," he added. Some Iowa Republicans might quibble with Huckabee, who signed legislation extending state health and education benefits to illegal immigrants in Arkansas. Likewise, Brownback is among the few Senate Republicans to speak out against President Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq, a policy most conservatives solidly support.

All of the candidates have pushed hard to project popularity with the party's right by signing key Iowa conservative figures or campaigning with them in the state. Huckabee last month landed former lieutenant governor nominee Bob Vander Plaats of Sioux City, a figure in conservative-heavy western Iowa.