Expanding on BooMan’s Huckenfreude post, I see that the GOP is dropping the 800 pound gorilla on the Huckster: Oxy-Conan himself.

So everybody and their brother is listening to Rush today, wondering if he’ll take a shot at Huckabee after an unnamed Huckabee aide in DC criticized Limbaugh…

The first comment, moments into the show: “You want to whine like Mike Huckabee’s whining… I hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but it happened.”

Now he’s going after Rollins, for claiming Rush (and Rich) don’t like Huckabee simply because they didn’t foresee his rise.

Rush is now playing audio of him talking about “what if Mike Huckabee wins Iowa” from November 8…

“I saw it coming… and I now may be seeing it going.”

UPDATE: Rush is on fire.

Yeah, it seems for once, the NRO-bots and I are in agreement.  There’s something kind of midly creepy about watching Rush beat up on somebody using the power of his talk radio mind control beams, but it’s even better to see those beams trained on The Huckster.

What happens when Rush starts bashing the Christian Conservative poster boy?  Nobody in the noise machine is going to cross Rush…nobody.  Somehow in the last 24 hours, the guy has become the RINO poster child instead.

Hell, the righty blogs are enjoying the carnage, like Capn’ Crunch.

Had Huckabee not gone out of his way to slap at George Bush, people may have believed the denial, because attacking Rush makes no sense at all. Candidates who disagree with him would normally just avoid talking about it. No one needs the figurative 800-pound gorilla in the room stomping on them, and Rush has a much more powerful podium than any of the people in this race.

I’d think that the source will wind up being a lower-level operative with a big mouth. Still, the damage is done. Huckabee will have a hard time living this down, although maybe not so much in Iowa, where the caucusers tend to like populists. Expect this to sting most in South Carolina and the national numbers.

It’s amusing to see that Huck’s basically being treated like the strange relative from the Ozarks by the rest of the country club GOPers.  Before he was a “populist” (said with the same level of disdain as the words “Mormon” or “ethnic”.)  Now he’s the family idiot because he pissed Grampa off.

They really, really hate the guy.  And now that Rush has weighed in, it’s turning into that scene in Airplane! where people are lining up to smack the crap out of poor Huck, and the folks towards the end of the line have pipe wrenches and shit.

I said at the time this was a fight Huckabee didn’t want. The media is bound to pick it up giving it even more exposure than Rush is. And Huckabee’s bound to lose. You don’t pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel, or have three hours of air time every day. As I suggested below, I guess Huckabee really isn’t all that bright.

Hell, Malkinvania can barely keep her powder dry.

I was in the car listening to Rush Limbaugh responding to the Mike Huckabee campaign’s attack on him. What an unbelievably knuckle-headed move by Huckabee’s minions. Casting Limbaugh as part of the Beltway-Manhattan elite? Those who’ve been tuning in and listening closely know that Limbaugh has scrupulously avoided playing favorites with any of the GOP candidates. He’s been an equal-opportunity scrutinizer. What possible benefit could accrue from going after one of the conservative moment’s most popular figures?

I believe this Rush-bashing incident may turn out to be Huckabee’s Howard Dean scream moment.

Even the deadly mild Corndog Crusader is taking his shots.

LIMBAUGH GOES AFTER HUCKABEE: I told you attacking him was a bad idea. That would be like Hillary going after Oprah.

I do wonder how long it’s going to take the Huckabuddies to note that the rather nasty vitriol Rush is spouting today could easily be applied to any of them?

RUSH:  What this supposed Huck supporter… I’m not even sure it’s a Huck supporter. This sounds like something a Clinton person would say. You know, this is what the Clinton people believe, that Bill Clinton made my career, that all I want is somebody in office that can make me even bigger, and that I don’t think for myself. You people are just mind-numbed robots. I can’t believe there’s anybody on Huckabee’s staff that ignorant about what happens on this program.  If this is indeed Huckster forces attacking Rush, then he’s got some people on his staff that are going to cause him problems because that’s just simply idiotic.

But hey, our side is here to point and laugh at the monkeys fighting over the poo.

Rush plus Huck plus Us equals…Ruckus.  Yep.  This is gonna get goooooooooood.

Hell, this is turning into high school.