Huckabee endorsed Rubio in a video message Tuesday.

(CNN) – Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee officially endorsed Marco Rubio's Senate bid Tuesday, becoming the latest conservative to break with the national party over the GOP Senate primary race in Florida.

"I had a chance to get to know Marco over the years, spent a lot of time in Florida with him. And I've never seen a more energetic, articulate, principled conservative as Marco Rubio," Huckabee said in a video posted on his Web site.

"Marco loves liberty. He loves the idea that people can work hard and maybe get to keep something of what they worked hard for. That's the difference," he added.

Rubio faces Charlie Crist, the popular Florida governor, for the nomination. Crist immediately won the support of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee as well as a string of GOP leaders in Congress.

Conservative activists and bloggers have expressed disappointment the party was so quick to write off Rubio, a charismatic 38-year-old of Cuban descent whose quick rise in state politics and conservative credentials have won admiration from many in the party.

Huckabee's endorsement — first leaked accidentally more than three weeks ago — comes a week after South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint also threw his support behind Rubio, declaring he was "convinced" the former Florida House Speaker could beat Crist.

Recent polls show Crist with more than a 30-point lead in the race, though primary voters won't head to the polls for more than a year.

Huckabee plans to back Rubio in Florida.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has rolled out a succession of endorsements from national Republicans since announcing his entrance into the 2010 Senate race.

Now his Republican primary rival, former Florida House speaker Marco Rubio, has a national endorsement of his own from a conservative heavyweight: Mike Huckabee.

The former Arkansas governor will formally endorse Rubio in about two weeks, according to a Florida Republican familiar with the plans. The details of where the endorsement will take place have not been decided.

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Huckabee said Michael Steele's skin color is an asset when it comes to challenging President Obama.

(CNN) – Mike Huckabee said over the weekend that Michael Steele is doing "a good job" as chairman of the Republican National Committee — in part because of the color of his skin.

"I think [Steele] has sought to be, first of all, a very strong spokesperson," Huckabee told The Tennessean on Saturday, before speaking at a church service. "I'm not sure anyone else could be as effective in challenging the Obama policies any more so than Michael."

Asked why that's the case, Huckabee answered: "Well, I believe that that no one is gonna be able to use the racism charge."

But Huckabee seemed to quickly move away from that assertion, and went on to argue that Steele is an effective leader because he has experience at many levels of politics.

"No one's gonna be able to say that Michael doesn't understand, because he has gone up through the ranks," he said. "He has been an elected official I think there's value there. Sometimes our chairman has been a person, maybe, who has never held public office."

Just last week, Steele made some racial comments of his own, arguing that Obama avoided press scrutiny during the presidential campaign because he is black.

"He was not vetted, because the press fell in love with the black man running for the office," Steele said while filling in on Bill Bennett's radio show last Friday.

UPDATE: Ed Rollins, Mike Huckabee's former campaign manager, weighed in on Huckabee's comments on Tuesday.

Rollins said on CNN's "The Situation Room" that Huckabee "should have been focusing and not signing books," as he was during the interview.

"I think the bottom line here is, Michael Steele is chairman of our party not because he an African-American," Rollins said. "I think to a certain extent, whatever Mike was trying to say was not thought out. He is a guy who has had tremendous support in the African-American community as a governor, got 45 percent of the vote when he was running."

Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee issued a statement Tuesday on Sotomayor's nomination:

The appointment of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court is the clearest indication yet that President Obama's campaign promises to be a centrist and think in a bi-partisan way were mere rhetoric. Sotomayor comes from the far left and will likely leave us with something akin to the "Extreme Court" that could mark a major shift. The notion that appellate court decisions are to be interpreted by the "feelings" of the judge is a direct affront of the basic premise of our judicial system that is supposed to apply the law without personal emotion. If she is confirmed, then we need to take the blindfold off Lady Justice.

Huckabee is going after Pelosi over the CIA controversy.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Mike Huckabee has apparently found his muse: Nancy Pelosi.

Huckabee penned a poem about the House speaker, who has come under fire from the GOP for accusing the CIA of lying to her in intelligence briefings about the agency’s use of harsh interrogation techniques.

The seven-stanza poem, found on the former presidential candidate’s Web site, is called “Fancy Nancy.”

Huckabee calls Pelosi a “ruthless politician” and tweaks the San Franscisco Democrat for her use of a military plane for travel back to her district.

But the heart of the poem is about Pelosi's CIA he-said-she-said:

She sat in briefings and knew about enhanced interrogation; But claims she wasn't there, and can't give an explanation.

She disparages the CIA and says they are a bunch of liars; Even the press aren't buying it and they're stoking their fires.

Huckabee isn't a fan of the GOP's new 'listening tour.'

(CNN) — Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is continuing to deride his party's leaders in Washington, saying Monday he has trouble keeping a straight face over the GOP's newly-launched "listening tour."

"It's hard to keep from laughing out loud when people living in the bubble of the Beltway suddenly wake up one day and think they ought to have a listening tour; even funnier when their first earful expedition takes them all the way to the suburbs of Washington, D.C.," the former Arkansas governor wrote in a column on Fox News' Web site.

Earlier this month, Rep. Eric Cantor, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney kicked off a campaign by party leaders to reshape the GOP's image, gathering at a restaurant in northern Virginia for the first of a series of town hall meetings.

The goal of the initiative, the National Council for a New America, is to connect Republican leaders with voters across the country to help get the party's electoral fortunes back on track.

"If some of these leaders had been listening already, they wouldn't need to form a group to start listening now," wrote Huckabee. "Some of the ones who have decided to start listening sure weren't listening last fall when they were supporting the TARP bailout bill that pretty much discredited any semblance of conservative conviction."

Huckabee echoed a similar sentiment last week, telling a California newspaper the GOP was at risk of becoming "irrelevant as the Whigs" if it moderated its policies.

Huckabee says the GOP must not lose social conservatives.

(CNN) — Days after national Republicans launched a new campaign to broaden the party's outreach, former upstart presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says the GOP is at risk of becoming "irrelevant as the Whigs."

In an interview with the California newspaper The Visalia Times-Delta, Huckabee said the GOP would only further decline in influence should it alienate social conservatives — largely considered the most energetic and loyal faction of the party.

"Throw the social conservatives the pro-life, pro-family people overboard and the Republican party will be as irrelevant as the Whigs," he said in reference to the American political party that largely disbanded in the mid 1800s.

"They'll basically be a party of gray-haired old men sitting around the country club puffing cigars, sipping brandy and wondering whatever happened to the country. That will be the end of the party," he said in the interview published Thursday.

Huckabee's comments come the same day former Vice President Dick Cheney warned his party's leaders not to moderate their views as they launch an effort to regain control in the nation's Capitol.

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Huckabee is using Huck PAC as a fundraising tool for candidates.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said President Obama should see the grassroots "Tea Party" movement as "genuine" in a letter to supporters of his political action committee on Friday.

"Mr. President the tea parties = real moms, dads, small business owners concerned about a government adrift that is doubling down on spending," Huckabee said in the letter posted on his web site. "If President Obama is blind to what is happening on his front porch…he doesn't need a water dog…he needs a guide dog."

Huckabee is using Huck PAC as a fundraising tool for candidates that he says are committed "to fiscal sanity, lower taxes, a strong national defense, life and traditional marriage."

The Republican ticket lost Virginia for the first time since 1964.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Virginia Democrats are hoping Sarah Palin remains so polarizing that she'll keep voters from from supporting the GOP in this fall's much-anticipated gubernatorial election.

In a new Web video released Tuesday, the Democratic Party of Virginia replays audio from a Palin fundraiser last fall, in which she described "these small towns that we get to visit" as "real America."

The Web video attempts to draw a link between that comment and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's recent claim that that northern Virginians "aren't necessarily thinking in the same way that folks like you and me think." Huckabee made those remarks while campaigning in Appalachia on behalf of the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Bob McDonnell.

The video also calls attention to a former John McCain adviser, Nancy Pfotenhauer, who said on a cable show last fall that Democratic-leaning northern Virginia is not the "real Virginia."

The state Democratic Party calls Huckabee's remarks the "same failed divisive attacks" that helped drive Virginia into Obama's fold last November. The video says McDonnell is "writing off northern Virginia," the commonwealth's most populous region.

Last week, after the Huckabee speech was publicized by Virginia Democratic operatives, a McDonnell spokesman admitted that Huckabee "made some comments that do not reflect how integrated Virginia's economy is." He also pointed out that McDonnell was raised in northern Virginia.

For the record: Palin made the "real America" comment in North Carolina. The Alaska governor later apologized for the remark.

Huckabee told voters in Appalachia that northern Virginians have it easier.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Virginia Democrats are eagerly pouncing on Mike Huckabee for telling an audience in Appalachia that voters in northern Virginia "aren't necessarily thinking the same way folks like you and me think."

Huckabee made the remarks in southwest Virginia's Tazewell County on Monday while campaigning with Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor. His appearance was recorded and posted on YouTube by a state Democratic operative.

"They have never fully understood how hard it is for a lot of people to put a paycheck together, be able to feed a family," Huckabee said. "Some folks up there near the Beltway," he claimed, have "never fully understood how hard it is for a lot of people to put a paycheck together, be able to feed a family."

The comments were reminiscent of a gaffe made last October by Nancy Pfotenhauer, a campaign adviser to John McCain, who went on cable television and contrasted the strongly Democratic Washington suburbs with the rest of state, which she called 'real Virginia.' The Obama campaign, eager to shore up support in vote-heavy northern Virginia, seized on the comment.

Virginia Democratic Party chairman Richard C. Cranwell called Huckabee's remarks "divisive" and demanded that McDonnell condemn them. "It's the same thing they tried to do last year with the 'real Virginia,'" Cranwell said. "I expect we won't be seeing Mike Huckabee back in Virginia again."

State senator Creigh Deeds, one of three Democrats seeking his party's nomination for governor this year, said Huckabee's comments were "hurtful" and asked McDonnell supporters to "pick up a newspaper to find out that Virginians are hurting across the commonwealth."

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Huckabee said McAuliffe is overreacting to his recent comments in Virginia.

(CNN) – Mike Huckabee shot back at Terry McAuliffe late Thursday after the former DNC chairman and Virginia gubernatorial candidate accused Huckabee of encouraging voter suppression.

"As someone who served as a Governor for 10 years, I can say if these are the type of things Terry McAuliffe worries about and make him break down and cry, then he won't last 10 days as Governor much less four years and he doesn't deserve the people of Virginia's vote," Huckabee said in a statement to CNN.

At issue is a joke Huckabee made during a recent appearance on behalf of Bob McDonnell, the Republican candidate for governor.

Huckabee cracked that if McDonnell's supporters bump into someone who isn't planning on voting for the Republican, they should "let the air out of their tires and do not let them out of their driveway on election day."

The joke, a familiar one to those who followed Huckabee's presidential campaign, drew chuckles from the crowd.

McAuliffe, one of three candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, sought to make the remark an issue on Thursday.

"There are no jokes to be made about denying people the right to vote in this country," he said in a statement. "It's not a laughing matter. This is a right that people fought and died for, so as public figures, we must be sure that we are setting the standard."

Huckabee said Republicans should let the air out of Democrats' tires on election day.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Terry McAuliffe, the jovial former chairman of the Democratic National Committee now running for governor in Virginia, is not laughing at one of Mike Huckabee's jokes.

During a recent appearance on behalf of Bob McDonnell — the Republican candidate for governor — Huckabee wisecracked that if McDonnell's supporters bump into someone who isn't planning on voting for the Republican, they should "let the air out of their tires and do not let them out of their driveway on election day."

The joke is a Huckabee favorite: he recited it countless times at campaign stops nationwide during his failed bid to win the Republican nomination in 2007 and 2008.

Nevertheless, McAuliffe — who made more than a few surrogate appearances of his own on behalf of Bill and Hillary Clinton — is accusing of Huckabee of inciting "voter suppression."

"Let's be clear," he said in a statement. "There are no jokes to be made about denying people the right to vote in this country. It's not a laughing matter. This is a right that people fought and died for, so as public figures, we must be sure that we are setting the standard."

McAuliffe, who has made a point of highlighting his creation of a voting rights institute when he led the DNC, accused McDonnell of "standing by silently as Mike Huckabee encourages his supporters to suppress the vote."

McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin brushed off the McAuliffe criticism.

"Virginians are losing their jobs, unemployment is at its highest point in 17 years, and Chairman McAuliffe spends his afternoon feigning outrage over a lighthearted political joke by somebody not even on the ballot in Virginia," Martin said. "This attack demonstrates a complete lack of perspective and seriousness. Chairman McAuliffe clearly has no clue what Virginians are going through, and how tough times are."

Huckabee's campaign faltered in South Carolina last January.

(CNN) – Mike Huckabee will travel to the early primary state of South Carolina in April to make an appearance at a rally for Fair Tax supporters, who helped energize to his underdog presidential bid when he adopted the tax proposal into his campaign platform.

The rally will take place in downtown Columbia on Tax Day, April 15, according to the Fair Tax web site.

The trip will mark Huckabee’s second trip to South Carolina since the general election ended. The former Arkansas governor did a multi-city tour of the state in December to promote his new book.

For the second time in as many days, a prominent Republican has likened Pres. Obama's policies to socialism.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Another prominent Republican told the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday that the president’s spending plans are pushing the country to the brink of socialism.

Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, the only member of the senate to earn a perfect rating from the American Conservative Union, called President Obama “the world’s best salesman of socialism” on Friday in describing his prime time speech earlier this week.

DeMint, a fierce opponent of government expansion, told the CPAC crowd that conservatives might have to “take to the streets to stop America’s slide into socialism.”

His remarks comes a day after Mike Huckabee told the conference of conservative activists that “the Union of American Socialist Republics is being born” with the president’s stimulus package.

“Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff,” Huckabee said of the government bailing out financial institutions.

Speaking at CPAC, Mike Huckabee governor took McCain to task for voting for the financial bailout last October, a move the former Arkansas governor said betrayed the party’s core beliefs.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Mike Huckabee and John McCain got along famously during the Republican presidential campaign, but now Huckabee — possibly mulling another bid in 2012 — is putting some space between himself and the former GOP nominee.

Speaking at CPAC, the annual gathering of conservative activists, the former Arkansas governor took McCain to task for voting for the financial bailout last October, a move Huckabee said betrayed the party’s core beliefs.

“With all due respect, Sen. McCain dramatically suspended his campaign and flew back to Washington not to champion those conservative Republicans [in the House], but to join meekly with Barack Obama in voting for the bailout, a bailout most American opposed,” he said.

Huckabee said he went along with the Republican ticket because he was “a good soldier,” but that the bailout vote may have sunk McCain’s campaign.

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Former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was both sympathetic and critical of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

(CNN) — Sarah Palin has complained repeatedly that she was given unfair treatment by the media during her rapid political ascent last year.

But Mike Huckabee – a potential rival for Palin in 2012 should they both decide to seek the White House – apparently doesn’t agree.

In an interview in the current issue of Esquire, Huckabee speaks sympathetically of Palin, saying she had been subjected to “sexist things that would never have been asked of a male candidate.”

But he pushed back against Palin’s assertion that high-profile journalists – particularly Katie Couric of CBS – were biased in their interviews with her.

“Now I must say I did not think that either the Charlie Gibson interview or the Katie Couric interviews were unfair,” Huckabee said. “In fact, if anything, Katie Couric was extraordinarily gentle, even helpful. [Palin] just … I don't know what happened. I can’t explain it. It was not a good interview. I’m being charitable.”

Since losing his bid for the GOP nomination last year, Mike Huckabee hasn’t been shy about criticizing some of the politicians he might face in a 2012 Republican primary battle – but Mitt Romney has remained his favorite target. In his new book, Huckabee wrote that Romney was "anything but conservative until he changed the light bulbs in his chandelier in time to run for president.”

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Former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was both sympathetic and critical of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

(CNN) — Sarah Palin has complained repeatedly that she was given unfair treatment by the media during her rapid political ascent last year.

But Mike Huckabee – a potential rival for Palin in 2012 should they both decide to seek the White House – apparently doesn’t agree.

In an interview in the current issue of Esquire, Huckabee speaks sympathetically of Palin, saying she had been subjected to “sexist things that would never have been asked of a male candidate.”

But he pushed back against Palin’s assertion that high-profile journalists – particularly Katie Couric of CBS – were biased in their interviews with her.

“Now I must say I did not think that either the Charlie Gibson interview or the Katie Couric interviews were unfair,” Huckabee said. “In fact, if anything, Katie Couric was extraordinarily gentle, even helpful. [Palin] just … I don't know what happened. I can’t explain it. It was not a good interview. I’m being charitable.”

Since losing his bid for the GOP nomination last year, Mike Huckabee hasn’t been shy about criticizing some of the politicians he might face in a 2012 Republican primary battle – but Mitt Romney has remained his favorite target. In his new book, Huckabee wrote that Romney was "anything but conservative until he changed the light bulbs in his chandelier in time to run for president.”

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The RNC meeting will no longer be open to members of the media.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A much-anticipated special meeting between Republican National Committee members and the men seeking to lead the party will now take place behind closed doors after the members voted to prohibit non-party members from attending.

The meeting was originally scheduled to be open to reporters and other Republicans not on the committee, but after a roll call vote, it was determined there were not enough RNC members present for a quorum. Since the meeting would then only be an unofficial gathering, the members present were allowed to vote on how to proceed, and chose to bar the media from the session.

Now, the six contenders for RNC chair will present their cases and face more than an hour of tough questions from committee members without television cameras and reporters looking over their shoulders.

One candidate, former Mike Huckabee campaign manager Chip Saltsman, said he would have been fine with the media in the room, but also said he welcomed the chance to speak candidly with members without the presence of reporters.

“Every candidate has got a different idea of where they want to take the party, and I think its important for us to get together, talk about it, and obviously let the membership decide where they want to take it,” he said, “because I see the members as the board of directors of this company.”

Huckabee is slated to speak at next year’s CPAC.

(CNN) – If the Republican Party wants to get back on track, former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says GOP leaders must first restore voters' confidence in the government.

"People will forgive you for being a little left or a little right, but they won't forgive you for not taking them up instead of down," he told CNN in between appearances on his 56-city tour to promote his new book, "Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement That's Bringing Common Sense Back to America."

Huckabee said Republicans have lost their reputation as people who believe in curtailing spending and attempting to balance the budget and have a new label: the "budget busters," who spend more than they can pay back while priding themselves on not raising taxes.

Watch a post-campaign Huckabee on the road

"But it's not that they do it by curbing spending, they just kick the can down the road and put the burden on our grandchildren," he said, adding that he considers it "morally wrong" to indebt future generations.

Following big losses in the 2008 elections, the former Arkansas governor is urging Republican leaders to get back to the party's core values and "govern well" if they hope to win back the trust of voters.

Those in office, he said, "have to show that they are competent to lead," whether at the governors' level or city council. That way, Republicans can point to those people as examples to justify why they should be given a chance in the future.

Related: I'm not settling scores, says Huckabee

"If we don't live up to our own principles, then we can hardly criticize the other party for not living up to our principles either," he said.

Full story

Huckabee is in Iowa Thursday.

(CNN) — Remember the date. Thursday, November 20, 2008. Mike Huckabee visits Iowa. Just 16 days have passed since the presidential election, and 2012 is a long, long, long way away.

So what gives? Is the former Republican presidential candidate heading to Iowa because he's thinking of making another run for the White House in the next election?

Not at all, he says. He told CNN yesterday that he's just trying to sell his new book, "Do the Right Thing: Inside the Movement that's Bringing Common Sense Back to America."

On Thursday, his 56-city book tour brings the former Arkansas governor to Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa. He says he has a lot of fans there. He named the first chapter of the book "I love Iowa" and he thinks he can sell a lot of books in the state.

It was just 11 months ago that Huckabee surprised many political watchers by winning Iowa's Republican caucuses. He went on to win seven more primary contests before giving up his bid for the GOP presidential nomination and backing John McCain in March.

Besides the book, Huckabee is also hosting a weekly TV program and next year begins a radio gig as well. Could all this be an attempt to get ready for another run for the White House?

Wolf Blitzer asked Huckabee just that yesterday on CNN's "The Situation Room." But Huckabee dodged the question about whether he wants to run again, saying "There's a part of me that wants to see some fundamental change. I may not be the one to lead it."