Huckabee and Imus, Together Again

Political frontrunners often get overly cautious. Not so for Iowa frontrunner Mike Huckabee, who is waiting just 24 hours to be a guest on radio shock jock Don Imus's new show.

Imus, who was forced to resign after referring to the Rutgers women's basketball team as a bunch of "nappy headed hos," starts his new nationally syndicated show on Monday on WABC-AM. On Tuesday morning, Huckabee appears as a guest.

According to Huckabee's schedule, he will do a telephone interview at 7:30 a.m. central time. He is spending Monday and Tuesday campaigning in Iowa, where a new Des Moines Register survey puts him ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney by five percentage points. The poll shows Huckabee with 29 percent support and Romney with 24 percent.

When Imus was forced out, many politicians and former guests said they regretted their appearances on the show and said they would no longer be guests if he returned to the airwaves.

Huckabee was not one of them. From the beginning, he said Imus had made a mistake and should be allowed to move on.

"He's continued to have me on his show when I said stupid things," Huckabee told USA Today earlier this year. "What Imus said was wrong, but he seems genuinely sorry. He's certainly not the first celebrity to put his foot in his mouth -- and he won't be the last."

By contrast, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama told the paper: "The comments of Don Imus were divisive, hurtful and offensive to Americans of all backgrounds. With a public platform comes a trust. As far as I'm concerned, he violated that trust."

Now, Huckabee is making good on his word by standing by Imus just as the presidential nominating contest enters its final phase. The former Arkansas governor must have his finger's crossed that Imus doesn't "put his foot in his mouth" again.

-- Michael D. Shear