Two Florida Republicans -- though one is far better known for his political career in Arkansas -- are wading into the race for their party’s presidential nomination this week.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who moved to the Panhandle last year, and freshman U.S. Rep. Allen West offered their thoughts on the fluid battle to see who will emerge to challenge President Barack Obama in 2012.

Speaking on the “Morning Majority” radio show on WMAL on Wednesday, West, the only Republican member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that businessman Herman Cain, who rocketed to the top of the polls after winning the Presidency 5 straw poll in Orlando before starting to sink after a series of missteps and accusations of sexual harassment and affairs, needs to consider pulling out of the race. West said Cain is a “distracter for what's going on right now and we should move on.”

West added that there were now two viable candidates for the Republican nomination -- former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. While saying that Gingrich will appeal to conservatives who are looking for alternatives to Romney, West added that the former congressional leader has “personal baggage” that could hurt him in the long run.

While no Floridian has ever been added to a national ticket, West said he would be open to running for vice president.

Huckabee, who had considered entering the race himself, also weighed in on the presidential race this week.

Making his daily broadcast of the Huckabee Report on Tuesday, which runs on 600 radio stations across the nation, Huckabee mulled over a new ad being run by the Democratic National Committee against Romney. Huckabee and Romney crossed swords as two of the chief contenders for the Republican presidential nomination back in 2008.

“The Democratic National Committee made an unusual entry into Republican primary politics by airing an attack ad on Mitt Romney,” said Huckabee. “It uses footage of Romney taking contradictory positions on issues at different times to hammer on his Achilles heel, the claim that he's a flip-flopper. The question is why the DNC would use part of its budget to attack a Republican candidate before the first primary is even held. It is unusually sporting of them to go to such lengths to make sure the Republicans don't nominate a candidate with any serious flaws.

“This puts Romney in a tough spot: the ad makes him look pretty bad, so he wouldn't want to call attention to it,” added Huckabee. “On the other hand, it could be interpreted to mean that the Democrats see him as the biggest threat to Obama if they're that desperate to knock him out of the race before it even starts, so it could be a bragging point for him.

"His best option might be to simply ask what people who want to re-elect Obama -- who ran as a moderate, pro-business, budget-cutting, Gitmo-closing, anti-insurance mandate centrist -- have against flip-flopping? The DNC had better be careful not to cut their own throats while they're throwing rocks from their own glass house.”

Huckabee will be on center stage on Saturday as he hosts a forum for the Republican presidential candidates. The forum will be on Huckabee’s show on Fox News at 8 p.m. and he will be joined by three state attorneys general -- Pam Bondi of Florida, Scott Pruitt of Oklahoma and Ken Cuccinelli of Virginia. Six of the Republican candidates -- U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, Gingrich, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, Romney and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania -- are scheduled to participate in the forum on Saturday.

 

Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.