McCain likes the math; Huckabee could use miracle
Despite tension, Arizona senator's camp cheers rival
ARLINGTON, Va. - A longstanding alliance of convenience and admiration between John McCain and Mike Huckabee has exhibited its first fissures after Huckabee announced plans to contest McCain's weekend victory in Washington state's caucuses.
Huckabee said yesterday that he would consider legal options against a Washington Republican Party he suggested had engaged in un-American practices by declaring McCain winner of its caucuses Saturday before all the results had been tabulated.
"I think it's pretty clear that we won," McCain responded at a press conference in Annapolis, Md. "He obviously has the right to challenge if he chooses to."
Even a successful challenge would probably have little effect on the outcome of the contest. McCain advisers, along with outside observers, believe it may now be mathematically impossible for Huckabee to accumulate the necessary 1,191 delegates to clinch the nomination, given the remaining primary calendar, but the former Arkansas governor reiterated yesterday that he intends to remain in the race until one candidate passes that threshold.
He said on CNN that he will not step aside "as long as my guys are still waving the pompoms."
"I know people say that the math doesn't work out," Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, told a conservative gathering over the weekend. "Folks, I didn't major in math. I majored in miracles, and I still believe in those too."
It was the type of Huckabee quip that has long amused McCain, a fan of his opponent's wit and charisma. McCain's aides have been even less shy about their affection, openly cheering Huckabee's successes against common rival Mitt Romney.
When word that Huckabee had prevailed in the second round of West Virginia's convention reached McCain's plane early on Super Tuesday, adviser Steve Duprey pumped his fist and exclaimed, "We love Huck!"
Romney withdrew from the race last week, squeezed on his right by Huckabee and his left by McCain. Now those two remain, along with Texas Representative Ron Paul, in a race for delegates whose resolution is all but settled, and seeing their interests diverge.
"Even lovers have little quarrels!" Duprey wrote by e-mail yesterday.
While McCain looks ahead to the general election, Huckabee's enduring candidacy remains as a rallying point for social conservatives and anti-immigration activists disenchanted with McCain. Shows of support for Huckabee are doubling as votes of no-confidence in McCain, threatening to foil the Arizona senator's delicate efforts to consolidate a fragmented Republican base.
Yesterday, when asked why Republicans persist in voting for Huckabee despite his inability to win the nomination, McCain said it was "because they like him."
"I never expected a unanimous vote, although I would certainly like to have that," he added.
On Saturday, however, McCain lost the Kansas caucus and Louisiana primary to Huckabee, and appears to have won Washington only narrowly.
Today, McCain hopes to regain momentum in primaries in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, with a total of 113 delegates up for grabs. Huckabee signaled that he would continue to fight for the 18 Washington delegates that state Republican officials awarded to McCain while about 13 percent of the caucus precincts remained uncounted.
"This is not what we do in American elections," Huckabee said yesterday on CNN. "Maybe that's how they used to conduct it in the old Soviet Union, but you don't just throw people's votes out and say, 'Well, we're not going to bother counting them because we kind of think we know where this was going.' "
A younger, insurgent McCain stood in the snow outside the Russian consulate in New York to make a similar point about that state party's practices in the 2000 primary, but yesterday he responded to questions about Huckabee's challenge with a front-runner's zen. "We have close to 800 delegates," McCain said. "Last time I checked, Governor Huckabee had very few, so I think I'm happy with the situation I'm in."
Sasha Issenberg can be reached at sissenberg@globe.com. 