Rod Dreher has a great column up about Mike Huckabee,

"Huckenfreude! That's blogger Ross Douthat's splendid word - taken from schadenfreude, the German term for taking pleasure in the misfortune of others - to describe glee over the miseries Mike Huckabee's candidacy is inflicting on the GOP establishment."

Although I am not a fan of Mike Huckabee, I am definitely feeling the Huckenfreude.

Let me tell you why.

All year long, when Rudy Giuliani was looking like the strongest candidate, despite the fact that he was completely blowing off social conservatives, we kept hearing that social conservatives should suck it up and vote for him anyway.

That's all well and good. In fact, it's exactly the same thing that I said.

However, then when Mike Huckabee started producing burly enough poll numbers to put the shoe on the other foot, a lot of the same people who were telling social conservatives to suck it up started freaking out. Oh, he's so religious! He doesn't buy into evolution! He's a former preacher! I'd rather vote for a Democrat than Huckabee!

But, wait -- what happened to that party loyalty that everyone was talking about?

Heh, heh, heh.

Again, personally I'm not a fan of Huckabee, although admittedly I would prefer him as a candidate to Giuliani or Romney, but it has been fun to see the gnashing of teeth he's inspired amongst the GOP establishment.