Huckabee, Dobson huddle in Springs : rockymountainnews.com

Mike Huckabee, the last remaining obstacle to Sen. John McCain's ascendancy to Republican nominee for president, left Texas for a paid speaking engagement in Colorado on Friday and spent an hour with one of his biggest backers - James Dobson.

Huckabee, who has been friends with the Focus on the Family founder for 14 years, did not disclose the details of their conversation but did talk about his campaign, outside the nonprofit's headquarters.

Dobson also didn't discuss what they talked about.

It didn't take Huckabee long to take a swipe at McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton - all sitting senators vying for the presidency. It came when Huckabee was asked why he left the battleground states of Texas and Ohio for a paid speaking engagement for Leadership of the Rockies at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs on Friday evening.

The lecture circuit is Huckabee's primary source of income since leaving the governorship of Arkansas in 2006, and this event was scheduled months ago, campaign officials said.

"If I were a sitting senator, I would be expected to be in Washington; that's how I would get my paycheck," he said. "Unfortunately, the people I'm paying to be sitting senators aren't showing up at their desk. You know, if you don't show up at work, you get fired. These guys aren't showing up for work and are expecting us to give them a better job."

About 40 supporters holding signs stood on the corner of the street where Huckabee spoke, including one handmade sign that read "Mike Huck-a-rules." The event was held off the Focus on the Family property but within view of its headquarters.

Gary Schneeberger, Focus on the Family spokesman, said that the nonprofit wanted to be "hyper-compliant," so as to not violate its nonprofit tax status by hosting a political event. He said that Dobson has endorsed Huckabee as a private citizen, not as founder of the influential organization, which features a radio program on 3,400 stations in North America and reaches 220 million people daily.

Dobson's endorsement was coveted by Mitt Romney, who won the Colorado caucus and captured the state's 46 delegates.

But because Romney suspended his campaign after bruising losses on Super Tuesday, Huckabee - who finished second to Romney in Colorado - said he hopes that those delegates would support him at the Republican National Convention Sept. 1-4 in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.

Romney has endorsed McCain.

Dick Wadhams, Colorado Republican Chairman, said that the results of Super Tuesday in Colorado were non-binding and that those delegates are "free to follow their conscience" when casting a preference for the party's nominee.

But Huckabee trails McCain badly in delegates needed to capture the nomination, 975 to 245, according to RealClearPolitics.com. A candidate needs 1,191 delegates to win the nomination.

Huckabee believes he has a shot, though political observers say it would take a cataclysmic event to derail McCain's bid - something that looked possible with the allusion this week in The New York Times to the Arizona senator allegedly having had a romantic relationship with a lobbyist.

McCain has denied the accusations, and Huckabee wouldn't pile on Friday.

"He's denied the allegations in The New York Times article," Huckabee said. "I have no reason to doubt him."

For Susan Brooks, who showed up to see Huckabee, the ordained Baptist minister is the only hope for the Republican Party.

"I think we'll lose the election if John McCain is the nominee," she said. "I think a lot of conservatives will stay at home."

Huckabee, Dobson huddle in Springs

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