Poll: Huckabee Pulling Away in Iowa

This makes it strictly a two person race, Romney and Huckabee:

A new poll of Iowa voters conducted this week seems to show Mike Huckabee surging past the rest of the Republican field, beating his closest rival, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, by 22 points among Republicans, 39 to 17 percent.

In the latest Newsweek poll, released Friday, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson slides to 10 percent, down from 16 in the last survey. No other candidate rates higher than single digit support.

Among the Democrats, its getting really tight:

The poll finds the Democratic race appears far less settled. New York Sen. Hillary Clinton at 30 percent among Democratic voters in Iowa, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama at 29 percent, and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards at 21 percent.

Among likely caucus-goers, however, Obama seems to outpace Clinton, 35 percent to 29 percent, with Edwards dropping to 18 percent. Obama also gets more support from those who say they will "probably" attend a Democratic caucus — 40 percent of that group say they will support him, while just 27 percent say the same for Clinton.

And with that lead comes scrutiny:

Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, who has been criticized by his party’s fiscal conservatives, found his tax record under fire Friday from both a rival candidate and an independent group.

[...]the anti-tax Club for Growth released an anti-Huckabee ad on YouTube, with plans to air it nationwide on FOX News Monday,

"Mike Huckabee wants to hide the fact that he and Bill Clinton share a 'D' lifetime rating for their tax and spend policies," says the Thompson mailer, in reference to Huckabee's negative assessment from the libertarian Cato Institute's Scorecard of Governors.

Elsewhere, the flier states, "Mike Huckabee talks like a Republican but taxes like a Democrat."

The 60-second Club for Growth spot excerpts a speech Mike Huckabee gave as Arkansas governor in which he says certain tax increases are acceptable.

[...]Huckabee's campaign has not responded to a request for comment. But late last month he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that that the Arkansas speech has been taken out of context.

"I was basically giving a put up or shut up speech to the legislature who had been saying we have got a $200 million deficit, and we don't like any proposal the governor has to fix it," he said. "What I was saying to them was, if you don't like my proposals, give me yours, but let's fix this deficit. And we did."

Then there is the Dumond matter, which won't go away. Huckabee, who likes to talk about his faith drives his life, has been caught in a lie:

Trying to bury any doubts, Huckabee said this week that he had "considered" -- but then rejected -- the idea of using his powers as governor to commute DuMond's sentence and release him for time served. The state parole board acted before he had to make a final call. It was the parole board, Huckabee said, that unlocked the cell door.

"It was a horrible situation, horrible. I feel awful about it in every way. I wish there was some way I could go back and reverse the clock and put him back in prison," the candidate said at a news conference this week.

Though he acknowledged discussing the case with the state parole board, Huckabee said that conversation was "simply part of a broader discussion" initiated at the request of the board chairman. "I did not ask them to do anything," he said.

Three board members recalled it differently. They said Huckabee raised the issue of DuMond's release, asking to discuss the matter with them in a closed session. They said his religious beliefs, and the influence of the evangelical community from which he came, drove him.

"We felt pressured by him," said board member Ermer Pondexter. "I felt compelled to do it. . . . It was a favor for the governor."

Looking back, she added, "I regret it."

Parole board member Deborah Springer Suttlar said Huckabee did not mince his feelings about DuMond: "He wanted him out."

A committee of board members voted to parole DuMond. It took the action just before the deadline by which Huckabee would have had to decide what assistance, if any, he would grant to an inmate whom he had already said he wanted to help.

"He thought DuMond just grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, that he may have gotten a raw deal and a longer sentence than others under similar circumstances," recalled board member Charles Chastain, who said he was the lone dissenter in a 4-1 committee vote to grant parole.

[...]Cole, the minister who befriended DuMond, said: "The governor felt compassion for Wayne. He was sorry for him. So, I asked the governor to help. I asked him if anything could be done. And Mike had a lot of people on his neck trying to get him to get Wayne released."

"Many of them," Cole added, "were in the Christian community."