IS NOVAK LYING TO HELP McCAIN TRIANGULATE?

Even though I'm just a schmuck blogger and my betters are telling me to take Robert Novak's latest column seriously (Jonathan Marin of the Politico calls it "Novak at his best ... A great reported column"), I smell a rat:

...Some U.S. Christians are not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regard the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people. These militants look at former Baptist preacher Huckabee as "God's candidate" for president in 2012....

... One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used told me that Huckabee, in personal conversation with him, had embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve....

According to this activist, at the heart of the let-Obama-win movement is longtime Virginia conservative leader Michael Farris -- the nation's leading home-school advocate, who is now chancellor of Patrick Henry College (in Purcellville, Va.) for home-schooled students....

In conversations with me, Huckabee and Farris both denied saying that an Obama presidency should be inflicted on the country....

Everyone's denying it, and in fact there's no evidence offered here except the statement of "One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used" -- but that's supposed to persuade us. Novak heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy, so it must be true, right?

Well, if this is nonsense, why would Novak say it now? Hmmm, let's see: Frank Rich led last week's column with questions about McCain's ties to nutjob preachers John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Newsweek published a column about McCain and Hagee last week. Bloggingheads.tv (now at The New York Times) just featured a discussion of Parsley. Videos of Hagee and Parsley are suddenly pping up here and there.

What's an apparatchik to do? Why, help McCain triangulate, by saying, "Look, here's a real right-wing looney who doesn't want to have anything to do with McCain! Two, in fact!"

At the very least, it seems likely that Novak is taking notions that are within the pale (this is the Democrats' year; Huckabee's nouveau-evangelical appeal makes him a front-runner for 2012) and tweaking them until they fit nicely under the banner headline "McCain's Christian Problem." Because that's a message designed to sell McCain to secular swing voters: Christian rightists don't like McCain ... pay no attention to those looney preachers who are embracing him.