Every time I say something critical of a Republican presidential candidate, I painfully remember the famous Ronald Reagan philosophy that involved never saying anything bad about a fellow Republican.

I’m just not sure President Reagan anticipated the kind of struggle so many of us are having in trying to sort out the “RINOS” (Republicans-in-name-only) from the real ones.

And since I could never achieve the kind of greatness that Reagan did anyway, I might as well dive right in.

In an effort to pander to potential voters in an act that was reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s demented drawl reading a Negro spiritual in front of a black congregation, Gov. Mike Huckabee, stumping for votes in South Carolina, said something on national television this week that was positively astounding.

Clowning around on an MSNBC talk show, Huckabee spoke of his connection to the people of South Carolina. “South Carolina's a great place for me. I mean, I know how to eat grits and speak the language.” (Cue the banjo music here). We even know how to talk about eating fried squirrel and stuff like that, so we're on the same wavelength."

He went on to say, "When I was in college, we used to take a popcorn popper, because that was the only thing they would let us use in the dorm, and we would fry squirrels in a popcorn popper in the dorm room."

I happen to be quite familiar with the state of South Carolina. Not only did I meet and marry my wife there, but two of our sons and my in-laws still call the Palmetto State home. Some of my happiest memories were created there.

And I never saw anyone frying squirrels, either in a popcorn popper (could that even be possible?), in a crock pot, a microwave, or any other method of cooking and eating a varmint like a squirrel. Continued...