As Huckabee Pulls Ad, Rollins, For Once, Must Pull a Punch

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Huckabee Press Conference

Highlights from Mike Huckabee's press conference on Dec. 31, during which he announces he's pulling an attack ad against Mitt Romney.

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A couple of days before, at a Huckabee event at a community center in Perry, a 45-minute drive from here, Rollins explained his relationship with the candidate: "He's praying for me and I'll help him brawl. I'll help him brawl, absolutely. I would be irresponsible to a client if I didn't say, 'You've got to go negative, you've got to respond.' "

(Asked about the brawling comment, Huckabee said by e-mail, through a spokeswoman, "He is! And I'm teaching him how to turn the other cheek!")

And now the Ed Rollins tough-guy narrative takes yet another turn. He is the one-time enforcer of the Reagan White House, the kid who helped the Gipper win 49 states in his 1984 reelection bid. He's the man who first betrayed his party by going to work for Ross Perot, then wrote a scathing, expletive-ridden book in which he lashed out at prominent Republicans. He is the man who keeps saying he should have quit politics years ago, that his last race was his really last. Finally he is the man that can't help himself, the one who keeps coming back.

"I think I speak for most of the other former Reagan people when I say we weren't surprised that he got into the big pool again," says former Nevada governor and senator Paul Laxalt, who served as national chairman of three Reagan presidential campaigns. "He's always been the one person to wade into the deep water to see what's on the other side."

His swimming partner of choice certainly differs from more notorious clients in recent years. Unlike in the disastrous Senate campaigns of Michael Huffington and Katherine Harris, here Rollins got to know, really know the candidate before joining him.

He and Huckabee first met early last year at the New York home of Republican icon Georgette Mosbacher. After Huckabee spoke, Rollins, the grizzled brawler, says he felt deeply moved and told Huckabee so. Then, over the series of debates which Rollins calls "stupid," he watched Huckabee closely and grew to like him more. In early December, Rollins sent an e-mail to Huckabee offering his paid services, which Huckabee accepted.

"With someone like me," Rollins says, "you've got someone who's been around the track. If I don't have a good horse, I'm not going to win. But if I have a medium horse, I can make him a competitor. If I have a great horse, he's a winner. All I have to do is not fall off."

The thrice-married Rollins says he's found that kind of sturdiness with Huckabee. Soon after accepting his post, he traveled to Little Rock to see campaign manager Chip Saltzman's operation. He came away pleasantly surprised by Saltzman's frugality and the nimbleness of the shop. There weren't dozens of consultants and media teams being ushered in and out. Here was a campaign where he wouldn't be just a name on a letterhead, or just another voice. Here was someone he could actually help.

"Ronald Reagan was the first person to influence me," Saltzman says. "To get a chance to work with a guy that not only knew him, but worked closely with, is like getting to shoot hoops with someone like Larry Bird or Magic Johnson or Michael Jordan when you've been shooting hoops in the back yard."

In recent weeks, the affable Huckabee, who was never supposed to be taken seriously, has earned serious examination. Romney has attacked him on immigration and taxes, and Huckabee's clemencies granted as governor have provided great fodder for Romney ads in Iowa.

"This is not me going down some reminiscent trail," Rollins says. "It's me seeing someone who's tapping into a populist dissatisfaction in this country as it was in '92, as it was in '80 with Reagan. I mean this with all sincerity. I told my wife last night that I've haven't had more fun or been more turned on by a candidate since Reagan. There's a sincerity there. He's smart. He's a young Reagan."