Glenn Beck calls conservative Mike Huckabee a "progressive," and the possible 2012 GOP contender fires back that the Fox News host is just "inept."

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he audio: Glenn Beck and Mike Huckabee are in a fight. On his radio show Tuesday, Beck labeled the conservative ex-Arkansas governor "the perfect progressive candidate," and equated him, unflatteringly, with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Specifically, Beck attacked Huckabee for endorsing Michelle Obama's anti-obesity campaign, which has drawn support from a number of conservatives. (Listen to the clip below.) In a strongly worded letter posted to his political action committee website Thursday, Huckabee, who's considering another presidential run in 2012, fired back. Beck "misrepresented" my comments, Huckabee said, "either out of ignorance or out of a deliberate attempt to distort them to create yet another 'boogey man' hiding in the closet that he and only he can see." Clearly, Huckabee said, the "inept" Fox News host "has decided to aim his overloaded guns on me." But perhaps in the future, "he ought to clean his gun and point it more carefully lest it blow up in his face like it did this time."
The reaction: Huckabee put together a "very entertaining" response to Beck's ridiculous claim, says Alex Pareene at Salon. But "I think Huck wrote this himself, in a hurry (it's clearly unedited), which is pretty funny, and probably not the sort of thing a man running for president would be allowed to do ." And if Huckabee really is a candidate, this will not help, says Mike Riggs at The Daily Caller. Just this week, Huckabee had strong words for the Club for Growth. Brawling with that anti-tax standardbearer and Beck "isn’t the smartest way to bolster one’s conservative credentials during primary season." Listen to Beck go off on Huckabee: