United States:The former governor has been accused of waging a pointless battle, but he is refusing to give in, write Perry Baconand Jonathan Weismanin Virginia.
At a private meeting of conservatives in the US House of Representatives last month, one member, Patrick McHenry, ridiculed Senator John McCain, asking why his fellow right-wing activists "shouldn't be physically ill at the prospects of a President McCain".
On Monday, McHenry - apparently feeling fine - joined the chorus of voices calling for conservatives to unite around McCain as the likely Republican nominee, and accused former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee of waging a pointless nomination battle because he is "in there for himself".
The Republican establishment has already begun to embrace McCain, who has built an enormous lead among delegates and whose staff has taken to calling him the "presumptive nominee". On Sunday, US president George W Bush offered to defend him against charges that he is no friend to conservatives.
However, Huckabee shows no interest in stepping aside, after his surprising strength in the south and midwest powered him to eight victories in the past week. Polling shows him trailing in yesterday's Washington, DC-area voting. But he insists that he will not drop out until McCain has gathered the number of delegates needed to claim the Republican nomination - a process that could take weeks.
Speaking to hundreds in Virginia Beach, Huckabee mocked what he called the "national media" and "party bosses" for pushing a "coronation" of McCain.
"By the way, since it's all over, it's an interesting thing someone didn't tell the people in Kansas and somebody forget to tell the folks in Louisiana," he told the crowd, referring to his defeat of McCain in those two states over the weekend. "We are in this race for you and every other conservative American."
Huckabee's refusal to bow to the pressure of almost hourly McCain endorsements has made him the target of some Republicans, who fear that an ongoing string of embarrassing defeats for the senator could hurt fundraising and delay efforts to refocus the battle on the Democrats.
Jeb Hensarling, who heads a group of 100 conservatives in the House, on Monday urged his colleagues to "enthusiastically support" McCain, sending a not-so-subtle message in a statement that "the primary is all but over whether we like it or not - no disrespect to Governor Huckabee".
McCain has refused to publicly join in the pressure campaign, saying only that "we have close to 800 delegates. Last time I checked, Governor Huckabee had very few, so I think I'm happy with the situation I'm in." As of Monday night, McCain had 729 delegates of the 1,191 needed to win the nomination, while Huckabee had 241, according to an Associated Press tally.
But the string of losses is forcing McCain to do more to reach out to conservatives, including dropping campaign literature in Virginia churches and contacting Catholic leaders about the senator's anti-abortion record.
However, McCain's campaign strategists do not believe Huckabee's continued presence will create the kind of damage that Ronald Reagan did when he challenged president Gerald Ford in 1976, or that senator Edward Kennedy did to president Jimmy Carter four years later. Both incumbents were weakened by protracted nomination battles and lost in the general election.
By contrast, McCain's losses in conservative areas now could make him more palatable to some moderates in the general election, aides argue. And the continued focus on Huckabee gives McCain time to build his national organisation out of the spotlight, one aide said.
Huckabee aides were not optimistic about winning any of the states in yesterday's primaries, although they competed hard in Virginia, and further losses make it closer to being mathematically impossible for Huckabee to win the Republican nomination.
But Huckabee seems determined to compete until that is officially the case. His aides said that while he only has about $1 million (€685,000) in cash on hand, he is raising about $150,000 a day, enough to continue running his campaign. They are planning to compete in Wisconsin next Tuesday, but the real focus is Texas on March 4th.
In a series of television and campaign appearances on Monday, Huckabee and his aides and supporters pushed back against the idea of an early departure. On Saturday, he joked that he planned to stay in the race because, "I have nowhere to go, right?"
- (LA-Times Washington Post service)