Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, who had freely told reporters during the Fall campaign season he was worried about a Mike Huckabee presidency, has now jumped to the former Arkansas governor's defense.

The particular occasion is arguing Huckabee is being held to an incorrect standard as a former Southern Baptist pastor, but there's no doubt many evangelical Christian voters will take it as a sign Perkins has implicitly endorsed Huckabee.

In fact, it's hard not to see that as the message when Perkins casts Huckabee's campaign as a test for the survival of open Christianity in politics:

"There is clearly a reverse religious standard being applied to Mike Huckabee, a standard that says there will be no defining religious beliefs. I would hope the other candidates, including the Democrats, would clearly and absolutely denounce this reverse religious test and keep the media from going further down this path. If not, I predict that bible-believing Christians will step over policy differences they have with Mike Huckabee to stand by and support a candidate who is being attacked because he believes, as they do, that their Christian faith should actually impact the way they live. If that happens, the recent meteoric rise of the Huckabee campaign in the polls could look minuscule compared to the tsunami of support that he will get from Christians who are tired of the elites who belittle their beliefs and attempt to rob them of every public reflection of their faith."

Perkins and other national religious leaders have been getting blasted by state-level leaders, particularly in Iowa, for not having endorsed a man who they see as one of their own. Given that, it's not surprising Perkins had to do something to bless Huckabee, at least partially.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times