Mitt Romney to appear on Mike Huckabee's Fox News program

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will appear on Mike Huckabee's Fox News program this weekend.

Despite a sometimes-tenuous relationship during the 2008 GOP primary race, Huckabee has been a bit warmer to Romney this time around. In fact, according to The Washington Post's Aaron Blake, they are now "frenemies."

Though he has criticized Romney for his Massachusetts' health care plan, Huckabee has directed most of his recent criticism at Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Earlier this year it looked as though Huckabee would support Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, since his daughter was working for Pawlenty's campaign and Huckabee played the bass at a rally for Pawlenty during the Iowa straw poll. Yet, all this happened before the Minnesotan ducked out of the race, endorsed Romney and took a job with his campaign.

It's no wonder that Romney's upcoming interview with Huckabee has The New York Times' Michael D. Shear asking the question: "Could an important endorsement be in the works?"

Though Shear says the interview with Huckabee may in fact just be an interview, he also says "an endorsement by Mr. Huckabee would go a long way toward helping Mr. Romney earn support among conservatives and Christian voters, especially in Iowa, where Mr. Huckabee is especially popular in those communities."

Romney could certainly use the endorsement to help shore up the big gains he has recently made in Iowa. According to a new survey of likely caucus-goers in Iowa, Romney leads the GOP field with 21 percent support; Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul trail at 6 percent, 7 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

email: hboyd@desnews.com