"Two Mike Huckabees"

That's GOP strategist, Alex Castellonas, promising division and ultimate defeat for the GOP if Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee both jump into the 2012 fray.

“We’re going to have a division in the Right in the Republican Party. We now have two Mike Huckabees - people who have a powerful force in the party but can’t get out of the party in a general election and win.”

Right and wrong.

He's obviously right about the two sharing similar ideological and aesthetic space.

But he's wrong that two Mike Huckabees will destroy the party. If anything, Mitt Romney can promise the GOP he'll kill two, rogue birds with one stone. Another way of looking at it is that he can show up at Michael Steele's door as the Orkin Man (sans bike helmet and buddy) and get rid of the multiplying populists.

The only threat a trifecta raises is that bad feelings will linger into a general. But both Huckabee and Palin need the GOP too much to withhold general election support.

Imagine Huck's TV ratings if he ensured a second, pro-choice Obama term. Imagine Palin's heartland support if she ensured a second term with the guy who doesn't put his hand over his heart during the national anthem (Once a Patriot that!).

No.

Two Mike Huckabees = One Happy Mitt Romney.