Baptist faultlines in the South Carolina Primary

Yesterday, New Hampshire Primary Day, Chris Matthews asked the question how will John McCain defeat Mike Huckabee's Southern Baptists in South Carolina.
I was already thinking about a version of the same question.

Here are some of the folks and some of the conundrums a good analysis of such a problem will have to resolve; or in McCain's case, conflate.
And in some way I hope to go to the character of Southern Baptists politically in this process.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was in the John McCain camp in the Primary of 2000. Opposing McCain in 2000 were many of the same folks now in Huckabee's camp; namely former SC Governor Beasley who at one time was chair of the South Carolina SBC.
Huckabee also has the son of former Governor Carroll Campbell in his corner; Campbell a great friend of the Bush dynasty, at one time a strong possibility for HW 41's VP spot.
Graham is a native of Seneca, the adopted hometown of Harry Dent's daughter Ginny Brant.
Brant signed the Memphis Declaration, a group of reformers in the SBC that helped elect Frank Page president in the FAce of the Old Tex Regulars, John Birch society shaded SBC of Pressler, Patterson and Richard Land.
Also signing the Memphis Declaration was Ben Cole, the Baylor PHD student now at Wade Burleson's church in Enid OkLahoma.
Any nuancing of South Carolina, Huckabee and his implications for Reform as an economic populists, and some kind of reformer of Pressler's SBC should take into the conversation Harry Dent's Daughter Brant, and Ben Cole.
Also shading that conversation should be the wife of Bama Samford President, Jeanna Westmoreland, a Huckabee Education Commission appointee in Arkansas.
John McCain's wife Cindy, her former pastor Richard Jackson is the pastor Karl Rove operative Richard Land of the SBC's ERLC; Jackson was defeated by Land's SBC candidate Jerry Vines in 88 in San Antonio.
How Frank Page can make righteous sense of this denominational political geography, I don't know.

Making matters in SC even more interesting is how the FBC Greenville Republicans conflate all this as they line up with Huckabee or McCain. My sense is most of them will find a way to go the Lindsey Graham, McCain route.
STaffer at FBC Baxter Wynn was at one time a leading Republican in the state as his Brother was SC GOP state chair in the 80's.

When Lee Atwater came on the Daddy Bush team in 88 it was because he was told that campaign needed a nut cutter. And Barr said at the time, Yeah George we need one of them.

Question now being as Chris Matthews alluded: Who has Huckabee by the Nuts?
Randall Balmer in his Book Thy Kingdom Come named Rove's boy in the SBC, Richard Land a counterfeit Baptist.
So another question is what substance is there to David Brooks Two Earthquakes NY Times OpED piece last Friday that Huckabee as an economic populist can Reform the GOP; or in South Carolina will he be whittled down to another toy for Pressler's Exxon like Land deliverd the SBC for 43 in 00 and 04.

Just trying to frame the Southern Baptist Discussion here. Don't claim to have the answers, just groping toward the strongest questions and giving some names to consider in South Carolina before Oprah and Bill still the show.

And here is how it is playing today at the Newsweek Religion blog

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/georgetown/2008/01/south_carolina_aint_going_to_b/allcomments.html