Thursday was a very taxing day for Mike Huckabee. His hated former rival Mitt Romney threw his support - and his delegates - behind John McCain, virtually assuring the Arizona Senator's nomination. That unwelcome development came as Huckabee traveled to cash in on speaking fees in the Cayman Islands, ironically one of the offshore tax havens he has decried throughout his campaign. And hot on the heels on the Senate's probe of Huckabee televangelist backer Kenneth Copeland, another pastor confirmed the IRS is investigating his support of the former Arkansas governor.
Speaking from the sunny Caribbean, Huckabee brushed off the Romney endorsement of McCain as just another part of "a great big me-too crowd coming together." Huckabee insisted that he would remain in the Republican race, saying "it's about the principles."
Apparently, those principles include reaping speaking fees in the Cayman Islands, a potent symbol of the tax haven schemes he claimed he wanted to combat. Huckabee, after all, has repeatedly said his dangerously misguided "Fair Tax" national sales tax proposal would end the flow of American capital offshore. (Huckabee also previously said he's "not the guy hiding money in the Cayman Islands," a potshot at millionaire Mitt Romney's own investments there.). As the Caymanian Compass itself worried in January:

On CNN he speculated that it would be a significant boost to the American economy, saying "that $10 trillion of capital that's now sitting offshore, American money that has been moved offshore to protect it from our tax system, comes back. What would happen if $10 trillion of capital poured back into the economy?"
The overnight disappearance of "trillions of dollars" from offshore accounts during a possible Mr. Huckabee presidency would mean rough seas for the Cayman Islands financial industry.

Apparently, Mike Huckabee is more concerned about dollars from the Cayman Islands flowing back into his own pocket.
Meanwhile, back in the United States Mike Huckabee's faith-based supporters are facing taxing situations of their own. First, Huckabee stood behind his fundraiser and televangelist Kenneth Copeland, even as the pastor refused to cooperate with a Senate probe spearheaded by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley. Now, the Los Angeles Times reports another Huckabee moneyman of the cloth is in hot water:

An attorney for clergyman Wiley S. Drake confirmed Wednesday that the Internal Revenue Service was investigating the pastor's endorsement of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's presidential bid, written on church letterhead and announced during a church-affiliated Internet radio show.

For his part, Mike Huckabee Wednesday defended his Cayman Islands diversion by crying poverty. "I'm the only person who doesn't get paid by taxpayers to campaign," adding:

"I may go down there and visit one of those post office boxes where some of the other candidates have their money and maybe one of those banks and see what it looks like down there."

With his fading presidential campaign nearing its end, the former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister will have plenty of time to check out the moneychangers.
UPDATE: Full of self-righteousness if not irony, Huckabee didst protest too much during his sunny stay in the Caymans:

"And so to me, it's not just absurd, it's beyond absurd - it's insulting - to think that there's something nefarious about my being here when nobody has raised the question about sitting U.S. senators taking their full paycheck and enjoying all the magnificent perks they get from the U.S. taxpayers."