NOVATOWNHALL

I wonder if this is what Drudge was referring to …

Yes, it does seem petty, but don’t let the title throw you off: There is a LOT more to the story than meets the eye. If suspicion arises that Huck is lying about how he lost the weight, in this day and age, it would have legs not only in the political rags but in People magazine and the National Enquirer.

* Huckabee’s vague history of diet/exercise doesn’t adequately explain his astonishing result.

* His spokeswoman gives an ambiguous denial.

* Massive and persistent weight loss with bariatric surgery is orders of magnitude more common than with diet/exercise.

* Huckabee’s weight loss record fits the pattern of gastric bypass surgery exactly for rapidity, amount and maintenance, and not at all like that of diet/exercise.

* Huckabee demonstrates changes in physical appearance that appear bariatric both in general and the specific (hair loss and skin changes).

* His particular diet habits are tellingly bariatric.

* Just prior to his rapid weight loss he took an unusual vacation with a furtive itinerary and end date.

* In 2005 he needed an abdominal hernia repair, an expected complication of bariatric surgery, and this was explained to be a Spigelian hernia, a vanishingly rare hernia type that is best explained as an apparent cover story.

* His marathon prowess is not so likely to be an example of exercise inducing weight loss, as it is the expected result of (bariatric) weight loss permitting exercise.

* While running marathons Huckabee is shown carrying that energy supplementation, that is both expected of, and associated with, bariatric marathoners.

* The lack of any identified witnesses to the bariatric surgery/hospitalization is adequately explained by medical privacy ethical standards as well as the rigor of Federal law.

His whole “religion” veneer, needless to say, adds another element of interest to the controversy.