World magazine (a weekly religious right oriented publication) has a fascinating behind the scenes history of the 2008 GOP presidential candidates and the secretive conservative leadership network the Council for National Policy. Founded by Tim LaHaye, Richard Viguerie, Paul Weyrich and a bevy of leaders of the John Birch Society in the early 1980s, CNP remains an important networking and strategy group.

As Religious Right leaders caucused at a recent CNP meeting in New Orleans and tried to figure out what went wrong (that the widely loathed John McCain ended up as the GOP nominee), there was wistfulness for what might have been:  Mike Huckabee.

Last month at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New Orleans, several dozen leaders of the "Christian right" met to strategize next steps--but the meeting inevitably included discussion of missteps in the GOP presidential campaign. Michael Farris of the Home School Legal Defense Association, an early supporter of Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, chided the group for cold-shouldering his candidate until it was too late. Others, including Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, disagreed. The meeting quickly threatened to dissolve into accusations, rebuttals, and recriminations.

Then, venerable Paul Weyrich--a founder of the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and the Council for National Policy (CNP)--raised his hand to speak. Weyrich is a man whose mortality is plain to see. A freak accident several years ago left him with a spinal injury, which ultimately led to both his legs being amputated in 2005. He now gets around in a motorized wheelchair. He is visibly paler and grayer than he was just a few years ago, a fact not lost on many of his friends in the room, some of whom had fought in the political trenches with him since the 1960s.

The room--which had been taken over by argument and side-conversations--became suddenly quiet. Weyrich, a Romney supporter and one of those Farris had chastised for not supporting Huckabee, steered his wheelchair to the front of the room and slowly turned to face his compatriots. In a voice barely above a whisper, he said, "Friends, before all of you and before almighty God, I want to say I was wrong."

In a quiet, brief, but passionate speech, Weyrich essentially confessed that he and the other leaders should have backed Huckabee, a candidate who shared their values more fully than any other candidate in a generation. He agreed with Farris that many conservative leaders had blown it. By chasing other candidates with greater visibility, they failed to see what many of their supporters in the trenches saw clearly: Huckabee was their guy.

No doubt, there will be a show of unity for candidate McCain on the part of most of the leaders of the Religious Right. This will not much mitigate the obvious lack of enthusiasm they have for McCain, although the prospect of no more federal court judges and Supreme Court justices like Scalia, Alito and Roberts (McCain faves) may be sufficiently alarming for them to mobilize for McCain. How widely this attitude will be shared is hard to measure at this point.

James Dobson has famously declared that he will never vote for John McCain, and he seems unlikely to change his mind.  Richard Viguerie is encouraging conservatives to regroup and sit this one out. (And he claims for example, that the failure of the GOP to keep former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's house seat is proof that conservatives are prepared to stay home.)  Rightwing talk show host Bill Cunningham and pundit Ann Coulter have famously said they prefer Hillary Clinton over McCain.

Meanwhile, as he promised earlier, perennial GOP primary candidate Alan Keyes (who made a brief splash but quickly faded this year) is bolting the GOP and will seek the presidential nomination of the Constitution Party.  He will formally announce in Pennsylvania on April 15th.  

Other far right figures, mostly members of the Constitution Party, have established an organization called Save America Summit, which seeks to get all of the far right parties behind a single candidate -- most likely the nominee of the Constitution Party.  In addition to Keyes, the Summit is encouraging the possible candidacies of World Net Daily columnist Jerome Corsi; former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore; and former Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH).

The Constitution Party 2008 Presidential Nominating Convention will be held April 23-26 in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Constitution Party has been a tiny but determined band of activists since the early 1990s.  They have never had a candidates with sufficient national notoriety to make much of a difference. Whether this year will be any different, it is too soon to say.  But we may know in a few weeks.