"Less Government" and "Smaller Taxes"?

Mike Huckabee says he's "tried to reach" Rush Limbaugh several times, to no avail. Right. This strikes me as Huckabee once again trying to be too clever by half; someone in his position who really does want to reach out to Rush knows how to do so. It will be interesting to see how Huckabee's "more sinned against than sinning" approach wears over the long haul; to me, it's getting a bit tiresome already.

Here, Huckabee responds to Rush's assertion (dead on, in my book), that he's not a conservative.

As part of his claim to conservatism (which, those who have mocked the President all these years should note, he pronounces as "conservativism"), Huckabee insists that he's in favor of "less government" and "lower taxes." If that's true, though, how does he explain this and this?

And how can people who inveigh against Mitt Romney for changing his positions excuse Huckabee doing it without a peep -- especially when, unlike Romney, he's lacked the honesty simply to admit he was wrong about some things?