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SF Chronicle discovers that Janet Huckabee bunked at the Hooters Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas when she flew in to watch Jermain Taylor attempt to regain his middleweight boxing title.

That eye-opening combination – a title bout in Sin City, which celebrates gambling, drinking and all things wild, along with a hospitality chain favoring buxom waitresses in low-cut garb – could potentially shock the armies of evangelical conservative Christians who have made her husband, the former governor of Arkansas, the only remaining GOP opponent to party front-runner John McCain.

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But Janet Huckabee, whose husband is also a former Baptist minister, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that her recent brief excursion to root for boxer Jermain Taylor, a longtime friend and fellow Arkansan – and her stay at a hotel that she said wasn’t exactly her first choice – was supposed to be a rare respite from the often-brutal presidential campaign trail.

… [GOP strategist Karen] Hanretty, a past spokeswoman for the campaign of former GOP candidate Fred Thompson, said that in Janet Huckabee’s case, the Hooters stay may be problematic with conservative Christian voters who support her husband in droves – but so may the perceived political signal being sent by the couple.

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The week before GOP primaries in Wisconsin and Washington, “he’s in the Cayman Islands, giving a speech – and she’s at a pro boxing match in Vegas?” said a flabbergasted Hanretty. “It demonstrates that Mike and Janet aren’t serious about moving into the White House. … This is not a couple serious about leading the nation.”

Bloggers having fun with this. And here.

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