By: Jonathan Martin

Mike Huckabee doesn’t want his new book to only be known as an exercise in score-settling, so he’s now soft-pedaling some of the many shots he took at Mitt Romney.

Read one of them today in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Huckabee replied: "First of all, let me say, 240 pages of the book, you’ve read most of what the Mitt Romney passages are.

He added that "this book is not about looking back at the campaign."

But, in fact, much of it is devoted to just that — discussing his improbable rise from political after-thought to Iowa caucus winner and real contender.

Included therein is considerable discussion of Romney, certainly more than Huckabee suggested to Blitzer.

The former Arkansas governor, who came from modest roots and ran an underfunded campaign, is especially consumed with the wealthy Romney’s financial status.

There are 15 different Romney references in the book’s index,  more than any of Huckabee’s other GOP rivals.  The former Massachusetts governor’s name appears on at least 25 seperate pages.  

Even in the Acknowledgments, Huckabee works in a reference to his former (and perhaps future) competitor in a paragraph otherwise devoted to praising his dogs.

Discussing a Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Toby, Huckabee writes: "We needed another dog about as much as we needed Mitt Romney to spend another $100 million, but he turned out to be a real blessing (Toby, that is)."

Copyright © 2008 Capitol News Company, LLC | Distributed by Noofangle Media