Huckabee gets shave and haircut, Capone-style

We've all heard about John Edwards' tycoon-priced haircuts. But no one would ever think Mike Huckabee would make such a big deal about getting his ears lowered. With his regular-guy persona, you sort of picture him sitting, unnoticed, reading dog-eared copies of "Field and Stream" while he humbly waits his turn to sit in Floyd's chair.

Who'da thunk we'd ever see Huck holding court like a king as he is shorn and shaved, like Robert DeNiro in Brian DePalma's "The Untouchables?" (These photos were taken at the Executive Forum Barbershop -- how's that for a Ritzy-sounding name -- in Des Moines, Iowa, on Dec. 31.)

You remember that scene, early in the film (sorry, I've tried to find a clip on the Web without success, and I don't know how to get it off my DVD, but I did find this photo). It was meant to show Capone as the master of Chicago -- the barber coming to him in his hotel room, and the Boss holding court with a fawning press that chuckles at his thuggish witticisms. It was a scene meant to show Capone as being everything Mike Huckabee is not supposed to be.

So I thought these pictures moved by The Associated Press a bit incongruous. Maybe they should just go back to moving snaps of the (New) Man from Hope grinning with his Fender bass.

But given his success in Iowa, paired with the press' guilt over having neglected the man heretofore, I guess we'll have to get used this this sort of wall-to-wall coverage of every instant of the candidate's daily life. I just hope I'm looking somewhere else when they move the pictures of him holding court in the bathtub.