Michelle Malkin thinks so. I’m talking, of course, about a Huckabee adviser anonymously attacking conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh yesterday.

Today, Rush spent much of his show absolutely, completely and totally crushing Huckabee.

So, how much will this damage the Huckabee campaign? Is it the beginning of the end, in the way that Howard Dean’s post-Iowa scream was for his own campaign?

I think not. First of all, Huckabee didn’t say it himself. Indeed, his campaign has already thrown the anonymous Limbaugh hater under the bus and is doing their best to love up to the talk show host as fast as they can.

The timing also helps. Rush’s audience today will be among his smallest of the year. And after today’s show, he’s taking time off until January 3, so he won’t continue the attacks. In the final analysis, most voters won’t ever hear about this.

If the Huckabee team is smart, they’ll work hard to turn this into an opportunity. They’ll send Huckabee onto Rush’s show as soon as it can be arranged, and prep him with all sorts of wonderful things to say about Rush. It probably won’t work. Rush’s animosity towards Huckabee seems (legitimately) more grounded in Huckabee’s views than anything else. The attack on Limbaugh only served to free Limbaugh to articulate his concerns. And they are many.

Jim highlights a great line from Steven Stark: “The good news for Mike Huckabee is that he’s doing one hell of a job of reuniting significant portions of the old Reagan coalition. The bad news is that it’s increasingly arrayed against him.”

That sounds about right to me.

It’s the substance, not the attack on Rush, that’s going to sink Huckabee. And indeed, in my estimation, Huckabee has already peaked.

The holiday will likely freeze the polls for a few days, but I predict Huckabee won’t finish better than second in either Iowa or New Hampshire.