By Matthew Philips

Apparently, someone out there wants Mike Huckabee to drop out of the race, or at least wants us all to think he's about to. Just before 1 p.m. today an e-mail went out to 19 members of the Huckabee campaign, seemingly sent by campaign chair Ed Rollins, with the subject "Campaign Announcement." The e-mail explained that Rollins had just had a long conversation with Huckabee, and it included a message from the candidate himself saying that he'd be offering his formal concession this evening--quite the shock to members of the traveling press, who are scheduled to fly with Huckabee to Little Rock tonight and have been told again and again and again by candidate and advisers alike that he will not be conceding tonight, if ever. "It's completely fictional," Rollins said on the phone an hour after the message went out.

The e-mail was sent from an address similar to one that Rollins uses, and as it made its way around news desks this afternoon, a few telltale signs marked it as a fake. For one, the alleged message from Huckabee incorrectly refers to his weight-loss memoir, "Stop Digging Your Grave With a Knife and Fork," as a novel. It has Huckabee calling himself "the William F. Buckley of the 21st Century," a comparison he's never made, with a man he's certainly never invoked on the campaign trail. The message continues by saying that Huckabee plans to "follow the Reagan model of 1976 and run again in four years," which may very well be Huckabee's plan but certainly not something he would say so plainly. The most obvious blunder, though, is that the author says that after losing to Ford in 1976, Reagan "returned to his role as Governor of California," which he did not. The e-mail ends with a weakly veiled attempt to bash Huckabee while seeming to praise him. "The truth is that the Huckabee political future doesn't die, it simply fades, fades away. God Bless you all," it says, before concluding with a jaunty "-Mike"

Rollins said that the campaign has no idea where the e-mail came from, but that their "computer people are chasing it down." A veteran of numerous political campaigns over the years, Rollins didn't seem too upset about the hoax. "It bothers me it did happen," he said, before noting, "It's all part of the game."

As to where it measures in terms of previous dirty tricks, Rollins singled out James Carville, who in 1973 somehow snatched a campaign strategy memo from a locked drawer in Rollins's desk and then leaked it to the press. Anyone seen the Ragin' Cajun today?