Two reasons, one personal to him and one deeper:

The media is still so intrigued with this guy's disruption of the Reagan coalition, and still so unwilling to take him seriously as a nominee, that they haven't really focused on what he's saying. I thought Huckabee was selling what I've called "kindler, gentler Buchananism." Turns out there's nothing kindler or gentler about it.

The deeper reason is that the Civil War didn't end at Appomattox but with the 1876 compromise that ended Reconstruction. Part of the tacit deal was that Southern blacks would be left to the tender mercies of Southern whites, short of actual reenslavement, while Northern whites would concede that Southern whites had been honorably mistaken about the whole secession thing and knew best how Southern black people should be treated. National patriotic unity among white Americans was restored by selling out black Americans. As a result, mainstream American culture has sentimentalized the Confederate Army for 140 years instead of treating it as the moral equivalent of the Wehrmacht.

After all, what those Southern white folks were fighting so bravely for for was the right to be left alone by the Yankees so that they could continue to hold slaves (those who could afford to) and despise blacks (those who couldn't afford to buy them). States' rights is a smokescreen; arguments about procedure are always disguised arguments over substance, and the strongest advocates of states' rights in this country have always used it to defend white supremacy.

The St. Andrew's Cross was the flag of treason, slavery and the white master race. It ain't much better than the Swastika or the Hammer and Sickle. Its long past time that we undid the Compromise of 1876 and admitted that Robert E. Lee is no better than Rommel, a brave and skillful soldier serving a despicable cause.

Nice, except that racism existed for a long time in the North and that it wasn't a Southern thing.

And yes, this existed there before the Civil War.

Nice try to rewrite history to make it seem like a "southern" thing. Hell, blacks were lynched in Canada for a very long time.

Back to the topic, the real reason the media give the Huckster a pass now is to do maximum damage to the Republican party.

If he doesn't get the nomination, keep him strong to divide the party and encourage stay-at-homes.

If he gets the nomination, bingo, then they go after the flag issue and every intolerant thing in his old sermons, which you know they have copies of, though they pretend otherwise now. They just don't want to use them too soon for maximum damage.

I saw Mike's comments on when Mike was on <link>

and was shocked by the Blogger and his source link, the New York Post. Mike said "a states flag isn't a presidential campaign issue"... see the video yourself.