That's the word from the Post's Perry Bacon Jr., who says that Huckabee's upcoming trip to the Caymans this weekend includes a for-pay speech.

"I'm not independently wealthy. I wish I was. I have to make a living," Huckabee said in a news conference here. "I do that through my writing and speaking."

First Read takes the cynical view of this:

Many continue to speculate that Huck is running to be McCain's veep, but does something like this pretty much rule that out? Isn't it becoming clearer that Huckabee's sticking around this race simply to raise his profile for speaking gigs? Is this campaign nothing but a ploy to make money?

While I don't believe it's that bad, Huckabee's odd choice does give the sense that staying in the race is merely a way of staying politically (and thus professionally) relevant. If Huckabee is going to stay in this thing, he'll have to walk a fine between becoming a Kucinich-esque joke and a principled candidate. The former is merely an act of ego-stroking, while the latter confers a sense of duty. Taking money for speaking gigs doesn't help persuade us it's the latter.