Huckabee was playing to his base with the comments about Portman.
It was just like the Quayle-Bergen thing all those years ago. But people's views have evolved and Portman is younger/better looking than Bergen was at the time-not to mention that unlike the Quayle criticism this is actually a real live woman being attacked and not a fictional character. So it looked like Huckabee was churlishly going after Portman. So he had to back off somewhat. So it goes.

The funny thing is that Huckabee seemed to have a (apparently undeserved) reputation for reasonableness. But with the criticism of Portman and the dog whistle about the President's birthplace he's shown he's just like any other politician.