(CNSNews.com) - Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee won the first Republican primary of the 2008 election last week, but many top conservatives are not happy, with some calling him a "Christian socialist" and others a "Republican Jimmy Carter."

In the days leading up to the Iowa caucus, for example, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh broke his vow to remain neutral during the GOP primaries. Responding to a caller on his Thursday program, Limbaugh said he loved Huckabee supporters but "how dare you compare Mike Huckabee to Ronald Reagan? That is simply intellectually vapid and it's grasping at straws."

"Ronald Reagan came in and said, 'I'm going to cut taxes. I'm going to defeat the Soviets. We're going to win the Cold War and I'm going to rebuild the U.S. military," said Limbaugh. "Mike Huckabee has come in and said, 'Well, yeah, I raised taxes, but I had to, but I support this Fair Tax thing,' which doesn't stand a chance."

Limbaugh isn't the only conservative commentator to criticize Huckabee's brand of conservatism. In National Review Online's Symposium on Friday, several conservative pundits weighed in, including Pat Toomey, president of the Club for Growth.

"Huckabee's win in Iowa is a temporary setback for conservatism," he wrote. "Huckabee is a social conservative, but otherwise a liberal populist who managed to capture a plurality of the vote in a large and splintered field in one of the most socially conservative electorates in the union."

On the day after the Iowa caucuses, Ann Coulter said on Fox News that although Huckabee was likeable and funny, he wasn't good on taxes or illegal immigration, and she has also described him as "the Republican Jimmy Carter."

Conservative direct-mail guru and author Richard Viguerie said: "Mike Huckabee is a Christian socialist. He is a good man, but with a Big Government heart. He is the most liberal of all the Republican presidential candidates on economic issues."

But the debate about Huckabee might reveal more about the division within the Republican Party than its field of candidates.

Jerry Falwell Jr., son of the late Christian evangelical leader and president of Liberty University, offered another Reagan comparison.

"My dad was a Democrat, and switched to the Republican Party right about the same time Ronald Reagan did," Falwell told Cybercast News Service . "It wasn't fiscal conservatism that brought our movement to the Republicans. It was more social issues."

Still, Falwell said he thinks Mike Huckabee is the kind of conservative he wants as the next president of the United States.

"I don't think he's an establishment Republican, but neither are we, and that's why I chose to endorse him."

Falwell said Huckabee raised taxes not to grow government but to increase economic development in Arkansas. And as for illegal immigration, Falwell sees another side of Huckabee.

"He definitely has a pastor's heart," Falwell said. "When it comes down to being compassionate, I think my father would have done the same things. (Huckabee) is conservative, but people have to come first."

Donald E. Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association, agreed with Falwell that Huckabee is the right kind conservative for the Republican nomination.

"If Mike's not conservative, than there is not one," he said. "Who is conservative? Giuliani? McCain?

"The bottom line is, although I don't agree with him on everything. I agree with him on most issues, and I believe he would represent the people who think values are extremely important," said Wildmon.

On his Friday show, Limbaugh spoke about the Iowa caucus, but his displeasure this time was more about the conservative movement than who is - or isn't - leading it.

"The conservative attitude and mentality about (economic uncertainty) is not to look to a human being running for president for solutions," Limbaugh said.

"The solution is not getting up every morning and hoping something in Washington happens to change your individual life. I'm asking myself during all of these laments about the angst and the crisis and the insecurity, what happened to good old self-reliance? What happened to the can-do spirit?" he added.

"What happened to the notion that we live in the greatest country on Earth and there are options, opportunities for prosperity unrivaled on this planet, here in this country? Why the eagerness on the part of seemingly so many conservatives to accept victim-hood status?" Limbaugh said.

"Why the attitude on the part of so many Republicans and conservatives to all of a sudden believe they're helpless and that only a particular person running for president can fix their circumstances? This is something that is not characteristic of the conservative mind-set, the conservative ideological understanding, and yet it seems to be happening," Limbaugh added.