The battle going on between Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback for the religious right base has officially taken a turn into the absurd.

David Brody reports that Mike Huckabee's campaign has sent a letter refusing to apologize for anti-Catholic remarks made by one of his supporters against the Catholic convert from Kansas — after all, the Huckabee camp says, they were not in any way responsible for the remarks.

Here's the fun part. The Huckabee campaign letter went further by accusing Brownback and his own supporters of all sorts of character flaws, based on a Website called Baptists for Brownback, which declares that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and even Fred Thompson are headed for Hell.

One problem, however: Turns out that "Baptists for Brownback" is actually an anti-Brownback parody site!

More after the jump.

This is from the anti-Brownback letter sent by Chip Saltsman, Huckabee's campaign manager and himself a Catholic, faulting the Brownback forces for the site:

It's time for Sam Brownback to stop whining and start showing some of the Christian character he seems to always find lacking in others....If Senator Brownback wants to start apologizing for inappropriate things said, perhaps he could pull the "beam out of his own eye before taking the speck out of someone else's" by apologizing for the website 'Baptists for Brownback' that states that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Fred Thompson and others are 'Hell bound.'

Brownback's campaign wasted no time in having some fun with the fact that they'd been attacked for being responsible for a parody site. From their droll statement in response:

On a further note, the website that Mr. Saltsman refers to--Baptists for Brownback--is a spoof site with no ties to the Brownback campaign. We are sorry that this obvious parody was lost on Mr. Saltsman.

Brody's verdict on the whole saga: "You know what all this says to me? It means the August 11th straw poll is just around the corner. Huckabee and Brownback are competing hard to do well there, hoping that a strong finish will catapult their campaign. Iowa Christian conservatives are important here."

My verdict: Oh boy, are these guys entertaining.