And now....Jay Scab-eoo!!

NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was one of five late night shows to resume broadcasting yesterday, but it did so without reaching a deal with the striking writers, which seemed to throw off Leno's first guest, Republican presidential candidate MIKE HUCKABEE.

The former Arkansas governor created a stir before he appeared on the program when it was pointed out to him on the Iowa stump that he would be crossing a picket line to appear. Huckabee responded that he thought the writers had come to an agreement to keep all late night shows on the air. In fact, that deal was only reached with The Late Show with David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. The Tonight Show did not use any writers on last night's show.

Huckabee elected to keep his commitment to appear on the show, but his campaign released a statement prior to the broadcast that read, in part:

"The Governor would only agree to join Jay, an active member of the Writers Guild, for the taping after he was assured that no replacement writers were being used in the show's production. Governor Huckabee believes that the writers deserve to be fairly compensated for the sale of their work. Governor Huckabee is glad that Jay Leno was able to put his 160 employees back to work and he strongly encourages both sides of the current labor dispute to work diligently toward an equitable solution for all parties involved."

Several protesters picketed outside The Tonight Show studio yesterday in Burbank, California, one of whom carried a sign saying, quote, "Huckabee is a scab." WGA chief negotiator JOHN BOWMAN said of Huckabee's professed ignorance, quote, "Huckabee claims he didn't know. I don't know what that means in terms of trusting him as a future president."

The Writers Guild of America released a statement about Huckabee's decision to sit down with Leno. It said it was, quote, "disappointed" in the politician and recommended he, quote, "respect our picket lines in the future and urge the media conglomerates to return to the bargaining table..."