Somebody is Afraid of Mike Huckabee

That's the only conclusion I can come up with based on the sudden flurry of potentially damaging articles hitting the press nearly every day since his poll numbers started climbing. You have to know the opposition has had this information all along but didn't choose to release it until Huckabee became a factor in the race.

The latest hit piece has to do with Huckabee's attitude towards homosexuality and AIDS based on a 1992 questionaire:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, surging in Iowa polls in the Republican presidential race, wrote on a questionnaire while running for U.S. Senate in 1992 that homoxsexuality is "aberrant" and "sinful."

"I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk," Huckabee wrote in the questionnaire for The Associated Press, which reported the answer on Saturday.

In another answer that could damange his standing in the presidential race, Huckabee wrote on the questionnaire that AIDS research was receiving an unfair amount of federal money. Instead, he said celebrities should pay for the research themselves.

"In light of the extraordinary funds already being given for AIDS research, it does not seem that additional federal spending can be justified," Huckabee wrote, according to the AP.

"An alternative would be to request that multimillionaire celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna and others who are pushing for more AIDS funding be encouraged to give out of their own personal treasuries increased amounts for AIDS research."

The revelations could dampen the enthusiasm for the candidacy of Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, because the language clashes with his image as a compassionate, sunny leader.

It also could cause Republican voters to reevaluate whether he would be effective at winning swing voters in a general election that looks trying for the GOP.

Huckabee also wrote that he wanted to quarantine AIDS patients, according to AP:

"If the federal government is truly serious about doing something with the AIDS virus, we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague. ... It is difficult to understand the public policy towards AIDS. It is the first time in the history of civilization in which the carriers of a genuine plague have not been isolated from the general population, and in which this deadly disease for which there is no cure is being treated as a civil rights issue instead of the true health crisis it represents."

While Huckabee's politically incorrect comments may be abhorent to the lefties, I don't think it's going to hurt him with too many conservatives who likely find much to agree with. And, of course, it's always dangerous and frankly unfair to take someone's comments from 15 years ago and judge them in the light of today's knowledge. Let's not forget that in 1992 AIDS was still a fairly new phenomenon and people by the droves were becoming ill and dying from the disease. In that light, his comments are not all that unreasonable.

Would he say exactly the same thing today? Probably not (though I'm not sure he'd change the "homosexuality is sinful" line). The idea that a Baptist preacher would espouse Biblical views is not going to be a problem for conservatives.

As soon as the Huckabee campaign generates a response, I'll update this post.

UPDATE - Huckabee's response:

Huckabee released a detailed written statement earlier in the day defending his comments.

"In the late 80’s and early 90’s we were still learning about the virus that causes AIDS. My concern, as a Senate candidate at the time, was to deal with the virus using the same public health protocols that medical science and public health professionals would use with any infectious disease," he said. "Before a disease can be cured and contained we need to know exactly how and with near certainty what level of contact transmits the disease. There was still too much confusion about HIV transmission in those early years."

Huckabee said the focus at the time was to limit exposure, and that we now know the virus is spread differently than originally thought.

"But looking back almost 20 years, my concern was the uncertain risk to the general population — if we got it wrong, many people would die needlessly. My concern was safety first, political correctness last," he said.

Works for me.