FLASHBACK: Huckabee Proposed ‘Isolating’ Patients With AIDS ‘Plague'

[sniffa]

On the presidential campaign trail, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has promised to aggressively fight HIV/AIDS, which he termed a “national and international tragedy.” In a statement put out on Nov. 19, Huckabee voiced support for “President Bush’s proposal to double our initial commitment from $15 billion to $30 billion over the next five years for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR),” and promised to go even further:

While we must continue our global leadership on HIV/AIDS, we must also take care of our own. My administration will be the first to have an overarching strategy for dealing with HIV and AIDS here in the United States, with a partnership between the public and private sectors that will provide necessary financing and a realistic path toward our goals. We must prevent new infections and provide more accessible care. We must transform the promise of a vaccine and a cure into reality.

This rhetoric is a dramatic departure from Huckabee’s statements in 1992, when he was running for a seat in the U.S. Senate. At that time, Huckabee proposed a quarantine for all AIDS patients and a moratorium on all federal funding. AP reports:

“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,” Huckabee wrote.

“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.”

Huckabee added that “additional federal spending” can’t be “justified” to fight AIDS, proposing instead that “multimillionaire celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor Madonna” be “encouraged to give out of their own personal treasuries.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/08/huckabee-aids/

:wow:

[TwilightGardener]

1. Remember a time on DU when people were saying, "Oh, he's a Christian right-winger, but

he's not nuts about it, he's not scary"? Where are those DUers now?

[sniffa]

2. i dunno

but it's the general public that needs to know this.

[sampsonblk]

4. I am still here-nt

[TwilightGardener]

8. WTF is wrong with you? If you want to advocate for this sick stupid fuck, take it to

Freepland--you're not welcome to promote this homophobic misogynistic Republican fraud here.

[sampsonblk]

10. Please seek help

Saying the guy isn't a wacko isn't the same as advocating for him. Everyone here knows by now I am for Clinton.

Huckabee is no different than any other baptist minister.

[TwilightGardener]

11. He's a lying fraud who hates women and gays. YOU'RE the one who needs help if you

don't see that.

[sampsonblk]

13. I don't pay nearly enough attention to him to know all that

If you do, then maybe you should move to Freeperville yourself.

[TwilightGardener]

14. That's your problem, you promote him without paying attention. Good work.

I'm done with you.

[Nedsdag]

3. Well, he'll win the red states for sure

if gets the nomination.

[tammywammy]

6. I dunno

I live in a red state and the republicans I've talked to think Huckabee is scary too. Very scary.

[NMMNG]

5. It's disgusting, yet typical

how hypocritical most of the presidential candidates are. Spin, spin, spin. Flip, flop, flip, flop. Toss whoever they need to under the bus and pander like hell for votes.

Yep, it's election time. :puke:

[sniffa]

7. indeed

thanks for being a wedge issue again. :hi:

[NMMNG]

9. I'm a pro-choice, atheist lesbian.

How can I not be a wedge issue? :shrug:

[Carrieyazel]

12. It seems his belief in generous help for the disadvantaged goes away when homosexuality is involved.

But he is a fundamentalist Christian after all.
At least he did call it a plague.