Huckabee, who now seeks the Republican Party's presidential nomination and is running well in Iowa, now supports increased federal funding for AIDS research through the National Institutes of Health.
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Some would call this flip-flopping but I call it learning. Good for Huck in waking up to reality. He's still a nut-case though.

Aren't you media guys jumping the gun a little? I thought you were going to pump up Huckabee till he snatched the primary away from Guiliani and then laugh as you knocked him out against Hilary with a head fake. I mean, c'mon, "President Huckabee", right?

Ha, this is hysterical.

Now we are going to get the fake stats etc...from the left to try and get attention away from the fact that in the U.S., the source of the spread of AIDS is, has been, and always will be gay male sex.

Sorry folks,call me what you want, but the CDC stats don't do "politically correct" and the fact that Gay men are not allowed to donate blood or organs (mmmm didn't that just happen to 4 innocent people???) tells the story.

Can't deny that folks.

It CAN pose a public health risk.

Ask the 4 people who just got organs from the "high risk" individual.

Tell your grandma who is dying of a rare cancer that more federal dollars will go to Adam and Steve who met at Roscoe's one night.

@Bruce Y: or, it's another example of a politician saying whatever it is they need to say to get elected.

The problem with politicians in this country is none of them really stand for anything anymore. Our system is now at the point where its a contest of mediocrity. Whoever can say the right things, to spread their appeal and overlap it to just the right group of people. The right demographic, as determined by focus groups and polls. All by saying the right things in the best general sense to appeal to the broadest group they can.

All to get elected, and it just perpetuates itself. To save this country from the people who take without giving, will take a national effort. Sadly, as long as we, as a people remain complacent, fat, lazy and happy in front of reality TV...this will never happen. If our democracy is lost, it's out of laziness, and a lack of vigilance.

Happened to the Romans, and Truman, and Ike predicted it would happen here. Welcome to prophesy realized.

Learning? Disturbing. I now question what else Huckabee has to learn.

Now that's forward thinking for ya. This guy is a right wing nut-balls dream come true.

Running for President is for ALL THE PEOPLE not for just the select few. Not sure if he is honest now or just saying so since he is running for President now

I'm not a Huck supporter, but this AIDS "revelation" does not concern me. AIDS fear was rampant in '92.

Huckabee is on the religious right extreme of the Republican Party. He's just as fringe as Ron Paul, only in a different direction.

What we Republicans need is a good mainstream libertarian, who is "fiscally conservative yet socially tolerant."

We don't need Huckabee, or Paul, who will only cause massive defections among our base.

If Huckabee is the nominee, watch for a great majority of fiscal cons to bolt to the Libertarian Party.

He's a right wing religious freak - showing his true colors. This should surprise no one.

The last paragraph puts it in perspective. He has a valid point there, although the media won't admit it.

Why don't you ask for a persons Bank PIN number while you're at it, fuckers.

This was a discussion that should have occurred closer to the original crisis.

It was/is a unique virus in the US in that it is mostly caught by people involved in "at-risk" behavior. As American we value personal liberty so high that we gave priority to people having the "freedom" to engage in at-risk behavior which continued the spread of the disease over the very difficult decision of locking infected people up so as to slow it down.

Both decisions are very tough decisions.

The one that we chose has undoubtedly resulted in more deaths in the short term, but in the long term it invites people to come in for treatment and not hide their aliment.

I don't know (and will probably never know) if we made the right choice at the start, but Huck's original direction should have been part of a national discussion. How do we weigh individual rights against the good of others. As is, it continues to spread, bringing more heartbreak and pain.

It gives me pause to realize that it definitely would have been the policy if anyone could have caught it from casual contact.

I hesitate to judge him about his other comments that were closer to the onset. There were many irrational reactions initially.

nice. the true huck out in the open (which he is now working hard to conceal.) these people, including "religious" huck, are just dirty, crooked politicians. with so many nutjobs around, ron paul seems like the only sensible candidate to vote for.

The more the religious right hears about stuff like this, the more they'll love him. Please nominate Jurassic Huckabee.

There is no way any half-informed person could have advocated for quarantining AIDS patients in 1992, since it is only contracted through exchange of blood via needle sharing or sex. If he really felt that way, then someone needs to ask him whether he would have done the same with people who had herpes, gonorrhea, HPV or any one of the other sexually transmitted diseases that are as easily, if not more easily, contracted. And by doing so, he would have quarantined a large portion of the American population!

He's a smooth talker, but clearly isn't knowledgeable nor practical in his ideas.

Mike Huckster has a "Willie Horton problem", and its’ name is Wayne Dumond.

Huckabee, whose self-deprecating humor and easy candor have charmed many on the campaign trail, bristles when asked about the case, in which Dumond - now dead - was paroled from an Arkansas prison, with then- governor Huckabee's endorsement, only to sexually assault and kill a woman in Missouri.

---snip---

"Dumond's case is notorious in Arkansas. In 1984, he raped a 17-year-old girl. While awaiting trial at his home, he was castrated by, he said, masked intruders. Later, after Dumond went to prison for life, some people in Arkansas saw the sentence as excessive, especially given his mutilation.

Huckabee was one, and, after becoming governor in 1996, he announced his desire to commute Dumond's sentence. Dumond's rape victim, Ashley Stevens, saw it differently.

Stevens, now 40 and living in the western United States, said she tried to persuade Huckabee not to shorten the sentence for Dumond.

"I told [Huckabee]: If you ever let him out, he's going to do it again," she said in an interview.

She was able to get a meeting with the governor - who, she said, had not spoken to her before announcing his intention to commute Dumond's sentence - but realized Huckabee had "made up his mind." So Stevens stood up, she said, walked over to Huckabee, who was seated on a sofa, squatted down and thrust her face inches from his.

"I said, 'This is how close I was to Dumond's face for an hour,' " Stevens recalled. " 'I'll never forget his face, and you'll never forget mine.' "

The parole board - following a closed meeting with Huckabee - decided to let Dumond go. The following year, Dumond committed the Missouri slaying. He died in prison in 2005.

To break this down to the bite size piece that can be digested by "Joe Flag Waver" – Mike Huckabee lobbied for the parole of a convicted rapist in an unprecedented manner over the protest of the victim and the parole board. This convicted rapist then sexually assaulted and murdered another woman the following year.

Another twist to this is that conservative commentators (read:talking meatsticks) harshly criticized Bill Clinton for NOT granting clemency to Dumond because the victim was a distant relative of Clinton’s:

Full story here:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/10/14/huckabee_could_face_hurdles_from_the_past/

Mike Huckster has been trying to reduce his involvement in this incident by blaming it on Bill Clinton....who had NOTHING to do with it.

Mike Huckster is nothing but a slick talking, slimey tele-vangelist. We already have a nut like that in White House and we don't need another.

Welcome to the limelight Huck. You wanted it, you got it.

""What people do in the privacy of their own lives as adults is their business," Huckabee said. "If they bring it into the public square and ask me as a taxpayer to support it or to endorse it, then it becomes a matter of public discussion and discourse.""

Then, Mr. Huckabee, leave your wife and kids at home when you campaign, don't ask the IRS to let you file jointly and take tax deductions for your kids and their child care, don't take any of the benefits you get because the government acknowledges your relationship with your wife.

YOU expect the rest of us to support and endorse what YOU do in the privacy of your life as an adult. Extend the same courtesy to others.

Well at that time we didn't know as much about aids and people were dying left and right from it...what would you do?

The more I see of Huckabee, the more I hope the GOP niminates him. He'd get steamrolled in a general election.

Bring him on!!!

Mike Huckabee isn't the fiscal conservative he pretends to be...

Welcome to the bigtime Huckabee, your 15 minutes are almost up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaJW7nXw30A

"Mike Huckabee, who later was elected lieutenant governor and then governor, was running for Senate that year and suggested that AIDS patients should be isolated".

This guy want's to be President?!?!

Huckabee also denies evolution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4Cc8t3Zd5E&feature=related

Aw man, the only candidate who is suggested the elimination of the IRS and this joke of a taxation system that feeds on the middle class, and now this "kiss of death" news? The liberal media will eat him alive!

Looks like the wink and nod of the upper classes (both liberal and conservative) will have their way and elect another bloodsucker (Repub or Dem makes no difference). None of them care about those of us who work our a** off, and keep very little because of the elitist tax codes. All they want is to let the rich get richer, and let the poor have a little more so they do not revolt.

Huckabee was not a perfect choice, but who is?

Yes JD we should isolate and quarantine this gay plague. Leaving all the down low fellas and females to have unprotected sex. Gay sex doesn't give you AIDS, all sex without protection does.

Actually you are wrong. Statistics support your male on male assertion. (Might I add affluent, over 40 male; Craigs)

"However, recent statistics suggest dramatic increases in risky sex (and other kinds of risky behavior) among older, white, and relatively affluent gay men in major cities -- traditionally the group for whom prevention efforts were most effective. Aided by the epidemic of crystal methamphetamine that has swept through the gay community, this new wave of infections poses troubling challenges for HIV prevention efforts."

-The source of the spread of AIDS is, has been, and always will be gay male sex.

Nope. "When it comes to HIV, gay men literally wrote the book on how to prevent the disease. During the 1980s and early 1990s, new infections among gay men dropped by historic proportions."

http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art14136.html
http://www.thebody.com/content/whatis/art41063.html

Wow! Sound like someone from the past. Who Could it be, who could it be????

Oh, I know:

Adolf Hitler: " Wartime was the best time for the elimination of the incurably ill."

Hitler compared the Jews to tuberculosis bacilli. It was not cruel to shoot them if they would not or could not work. Hitler said: “This is not cruel if one remembers that even innocent creatures of nature, such as hares and deer when infected, have to be killed so that they cannot damage others."

Huckster: "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,"

Huckster: "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..."

Yep, gotta love them Neo-Con Neo-Nazi's marching in Goose-Step with the past.

Oh, by the way, the Hitler quote on wartime being the best time . . . ever wonder why the Neo-Cons would fight so hard for a "War Without End"? War's make it really easy to scare the public in accepting the "isolation" of the ill and the ability to take away all civil liberties with out so much as a wimper.

Another GOP-er with notions of a divine right to rule the American kingdom. It's the will of God, right Mike? Hmmm, Bush got the same religious zeal after repeated life failures, then used it to create profound national failures and world disasters. These are truly scary times in which we now live. The rest of the world despises us, George and Mike, and religious politics only fuels our sense of entitlement in being not the world's policeman but rather its red-headed stepchild.

Use of the phrase "carriers of a genuine plague" suggests that at the time Huckabee made the statement for which you are so gleefully knocking him NOW he did not know that the disease was spread primarily by unprotected sexual contact between gay men.

Now he does.

Ergo his position has changed - based on the available information.

Next question.

"I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."
_____________________________
Tell your grandma who is dying of a rare cancer that more federal dollars will go to Adam and Steve who met at Roscoe's one night.
___________________________
Tell Ryan White to die, jerk! What a moron! Both JD AND Hucksterbee. I cannot believe the corrosive, I got mine attitude of republicrites these days. But then, I couldn't believe it two decades ago either. More hate from the impressarios of hate.

I'm apologing for all of us that didn't know a lot about HIV way back when Huckabee suggested isolation. It was an innocent time, and quarantine wasn't unusual. I was around in the 40'a when DP's were rejected from our safe houses because they they might have been infected with some strange European strain of some unknown disease. Don't you realize that our international contact exposes us to everything? Don't blame Huckabee for trying to protect the U.S. citizens. We are a whole lot more informed today. Certainly, we wish no harm to oir less forturnate. I am not a Repubican. But I support the decision made so many years ago for the welfare of our nation. Don't be so judgemental. It really was a long time ago.

What a jerk! He ought to be isolated like he talked about AIDS patients back in '92. Candidate with that mentality have no business being president. We have people to take care of...not corporations or not agendas. It is sick. I feel politians are more and more aligned with big agendas and not protecting the people. Whatever the reason for the stance in '92, I will NOT BE VOTING REPUBLICAN AND I PROBABLY NEVER WILL!

really? we're worried about what candidates did 15 years ago? Where does that put Hillary Clinton's timeline? before or after whitewater? What matters to me is if he learned from that and where he stands on the issue now.

MCBS, Ryan White is a perfect example of the health risk of HIV getting in the blood supply.

CDC, I was waiting for spin of stats from someone like you. Way to try and throw "Craig" in there.

Sorry buddy, re read the ACTUAL AIDS stats from the CDC. Gay, Gay and....Gay.

I never would advocate quarantining AIDS patients......howeever Hollywood hero Fidel Castro has done just that.

Oh....and Cuba's HIV/AIDS problem has dropped significantly.

Keep lying to yourselves lefties. THe truth always rises to the top.

Ha Ha

CDC, did you actually read the article you linked? Doesn't exactly paint a flattering picutre of gay life.

Syphillis tripled?? Crystal Meth?

OK, ....thanks for helping me prove my point.

Health Risk anyone?

JD, did you actually read my post. I said your are wrong to say that CDC stats are PC and would not reflect an increase of AIDS HIV in gays. They prove your Male to Male assertion. Aids/ HIV is rising in their community. Mostly the white, old, wealthy. The rich, young, wealthy who lead a "party life." Injections. It does disprove you contention that being gay is the reason for AIDS. AIDS has nothing to do with sexual orientation as much as how they practice sex. It also disproves that the gay have "always" spread the epidemic as they are the ones who decreased it in the 80's and 90's due to prevention practices; now they are on the increase again. Yes, butterfly syphillis and meth. Not entirely a "gay thing" as that exists in the larger community. What it says is that you need to identify the problems like syphilis, meth, lasse fair perceptions of HIV that lead to risky "party life style" sex, depression so people like you "who never would advocate quarantining AIDS patients" don't go all Castro. I threw in Craig because I knew it would side track your one track mind.

Thank God we have AIDS. It serves a purpose.

He is a LIAR !!!!

It doesn't take much to bring out the true gay hating behidg the Republican "family values" rhetoric.

JD's hate is more common than we want to believe. "Grandma" is not only more important than Adam and Steve based on sexual orenientation to JD, but JD believes Adam and Steve deserve to die for what they choose to do in the privacy of their own bedroom.

To the individual who started referring to "God's word"... may I remind you that the "word of God" according to Exodus 35:2 is that anyone who works on Sunday shall be put to death. I ask you on what day does your minister earn his living? Are you going to selectively adhere to the "word"?

Way to take my comments to the extreme JT.

My point is that for many years, AIDS got far more federal funds that diseases that were killing a much larger percentage of the population.

That was Huckabee's beef as well.

..but as most lefties, instead of debating my point, you claim "hate" and make wild accusations.

Par for the course for a lefty.

...now Adam and Steve's "private" choice is fine....until it presents a public health risk.

4 people in Chicago just got HIV from organ donations from a "high risk" individual.

I guess someone's "private" actions, just affected 4 people very publicly....and potentially deadly.

But Hey!....who said gay sex never hurt anyone?

I know of at least 4 people wouldn't agree.

"...now Adam and Steve's "private" choice is fine....until it presents a public health risk."

Posted by: JD | December 9, 2007 3:23 PM

So you're in favor of banning smoking?

Cigarette smoking has killed far more people than gay sex. It's a far larger public health risk, and affecst many more people than those who chose to engage in the activity.

Are cigarette smokers to be demonized? Should we cut funding for research into lung cancer?

Should we tell Adam and Steve that they should get less funding because Grandma smoked 3 packs a day for forty years?

Let's not play the "Which disease is more deserving game" shall we?

AIDS does not affect gays exclusively. Those organs could have as easily been donated by a straight person as a gay one. But you're only interested in finding a new excuse to attack a group you hate and fear.

Well GOSH; the hero of the left, Fidel Castro, did exactly what Huckabee suggested back in the 80's. The result is that Cuba has the lowest rate of HIV infection in the world. Perhaps if the CDC had treated AIDS as a public health crisis instead of a political football in an agenda driven game, hundreds of thousands of US citizens would still be alive and millions wouldn't be living under a death sentence.

You people suck, I'm glad Chicago is far away.