Huckabee stands by AIDS statement

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON - GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Sunday he won't run from his statement 15 years ago that AIDS patients should have been isolated.

Huckabee acknowledged the prevailing scientific view then, and since, that the virus that causes AIDS is not spread through casual contact, but said that was not certain. He cited revelations in 1991 that a dentist had infected a patient in an extraordinary case that highlighted the risk of infection through contact with blood or bodily fluids.

"I still believe this today," he said in a broadcast interview, that "we were acting more out of political correctness" in responding to the AIDS crisis. "I don't run from it, I don't recant it," he said of his position in 1992. Yet he said he would state his view differently in retrospect.

Huckabee, as a Senate candidate that year, told The Associated Press that "we need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague" if the federal government was going to deal with the spread of the disease effectively. "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," he said then.

In an interview on "Fox News Sunday," the former Arkansas governor denied those words were a call to quarantine the AIDS population, although he did not explain how else isolation would be achieved. "I didn't say we should quarantine," he said. The idea was not to "lock people up."



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071209/ap_on_el_pr/huckabee

[acmavm]

1. This guy is a douchebag with a capital 'D'. He sounds just like Ronnie

Raygun.

[madmom]

3. HEY don't say that to loud all the repukes will vote for him then.

[0rganism]

43. and just as dangerous -- he could win, easily

That's what scares me. Let's hope he pulls a "Dean scream" or some other equally destructive media moment, because right now he's in a good position to take the nom and win in the general.

[niyad]

2. what a disgusting jerk. is there some reason that ignorant, bigoted jackasses seem to be

in the fore of the reichwingnut party?

[maddezmom]

6. frightening isn't it

and his numbers keep going up :puke:

[superconnected]

40. They tend to elect people just like themselves.

[fightthegoodfightnow]

4. HUCKABEE'S RELATIONSHIP TO CHRIST

Christ walked with the lepers.
Huckabee wants to isolate them.

That about says it all.

[patrice]

7. AND he makes jokes about people who experience things such as being crucified, a.k.a.

Capitol Punishment, see his answer to the "Capitol Punishment: WWJD?" question in their YouTube debate.

[JerseygirlCT]

19. Doesn't it though?nt

[coalition_unwilling]

41. Thank you. Huckabee is about as close to Jesus as a . . . (something

about a camel and the eye of a needle, but can't fill out the analogy)

[niyad]

5. PASTOR huckabee demonstrating christian love?

[TwilightGardener]

8. Sean Hannity asked him if he was soft on crime because of the Dumond case,

the Green case, and a record number of pardons and commutations, and Hucky's response was to brag about all of the people he executed--"You can't get tougher on crime than that!". He spent his years as Gov playing God--releasing those he deemed worthy or "saved", even if they were rapists and murderers, even if they were a threat to public safety, and killing those he didn't think were worthy. The AIDS isolation thing is just further proof that this man is a frightening and stupid lunatic who would use his newfound executive power to "take the country back for Jesus", as he puts it.

[coalition_unwilling]

42. Who would Jesus execute????

[Maven]

9. What a lowlife cretin.

I can't believe this...thing is a viable candidate for the highest office in our nation. Oh, right...because he's religious. :puke:

[TwilightGardener]

10. Does anyone else notice that he stands by his statement, and then

he says otherwise ('would state his view differently"), and that he calls for people to be quarantined, but not locked up, even though that's how you quarantine? This is simply not an intelligent man. He contradicts himself within his own slick blather, smoothly and effortlessly--I don't even think he realizes what he's saying from minute to minute.

[pleah]

11. Huck supports forming AIDS colonies

just like in biblical times with the lepers.
Does it ever end with these wack jobs.

[fujiyama]

12. I like your user name!

Welcome to DU!

Huckabee is a lunatic and very dangerous.

[pleah]

18. Thanks!

And, yes he is dangerous and so is romnuts.

[bluestateguy]

13. I was a teenager in 1992

Still in high school. Yet I knew that AIDS was not spread by touching or kissing, but rather, by sharing needles and sexual intercourse.

Now maybe Huckster could argue that AIDS didn't afflict Arkansas until the early 1990's, and hence that's an excuse for the ignorance. Yet it seems that Arkansas' current governor at that time--his name escapes me--understood how AIDS was transmitted.

[la la]

30. I was teaching AIDS education

in 1992---in middle school-- and this is something we talked about constantly.

Hopefully, my students got it---looks like the 'dimpled devil' didn't!

:nuke:

[KnaveRupe]

14. Ok. I now know who I want to win the Repub nom.

Puh-LEEZE, oh please, you lurking freepers, (and you know you are out there...) do whatever it takes to nominate this guy.

I really, really, really want to see this yokel get shredded in the general election. Imagine how thoroughly any one of our candidates (even Gravel!) could crush him in a debate!

[tomg]

25. I don't know, KnaveRupe

I mean this is the American voting population. Actually, I have been worried about this guy since I saw him of The Daily Show. The problem is that the other Republicans are evil, greedy, and believe in nothing. And we all know it. Hell, they know it. Even the Republican sheep even know it. This guy is sincere, likeable (in a superficial dopey-Uncle-at-Thanksgiving kind of way)and totally insane and dangerous. I mean We know he is crazy, but, I think if we underestimate two things we are screwed: the first is that he is affable ( remember the Bush is a "regular guy" thing - yeah, if by regular guy you mean a sociopath) and Huckabee comes across as the guy in the subway ad who lost all that weight; the second is that the average American voter has the political knowledge of a ball of lint. Most of the people who vote for Huckabee will think they are voting for that guy from the subway ad. Hell, that's why they will vote for him.

He is the only Republican nominee who scares the hell out of me. Well, I mean they all do, but he is only one with a decent shot at winning. I am so depressed.

[coalition_unwilling]

44. Don't forget that 70% of Americans beleive in angels, too. No one

ever went broke underrestimating the intelligence of the American people

[AndyTiedye]

36. Be Careful What You Ask For. He Might Win

Look who is in the White House now!

Whomever the Repiggies nominate will have the full support of the Mighty Slime Machine.
And Diebold.

Last time they were able to defeat a war hero and re-elect the deserter.

I don't want to see Huckabee get that close to the Presidency!

[KnaveRupe]

46. Yeah, but we have a big weapon at our disposal:

After 8 years of Bush, the Independents, the moderates, and even the non-batshit-crazy members of the GOP are really in the mood for some good-ol'-fashioned COMPETENCE.

Huckabee, while affable, has the "crazy-for-Jebus" thing going on, and is less than stellar on hard issues. Ok, he's a lightweight. His grasp of the issues is on a par with "President 29%", and if we go after his weaknesses (basically any issue other than "OH NOES!!11 T3H GAIZ WANNA GIT MARRIED!!11!"), we destroy him.

We pound him on science, we pound him on the economy, we pound him on Iraq. I haven't heard anything even remotely substantive outta this guy on ANY of those things. He's 180 degrees out of the mainstream on all three, and aside from the hardcore freeper-base, I think the public will recognize that.

Everyone.

Wants.

Change.

Show that Hucklebuckle is just a re-heated, Bush-style Christo-Fascist (albeit with a little more Christo-, and a little less -Fascist), and he loses everything outside of the deepest of the deep South.


Our message if we are up against Huckles in the general election? "Lookee here, Reverend. Praying is all well and good, but sometimes god just expects you to clean up your own damn mess. This is one of those times. So step aside, Reverend (always call him Reverend rather than Governor), let us fix the disaster your party created, and when it's all said and done, THEN you can give god all the praise you want."

[Miss Chybil]

15. If he did a little research, he might find it is believed the denstist

intentionally infected his patients with AIDS. It's a little hard to infect so many by "accident." Oh, but silly me. He's a Republican. Asking him to research something may be asking him to do something beyond his capabilities. Poor man.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CEEDD1130F935A35755C0A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

[pepperbear]

16. "Asking him to research something may be asking him to do something beyond his capabilities."

yes, like discover the truth, not the talking point.

[pinto]

24. Thanks for the reality reminder.

:thumbsup:

[kevinmc]

17. Huckabee part of the Jesus rode a dinosaur crowd ..

[leftist_not_liberal]

20. Abrahamic Clerics should be quarantined

just sayin'

[NashVegas]

21. 36,000 Die Every Year of Influenza

Let's isolate everyone with the flu!

[rainbow4321]

27. More MRSA deaths than AIDS

What was the stat? 19,000 or 20,000 annual MRSA deaths recently. The report specifically said that this was more deaths than from AIDS that year. Someone needs to throw that in his face and see if he wants people w/ MRSA sent into isolation, also.

This would be a good time for someone to run a commercial against him showing people living with HIV..infants, elderly (now one of the larger age groups coming down with it), middle and upper class couples etc.

I work with these people everyday and looking out in our very diverse waiting room population is like going and looking around the local mall/store. Ages 18 up to 60+ yr olds, single and married moms pushing baby strollers (yes, it is very possible for HIV+ women to give birth to an HIV- baby nowadays), just as many hetero as there are gay, And not hetero's with bunchs of previous partners, some just 1 or 2 in their lifetime. One elderly man met/married a widow who said her first husband died of coronary problems..he may have, but he also had/KNEW he had HIV and still chose to not wear protection. That widow knew she was infected and still exposed the 2nd (now ex-) husband to the virus.

The very wealthy, repuke area that I live in had the highest number of new HIV infections in the area this last year...so repuke that I could see Huckabee wanting to swing thru to collect campaign $$ at some point.
Guliani has been here already for a golf tourney, Sam Johnson LIVES in /represents the area, the governor has held repuke fundraisers in the past. Someone needs to question the rest of the repukes to see if they support Huckabee's ignorance.

[rockybelt]

22. He can stand anywhere he wants

as long as it is not in the Oval office.

[tomg]

23. What is even scarier that what he says

is what he means: ""I didn't say we should quarantine," he said. The idea was not to "lock people up." Doesn't leave too many options: holiday fun resorts? colonies? executions? I'm sort of stumped, Pastor Mike. What do you mean?

[Paladin]

26. Adios, Minister Of Death

It just never dawns on these right-wing hatemongers just how many people are acquainted with and fond of HIV-positive individuals--business associates, neighbors, family relations. Keep up the good work, Huckabee.....

[autorank]

47. :)

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0712/S00059.htm

[ck4829]

28. He better run, because this statement will slam down on his campaign like a bag of bricks

[pinto]

29. Memo to Mr. Huckabee - I had hoped this knee jerk reaction had run its brief course.

Apparently not.

We 'carriers' want to see the end of AIDS, believe me. We really do.

We know how we were infected and we know how to halt the spread of infections.

As does most of the world, including the federal public health care system.

You either don't or won't.

Thanks.

[chelsea0011]

31. Not surprising that another anti-science crowd would not look at the

data that never showed casual contact ever caused the spread of HIV. It was all the scare tactic crowd (religious head-in-the-sand)that spread the falsehoods

[DLnyc]

33. Fairly straight-forward observation and logic says not by casual contact:

1. Those who have AIDS do not later stop having it.
2. We are all in 'casual contact' with each other every day.
3. If AIDS was spread by casual contact, large numbers would be infected every day.
4. Since the infection doesn't go away once you have it, we would pretty much all have it by now.
5. Very few of us have it now.

Therefore, the premise that AIDS can be spread by casual contact defies simple logic and everyday experience.

[Vinca]

32. I imagine, if given the chance, Huckleberry

would push AIDS patients off the edge of the earth.

[coalition_unwilling]

45. Please don't insult Huckleberry (one of the first American heroes

in literature)

On edit. Ah, I see, you're a puuning on the Huckster's name. Still, Huckleberry Finn's decision to "go to hell" to rescue the fugitive slave Jim ranks as a seminal moment in American literature.

[shenmue]

34. What an idiot

:dunce:

Great, a paranoiac who knows nothing about science!

[Bragi]

35. He's just reaching out to the repukes anti-gay mainstream... /nt

[sinkingfeeling]

37. Huckabee refuses to retract '92 remarks on AIDS patients

Source: CNN.com

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee refused to retract a statement he made in 1992 calling for the isolation of AIDS patients.

"I had simply made the point -- and I still believe this today -- that in the late '80s and early '90s, when we didn't know as much as we do now about AIDS, we were acting more out of political correctness than we were about the normal public health protocols that we would have acted," Huckabee told Fox News on Sunday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded in 1985 that AIDS was not transmitted by casual contact. But Huckabee said at the time, "there were other concerns being voiced by public health officials."

He disputed the characterization that he was calling for individuals infected with HIV to be quarantined.



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/12/10/huckabee.aids/index.html

---

You see, Huckabee was just as current on what was happening in the real world back in 1992 as he is today.

[Deep13]

38. We knew in 1992 that HIV was not highly contagious didn't we? n/t

[coalition_unwilling]

39. Taking a page fromt he Huckster's book, I think we need to take

steps to isolate (and possibly waterboard?) all Christian evangelicals. But we need to start with the preachers.