Posted on 12/08/2007 12:50:51 PM PST by goldstategop
Just when he thought the media lovefest would never end–what with the deeply troubling open-borders and soft-on-crime charges of his critics failing to stick–GOP front-runner Mike Huckabee gets a Saturday surprise from the Associated Press, which dug up an old questionnaire probing his views on AIDS funding and homosexuality:
Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could “pose a dangerous public health risk.”
As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated Press. Besides a quarantine, Huckabee suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies.
“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, 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 also suggests that crusading celebrities pitch in more money instead of the federal government. He has since changed his mind and now supports increased public AIDS funding:
When asked about AIDS research in 1992, Huckabee complained that AIDS research received an unfair share of federal dollars when compared to cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
“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. “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.”
…When Huckabee wrote his answers in 1992, it was common knowledge that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact. In late 1991, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 195,718 AIDS patients in the country and that 126,159 people had died from the syndrome. The nation had an increased awareness of AIDS at the time because pro basketball star Magic Johnson had recently disclosed he carried the virus responsible for it. Johnson retired but returned to the NBA briefly during the 1994-95 season.
Since becoming a presidential candidate this year, Huckabee has supported increased federal funding for AIDS research through the National Institutes of Health. “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,” Huckabee said in a statement posted on his campaign Web site last month.
Also in the wide-ranging AP questionnaire in 1992, Huckabee said, “I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk.”
It would be helpful for the AP to release the full survey and the full questions, which it probably won’t do. Jonathan Adler rightly notes:
This was not the early 1980s, when the threat posed by the HIV virus was poorly understood. Rather it was 1992, long after it was understood that AIDS could not be transmitted through casual contact. So either Huckabee was woefully ignorant about the nature of AIDS, or he supported a quarantine despite the lack of a threat of communicability. Neither interpretation speaks well of him.
We know how the story will play among the punditocracy in Washington. How will it play in Iowa?
***
Allahpundit:
Are these notable flip-flops the product of naked pandering to the base, as seemed to be the case in adopting Krikorian’s immigration plan after having described opposition to Bush’s amnesty bill as “nativist” in 2006, or is Huck just a soft mark for ideologues trying to bend him to their side? Whatever the answer is, it’s extremely worrisome.
Not to mention that the attitude of the scientific/education community seemed to be that condoms would somehow stop the spread of AIDS.
Because gay men were so cautious and responsible with their 500 annual sex partners. Good thinking on their part.
My first reaction was that since it isn't airborne it needed no quarantine. Upon reading up on the history of quarantines it appears than the level of threat (death) could also be a reason for the quarantine. And STDs are considered to be communicable diseases, contagious through contact with bodily fluids. It is harder to get those diseases than airborne diseases and they should be easily controlled through behavior modification (morality). But as you point out, the behavior was extreme and not under control at all. The death risk made consideration of a quarantine reasonable, especially when the spread of the disease began infecting the blood supply and therefore people who didn't choose risky lifestyles began getting the disease. Liberals love to blame the public, Christians in particular, for innocents getting the disease. But that's not so. The power and therefore the blame has always been in the hands of those who lived immoral and/or drug abusive lifestyles. It was their blood spreading the disease to children, the sick, the elderly and other innocents.
But Romney is still anti gun, which takes him right off the list for many voters.
And getting everyone else to wear red ribbons was also supposed to help, even though they never explained how.
It has been interesting to see people’s reaction to the revelation of Huckabee’s 1992 positions. All I can think about is just how far EVERYONE has moved to the left since then. Including Huckabee. It’s amazing.
Huckabee is not moral but rather a moralist.
This is interesting. I wonder how Huckabee will respond.
Whatever that means.
Whether you want to say it is moral to try and save lives by stopping the spread of a deadly disease or whether you want to say it is not moral but rather moralistic, I don't care. Just talk numbers. More or less dead or dealing with what is now a chronic disease by not taking the aggressive approach recommended by Huckabee back in 1992?
Bottom line, if it is not moral but rather moralistic to try and save lives through a quarantine, then it is equally moralistic and not moral to try and save lives by spending trillions of dollars on finding a cure. And both would be doubly moralistic.
The difference in what Huckabee suggested then and what he suggests now is a difference in focus. The first focused on future victims and the second focuses on current disease carriers. Which is more moral? Or both? Or neither?
Why not deregulate needles? Then if the druggies have money for drugs, they'll be able to buy clean needles too.
Look it up, I’m sure you’re bright enough to figure it out.
WOW, I've finally read something that I actually agree with Mr. Huckabee about...
Wait...
"He has since changed his mind and now supports increased public AIDS funding
Never mind!
This helps him. The commies and pc brainwashed idiots would hate him anyway.
mor·al·ist
Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[mawr-uh-list, mor-]
–noun
1. a person who teaches or inculcates morality.
2. a philosopher concerned with the principles of morality.
3. a person who practices morality.
4. a person concerned with regulating the morals of others, as by imposing censorship.
I guess it all depends on how you meant it. That I can't look up. I can guess. You mean the last one? If so I don't see it. His quarantine idea was about stopping the spread of disease. The fact that it rained on their sex-with-hundreds-a-year immorality parade was just a bonus. It wasn't the reason. If so, he would have called for isolating everyone with an STD. Or if he were just talking about the immorality of homosexuality he would have called for a quarantine of all homosexuals. No, this was about saving lives. AIDS was a death sentence back in 1992.
LOL! Okay...... ;*)
Only in a crazy world could this be considered a hate piece as everything he said was exactly what should have been done; while never reaching full epidemic levels AIDS now enjoys pandemic recognition and succoring rather than any serious attempt at control.
BTW, Huckleberry is not my man.
mor·al·ist (môr-lst, mr-)
n.
1. a person who teaches or inculcates morality
3. One who is unduly concerned with the morals of others.
4. martinet
A bit of each
Homosexuality, redistribution of wealth, smoking ban, overconcern with the criminal rather than the victim tuition for children of illegals etc etc all fall into that category.
I don’t want a Bible thumping open borders guy either. The media has been trying to cause problems in the GOP primary. If he really thought he wouldn’t eventually suffer their wrath, then he’s even more clueless than I thought he was!! Just wait until they start hammering him for wanting to pass more taxes, or because he wants to take away our personal freedoms and turn us into a nanny state. They’re going to cruicify him.
BTW, I totally agree with Huckabee on his views then.
He wont get my vote come HELL or HIGH WATER and I live on a HILL.
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