Doing some from the hip damage control, Mike Huckabee defended the statements he made over 15 years ago that those with AIDS should be isolated away from the general public, as well as statements that homosexuality is a sinful and aberrant state (a belief he still maintains, by the way). He also opposed increased federal spending in the fight against HIV/AIDS, calling for the Hollywood rich to empty their own coffers for that purpose instead.
Huckabee stands by his earlier statements, claiming that at the time we did not know much about the transmission facts of HIV/AIDS — even though he made those statements after Magic Johnson went public with his HIV status and the CDC had made it elementarily clear that casual contact did not transmit the virus. At that time the only viable reasons one would have for making such stupid comments was rampant homophobia, Southern Baptist theistic dogma and/or an unwillingness to heed educated and informed opinion. Whatever combination of those “reasons” Huckabee holds onto they ring a little too much with the Bush bell for my tastes.
