GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee bragged earlier this year that “Nobody’s going to find some YouTube moments of me saying something radically different than what I’m saying today.†But he is having trouble explaining some of his answers on a candidate survey from his unsuccessful Senate campaign in 1992.
Huckabee said on the survey that he supported isolating AIDS patients from the general public. When pressed Sunday about that view, Huckabee said that he stood by the comments but denied wanting to quarantine the AIDS population — though he didn’t explain how else they would be isolated. He also claimed that there was uncertainty at the time about how AIDS was spread, but it was known well before 1992 that AIDS wasn’t spread through casual contact.
In the survey, Huckabee also opposed women in the military. And on the question of whether gays should be allowed in the military, Huckabee said: “I believe to try to legitimize that which is inherently illegitimate would be a disgraceful act of government.â€
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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100 Comments
i sure hope the American people dont even think about electing a Bigot to the highest office in the land! That would be totally bad!
thought for a bit that the hucker might be a good gop choice, baby face, folksy talk and all — but revelations over the last few days —- he is sure not what he seems …..
I think Huckabee’s answers on the survey are pretty much in line with my views and the views of most Americans.
all he has t do is stick with them and make no apologies.
Oh phooey, they left out the entire issue where Huckabee said women should submit to their husbands and that he only entered politics to spread his religion and get people converted to Christianity.
The guy is a complete loon, I hope he wins the primary. National polls say that if he runs up against Edwards that Huckabee will lose by 25%.
I would have to say that Hucky’s show is pretty much over at this point. At one time I thought that, of all the GOP candidates, he would be the hardest one ot beat come November. But with all the stuff about his pardons of murderer rapist and now this, Hucky is pretty much creamed. So it looks like it is back to the Rudy Romney show!
Huck, as a life-time politican, you have talked out of both sides of your mouth for years.
As a presidential candidate, it looks like Huckabee has pretty much screwed the pooch. Let’s see he has already pissed off the gays women, and AIDS patients, I wonder who is next. I had thought earlier that he might make a good President, but know he almost scares me as much as Bush does.
He’s just a buffed up bush.
Let murderers and rapists go, but hey, send the gays to concentration camps! Yeah, let’s elect this guy.
:::blank stare:::
“I think Huckabee’s answers on the survey are pretty much in line with my views and the views of most Americans.”
Do read the link folks. SEE if Hickabee’s views are even close to yours or any other more typical American.
Huckabee has a penchant for lying as well. Everytime he’s been confronted with something politically embarrassing he’s just lied about it. I think the first time was when he was asked about all the letters rape victims gave him urging him not to release Dumond. But I suppose I shouldn’t expect anything less from a Republican candidate.
1992 eh? JR, weren’t you a Republican pro-lifer back then?
Nope outlander.
By 1986 the Republicans had pretty much run me off. I did NOT vote for Bush the first.
The “pro life” thing stuck a little longer. Til I found out they were liars and hypocrites too.
Huckabee Huckabee,on the national stage you
will not elect,Only in Arkansas do youhave intellectWe took a step forward forward when Falwell went down,Now you, Romney, and Robertson, make more centrists take two steps left.
“Do read the link folks. SEE if Hickabee’s views are even close to yours or any other more typical American.”
Thanks J R, I read it and I liked what I read.
The fact the he is making liberals angry now gives him an edge in my view.
So your views have changed a bit since then JR? That’s OK, you aren’t the only one.
So, isn’t it a bit hypocritical for you and whomever else to judge someone based on an answer he gave 15 years ago? And not as much was known about AIDS (the only disease with it’s own political agenda) back then.
Huckabee will not get past primaries. He is unelectable. If he truly gets nominated it means this country is moving toward a religious vs. secular war. Be sure to spare some of the women and all of the children.
Outlander,
Huckabee said this week he “stands by” his comments of 15 years ago. He was wrong then, he’s still wrong now.
Oh, and enough was known about HIV to know that it wasn’t spread through casual contact. To assert otherwise is to assert your own ignorance and/or dishonesty.
Huckabee is toast – When Magic Johnson runs some ads about HIV, Huckabee will shrink in comparison to the Icon. AIDS patients are generally self quarantined anyway, Its not exactly an energizing disease. Can’t we argue that Huckabee and all Baptists be quarantined? I’d vote Yes. In fact, Arkansas seems like the perfect place.
It will be easy to round them up – they wouldn’t lie to a stormtrooper would they?
JC,
Millions of Americans are living long, productive lives while infected with HIV. The vast majority of them do not infect others.
Educate yourself, please.
http://www.aids.org/info/FAQs.html
Tom, I have to confess that AIDS is not something I have spent much time worrying about.
To clarify/correct your previous comment, Huckabee has stood by his comments in the context of the knowledge that he had then about the transmission of AIDS. If you are trying to infer that he would round up AIDS patients now, you are just dishonestly fear mongering. And not fear-mongering very well, since because even stupid people wouldn’t believe you.
Well, maybe stupid Democrats might.
Outlander,
Has Huckabee disavowed his statements about wanting to “isolate” (i.e. quarantine, lock away in concentration camps) HIV-infected Americans?
If so, please paste in a link to those statements.
Thanks.
“Huckabee’s 1992 comments on isolating AIDS patients run counter to a statement he released last month calling for increased federal funds to find a cure. Huckabee says the earlier remarks came at a time when there was confusion about how AIDS could be transmitted.”
Read the article Tom.
Outlander,
There’s no link. I can’t read your article.
I don’t want a characterization of Huckabee’s statements, I want to see what HE says.
And there was NO CONFUSION in 1992 about the transmission of HIV. Again, anyone who asserts there was is either ignorant or lying.
Tom, the article is linked in the thread lead-in.
The point is, whether he was behind the AIDS learning curve in 1992 or not, he is current now.
Huckabee did clarify the context of the statement… You may recall there was, at that time, a case of transmission from a HIV infected dentist to a patient (or maybe two or three?) in Florida. It was frightening, since no one knew how it happened. Huckabee’s statement was in the context of that concern. (I’m a little fuzzy on the details now, but as I recall, a couple of years after that I believe it was determined that the dentist was homicidal and had deliberately infected the patients. It took some time to determine that, and there was quite a bit of worry for those of us who were doing patient care at the time.)
Outlander,
I’m not finding a disavowal of concentration camps in anything Huckabee has said.
Commenttater,
Some people should stop listening to the rantings and ravings of the far-right, fascist spin machine that has destroyed traditional American conservatism. THERE WAS NO CONFUSION OVER HOW HIV WAS SPREAD IN 1992. Anyone who still pushes that is a liar.
Oh No, Huckabee is a worse version of Bush, and Cintons polar opposite. Please Christian Right voters, do not vote this man into office.
THERE WAS NO CONFUSION OVER HOW HIV WAS SPREAD IN 1992.
Maybe the circle that you run in, Tom, was a bit more concerned about AIDS than most folks??
W.E.: I don’t think Huckabee will be nominee. I continue to think that Romney is clearly the best choice for president.
.. Huckster’s statement in 98 that he agrees with the bible’s women should be subserviant to men — he can feel and practice that way with his personal life and perhaps church — but has no room in our government.
Difficult to believe that he has had some sort of epiphany since — not presidential material ….
who’s left for me on the gop side — have eliminated mitt, the gules, huckleberry (which reminds me — I was told in Chicago years ago by some repubs that the gop thought the Clintons were hayseeds from Ark and undeserving of the oval office) uh oh — ron paul is getting closer …. come on gop you can do better —- find a good moderate, with class and the ability to strike compromises
Tom,
You’re knowledge of this is missing a few puzzle pieces. You are correct on this: The method of transmission of HIV was thought to be known by the late 1980’s. HOWEVER, the case of the Florida dentist brought a small-scale panic in the healthcare community because it didn’t fit what we thought had been the pattern. As it turned out, the conclusions from the 80’s were accurate, but the transmission cases in Florida sent chills through the medical community and through whomever was keeping up with things in the general public. Because the virus was still not WELL known, and because retro virus work was still relatively young in those days, we didn’t know if the virus had mutated or adapted in some way. There was reasonable concern that we had missed something. In the context of this thread, THAT WAS THE TIME when Huckabee made his comment.
http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/wdc/documents/huckabee92senate.pdf
Has anybody actually read the FULL context of Huckabee’s response?
How many people do you know who has died of AIDS?
Alternatively, how about cancer or heart disease?
Huckabee mentioned a wide dispartiy between federal spending on a cure for AIDS (which is still non-existant) and spending for cures to health problems that kill far more people than AIDS.
Why the disparity? Because AIDS funding is politically charged.
Maybe the circle that you run in, Tom, was a bit more concerned about AIDS than most folks??Posted by: outlander | December 13, 2007 at 09:23 AM
You mean that circle of honest, intelligent Americans who aren’t out to demonize a group of people, who see reality for what it is, and who value freedom and liberty for all? That circle?
Yep. You’re right, for once. That’s the circle of people I run in.
Looks like the Hucksters Willie Horton just won’t go away! I wasn’t aware the last victim was in KC. In fairness to the Huckster, the parolee did find God in prison.http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071213/pl_nm/usa_politics_huckabee_horton_dc_1
I’m not finding a disavowal of concentration camps in anything Huckabee has said.
Posted by: Tom | December 13, 2007 at 09:14 AM
Come on Tom, you now need to provide a link to the ‘concentration camp’ comment that you want Huckabee to disavowal.
Hank
I heard clips from the 92 speech where he in essence states “…. they should be quarintened …” so the cc comment is a logical extension for some (often referred to as a big stretch) …. Would be interesting to see what led to the questioning perhaps some better light on context….. but it would be difficult to dismiss the statement regardless – maybe
meant “…. but maybe.”
I’m sure Hank will be pleased at the numbers from Classmates.com’s Presidential Primary Poll. Here’s the rundown:
GOP=Huckabee – 24%Giuliani – 20%Paul – 16%Thompson – 14%Romney – 12%McCain – 11%Hunter – 2%Tancredo – 1%
And for the rest of us…Clinton = 24%Obama – 20%Richardson – 18% (I see there are some thinking people out there.)Edwards – 15%Biden – 10%Kucunich – 6%Dodd – 4%Gravel – 4%
Huckabees 1992 response regarding AIDS Research:
At the present time, the per- capita federal spending on AIDS is $15,450. That compareswith $285 spent per capita on cancer victims, $33 per capita spent for victims of heart andvascular diseases and $25 per capita spent on victims of diabetes.
In light of the extraordinary funds already being given for AIDS research,it does not seem that additional Federals spending can be justified. An alternativew ould be to request that multi-millionaire 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 forAIDS iesearch.
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.
Huckabee refuses to release the text of the sermons that he gave while he was serving as a Baptist preacher. He knows that if those ever see the light of day, his campaign is toast. There was also the embarassing gaffe with his question of whether Mormons think the devil is Jesus’ brother. His appeal is definately becoming more selective. He may be the darling of the far right religious wing of the GOP, but he has zero chance of winning a national election.
hmm whats the saying — stick a fork in him he’s done
….. that was a quick rise and fall from grace
Hover your cursor on the photo.
Study and reflect.
Neat little bit of irony there.
So, the Republicans have Huckabee who won’t flip flop, when he obviously should; and Romney who can’t stop flip-flopping.
A good situation I would say.
Huckabee refuses to release the text of the sermons that he gave while he was serving as a Baptist preacher. He knows that if those ever see the light of day, his campaign is toast. There was also the embarassing gaffe with his question of whether Mormons think the devil is Jesus’ brother. His appeal is definately becoming more selective. He may be the darling of the far right religious wing of the GOP, but he has zero chance of winning a national election.
Posted by: Scott | December 13, 2007 at 10:26 AM
No kidding Scott?
People want separation of Church and State, but will not allow people to have their own belief or privacy on the matter in accordance with the Constitution.
I wasn’t aware of the First Amendment stopped at the political door.
The Libs here are trying to do a JFK on Huckabee.
“Look he’s a Catholic!”
“Look he’s a Baptist!”
Such fair-minded people these are.
yeah, right…
We can’t get Hillary’s paper when she was the assistant prez but we need Hucks sermon when he was a minister. What is wrong with this picture?
When you open up the paper trail request to include non-elected, non-civil servants, don’t whine.And, how many times have we seen the righties referencing some thesis written by hillary as a college student?
“Look he’s a Catholic!”
“Look he’s a Baptist!”
How about, “don’t they believe Jesus and Satan are brothers”such open mindedness!
Any GOP voters out there who are infected with HIV?
Didn’t think so.
No harm to Huckabee on this issue even if the electorate does manage to take these 15 year old comments out of context.
Phantom would this be the thesis you were referencing?
WELLESLEY, Mass. – Hillary Rodham Clinton’s political science professor said he’d give the tactic an “F.”
It was early 1993, in the first days of the Clinton administration, when Hillary Clinton’s friend and former thesis adviser at Wellesley College took the phone call that would land him in the middle of a political intrigue.
“I got a call from someone at the White House — I don’t remember who — shortly after the inauguration, saying the Clintons had decided not to release her thesis,” professor Alan H. Schechter told MSNBC.com.
Look he’s a Catholic!”
“Look he’s a Baptist!”
How about, “don’t they believe Jesus and Satan are brothers”such open mindedness!
Posted by: The Phantom | December 13, 2007 at 10:59 AM
My point exactly The Phantom.
These are private opinions on religion.
I do believe that Huckabee even apologized for the remark he made.
However, little good it will do as the Libs don’t accept apologies and will continue to rub things in people faces forever and ever.
Perfection without being a Deity is not possible as a human, but it appears that’s what Libs want.
Aids, like so many of the lefts political footballs, has proven to not be the big plague for society that it was predicted to be in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Huckabee’s views on aids then and now are reasonable and mainstream. As much as the press and the lefty politicians tried to panic the heterosexuals with this disease it soon became apparent that if you were a monogomous, non-drug abusing, heterosexual your chances of dying from an infected hang nail were worse than your chances of contacting aids.
On almost any issue Huckabee would make Opra’s Obama or Her Thighness the Hildeberast look like the out of touch nitwits they are.
Any of our candidates can beat Hillary and Obama just isn’t ready for prime time.
If I was on the left I would be more concerned with the candidate on the left than the one on the right. We’ll field a solid, mainstream candidate in the general election. Meanwhile, your front runner is imploding and there is no viable candidate to take her place.
solid, mainstream candidate
Hank who might that be — I don’t see (either party) any who are really mainstream
.. looks like it may very boil down to the lesser of 2 evils in the eyes of independents —
“Far right, fascist spin machine”
Coming from the intellectual heir to Ernst Roehm, that’s some statement.
Hank Price,
Whistling past the graveyard again, I see.
Can’t say as I blame you, given The Huckster’s implosion, Ghouliani’s unending string of scandals, Romney’s pandering phoniness, Thompson’s narcolepsy, McCain’s intemperance, and, well, the general pall that’s settled over the GOP.
I said on another thread last week that Huckabee’s campaign is the right wing version of Howard Dean’s: populists always get taken down by the money boys and vested interests in either party, and The Huckster is no exception. His own lies about Wayne Dumond and his blatantly homophobic comments are just the icing on the cake.
The real issue is control of the Party agenda, and the need to not alienate the Money Boys. The minute The Huckster started talking economic populism, the GOP knives were already out.
From CF2K’s standpoint, it’s highly amusing to watch the civil war breaking out on the right. Democrats are going to clean up next year–big time. And everybody in the GOP knows it.
So Huckabee claims people didn’t know about how AIDS was transmitted back in 1992. Hmmm, Magic Johnson had AIDS and was in the Olympics and all that could be talked about was that there really wasn’t any danger of transmission unless he started bleeding for some reason.
There was the Ryan White kid who was infected through a blood transfusion and died in 1990. He made national headline news and while there was a lot of hysterical paranoid by stupid people the media was reporting the facts on how AIDS is transmitted.
If Huckabee was too Bushish to pick up a newspaper or watch the tv news (back then I think they actually reported news) then I can understand his ignorance. However that is highly improbable. Huckabee just considered AIDS a gay disease and he thinks all gays are evil and immoral so the idea of a concentration camp appealed to him.
CF2K:
It is unfortunate that the money and power contingent are allowed to control both of our political parties. We are then left to somehow make sense of the chaos they bring when their policies reflect the concerns of their contributors and not those of the party faithful.
The path you chart for the Republican candidates will most assuredly be mirrored in the Democratic field.
Ryan White died because the homosexual community politicized a public health problem. Had the health care community been far more assertive in policing who their donors were, instead of cowtowing to the demands of the radical homosexual community, Ryan White would probably be alive today.
Yeah, I’m sure the gays controlled the Centers for Disease Control and the state’s health department back in the 80s. Keep that tin foil hat on tight lest some oxygen enter into that noggin.
As I recall the religious community hated White because they wanted to blame gays for the spread of AIDS. With Ryan White being an AIDS victim it was harder to spread their hate but they called White gay anyway.
Sorry, your history is completely flawed and all to tinged with your religious intolerance and bigotry.
The folks in charge succumbed o allegations that they suffered from the mythical disease homophobia of they dared screen their donor lists for homosexuality. They didn’t and Ryan White died, as did many others killed by the homosexual agenda.
Incidentally, in Africa AIDs is clearly a heterosexual disease, but in this country, and particularly at the time White died, AIDS was a disease primarily carried by homosexuals and IV drug users who shared needles.
In their haste to try and cover up the yet another downside of their unhealthy lifestyle, the homosexual community only made matters worse.
Doug,
Actually, it seems plausible that, as The Huckster has claimed, that, back in 1992, he really didn’t know how AIDS was transmitted.
Or at least, it’s as plausible as The Huckster’s saying last week that he “hadn’t heard about” the NIE clearing Iran of working to create nuclear weapons.
I suppose that means when the media says Huckabee is “folkish” they mean clueless. The media said the same thing about Bush who was surprised to find out there were Black people in Brazil.
Yes, anyone who disagrees with the brain trusts of the Eagle blog must clearly have straw in their ears and should be relegated to the back of the intellectual bus.
Yep, ‘folkish’ seems like a pretty good term to me. Reagan, folkish. Two term president. G H W Bush, folkish. One term then got beat by hickish. G W Bush, folkish. Two term president.
Things are looking good!
My heavens, it was more fun getting thrown off of here yesterday, Hank. This is a boring bunch. the thought that they might have to confront an idea that hadn’t been spoon fed to them is simply too much for them.
I think I’ll throw myself off today.
Whoops, here I goooooooooooo…….
Come back as a person next time, won’t you, please?
Bush is so stupid Doug, yet the Democrats keep backing down to him.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/12/AR2007121201791.html?hpid=moreheadlines
Democrats Bow to Bush’s Demands in House Spending BillBillions Trimmed From New Requests
By Jonathan WeismanWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 13, 2007; Page A03
House Democratic leaders yesterday agreed to meet President Bush’s bottom-line spending limit on a sprawling, half-trillion-dollar domestic spending bill, dropping their demands for as much as $22 billion in additional spending but vowing to shift funds from the president’s priorities to theirs.
There’s folkish, then there’s foolish which would be a better description of GWB. But he couldn’t have done it without the foolish folks voting for him.
And GWB couldn’t have done anything without the Dems in Congress supporting him.
“As I recall the religious community hated White…
Posted by: Doug | December 13, 2007 at 12:35 PM”
As I recall, Doug, you hate the religious community. So does that bias kinda cancel out your comment bashing them??
And let me say this about that. As a voting, card-carrying member of the Nasty Awful Contemptable Religious Community (NACRC) at that time, I can say definitely that we never voted to hate White. In fact, I don’t think White even ever came up in discussions, and I attended the covert national NACRC meetings from ‘82 – ‘94. (I might get out copies of both our secret and hidden agendas for that period and see if I can find it, but I’m pretty sure it’s not there.)
Tell me, though, when did your association, the Open-Headed Association to Extinguish Religion Systematically–Intent on Christian Kiboshing (O’HATERS-ICK) vote to actively revise history to suit your antipathy of Christians? O, what was I thinking… you don’t have to vote to do that. It just comes naturally, and seems to be part of your charter.
Silly me.
Haw haw haw haw! Now The Huckster has to backtrack from anti-Mormon comments to be published in Sunday’s NYT.
“DES MOINES, Iowa – Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee apologized to Mitt Romney on Wednesday for saying, “Don’t Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?”
An ordained Southern Baptist minister, Huckabee asked the question in an article to be published Sunday in The New York Times, which released his quote Tuesday. Romney retorted that “attacking someone’s religion is really going too far.”
Huckabee apologized Wednesday, saying he had asked an innocent question during a lengthy conversation and was shocked to see it taken out of context.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22239946/
Gay folks back in 1992, Mormons and illegal immigrants in 2007. Who would The Huckster be without someone to vilify as a way of pandering to his base? Who would Republicans be without someone to hate?
I love to watch the circular firing squad of insincere, right-wing religious panderers. A more useless bunch of hypocrites and serial liars would be hard to imagine.
To All:It was well known and publicized as early as the late 80’s how AIDS was and was not transmitted.
And the disease wasn’t relegated to gays only, as much as the early day hysteria would liked to have thought. Thousands of monogamous heterosexual women in Africa (and around the world) and their children now have it due to their wandering husbands/fathers. So, the message was (and still is) that one needs to protect themselves no matter what. When you sleep with one, you sleep with all the people they have. Many heterosexuals mistakenly thought that they couldn’t get it. And now that it’s not ‘just a gay disease’ those who were jumping on the gay-hysteria bandwagon have piped down. I know too many men who are still too macho to wear a condom and don’t believe they convey any risk.
I know too many men who are still too macho to wear a condom and don’t believe they convey any risk.
Posted by: WichiWomn | December 13, 2007 at 02:53 PM
Hey WichiWomn!
I really love this BLOG! I know a lot of really ‘macho men’! Their condom customs doesn’t come up in polite conversation much.
Your comment begs the question: How did you find out about their condom avoidance?
I know too many men who are still too macho to wear a condom and don’t believe they convey any risk.
Posted by: WichiWomn | December 13, 2007 at 02:53 PM
Hey WichiWomn!
I really love this BLOG! I know a lot of really ‘macho men’! Their condom customs doesn’t come up in polite conversation much.
Your comment begs the question: How did you find out about their condom avoidance?
Sorry about the double post.
Gov. Mike Huckabee and his wife, Janet, are registered for home furnishing gifts at Target and Dillard’s department stores as they prepare to leave the Governor’s Mansion in January and move into a house they recently purchased in North Little Rock.
Gifts requested at Dillard’s for Janet and Mike Huckabee include 24 place settings of Lenox “Holiday Nouveau” china and stemware (from $14 to $40 a piece), Biddeford bed linens (king and queen bed skirts from $89 to $99), an oval pot rack ($60), an asparagus pot ($30), a KitchenAid mixer ($300) and a Jack LaLanne power juicer ($100).
The Jack LaLanne juicer is also on the Target list, along with a Kitchen Essentials 12-piece cookware set ($250) and cookie sheet ($20), Fieldcrest bed linens (from $30 to $144), rugs (from $25 to $150), and table linens, potholders and kitchen towels (from $2 to $13) and more.
Target’s registry also notes: “Message from the couple: Target GiftCards are welcome.” They can be purchased in amounts from $10 to $1,000.
The story broke Friday on our Arkansas Daily Blog (www.arkansasblog.com). We requested, but did not receive, a comment from the Huckabees. For one thing, though registries seemed to be set up for the governor and his wife, nothing on the registries said so explicitly.
Stephens Media followed our story that day and confirmed through the governor’s press spokesperson that the registries were indeed for the Huckabees, reportedly set up by “friends” of the first lady to help her make the “transition” to private life. The Stephens account said:
The term-limited governor leaves office in January, and friends of Janet Huckabee created the registries at Dillard’s and Target stores to help facilitate their transition to private life, Huckabee spokeswoman Alice Stewart said Friday.
The Huckabees purchased a 7,000-square-foot home in North Little Rock this year.
“Some ladies who are friends of Janet’s are giving her a housewarming party,” Stewart said.
Arkansas law prohibits public officials from receiving gifts worth more than $100, unless the office-holder can prove that the gift came via a relationship “independent of his or her official status.” To ascertain the nature of the relationship, the Arkansas Ethics Commission may examine “such factors as when the relationship began (i.e., before or after the public servant obtained his or her office or position), the prior history of gift giving between the individuals, whether the gift was given in connection with a holiday or other special occasion, and whether the same gift was given to other public servants.”
Arkansas public officials also are required to report the “source, date, description, and a reasonable estimate of the fair market value of each gift of more than $100 received by the public servant or his or her spouse” in their annual Statement of Financial Interest, which is filed in January.
One of the 17 exceptions to the gift ban is “wedding presents and engagement gifts.”
The Huckabees’ gifts are listed at both stores under a wedding registry, although Dillard’s shows an event date of Nov. 14, and Target has Nov. 16. The Huckabees already have married each other twice, most recently on Valentine’s Day in 2005, when they upgraded their union to a covenant marriage. Gov. Huckabee’s public calendar lists no housewarming events on those dates, though he had several appearances scheduled, including a book signing.
The Huckabees have been in the news over past gifts. The governor reported tens of thousands of dollars worth of gifts during his first years in office. He was forced, after first saying the furniture was a personal gift, to disavow ownership of some $70,000 in furnishings provided for private quarters at the Governor’s Mansion by cotton planter Boe Adams. Questions were raised about the legality of the governor accepting such a gift. The Ethics Commission investigated him for other gifts he’s received as governor, including a canoe provided by a soft drink bottler. He also has used his inaugural funds to pay for personal articles for the family, including clothing for his wife. Additionally, in his first year in office, records show he used Mansion expense funds for personal expenses, a prohibited practice.
Brownlee’s blog is just another example why Bill O’Reilly called the Wichita Eagle the worst newspaper in the USA. I get very frustrated at the Eagle’s editors & reporters because they refuse to investigate documented crimes committed by influential Wichita attorneys & judges, yet they make up crap about conservative reformers like Gov. Mike Huckabee. Phil Brownlee is such a pompous wannabee ass when he writes that Huckabee is having a hard time explaining his answers to a 1992 survey. Brownlee based his negative statement about Huckabee on a recent AP article.
The AP article tried to imply that Huckabee is a hypocrite because some political groups have criticized Huckabee for raising some taxes when he was governor, because he set up a PAC even though he previously supported campaign reform laws to limit the time periods in which contributions can be raised and because he now supports federal funding for AIDs research which he previously opposed.
I think these criticisms are very lame because:
they assume that a governor who is against state spending should never raise taxes to balance the state budget or can not change his mind about the wisdom of the federal government funding certain types of research ten years later after preliminary privately funded reserrach has been completed.
that a politician should run for office at a disadvantage by unilaterally refusing to raise money earlier in the election cycle. (It’s ironic because the national pundits are trying to convince us that Huckabee can’t win because he hasn’t raised enough money soon enough)
However what really irritated me is Brownlee’s false headline that Huckabee is having a You Tube movement and can not defend or explain his statements made 10 years earlier Either Brownlee is being dishonest or he did not listen to the You Tube presidential debates. Perhaps Brownlee was too busy filming anti-Brownback videos with Bucky Walters to gather any intelligent facts to write an intelligent educated opinion piece.
Whether or not you like Huckabee, he had no problems explaining his position on raising taxes. Even the AP article demonstrates that Huckabee did not have a “hard time” explaining his answers to the 1992 survey that AIDs patients should be isolated. The AP article states:
Over the weekend, he said he wouldn’t retract answers in which he advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased funding for finding a cure and said homosexuality could pose a public health risk — though he said today he might phrase his answers “a little differently.”Huckabee’s 1992 comments on isolating AIDS patients run counter to a statement he released last month calling for increased federal funds to find a cure. Huckabee says the earlier remarks came at a time when there was confusion about how AIDS could be transmitted.He said Tuesday he would be willing to speak with the family of Ryan White, an Indiana teenager who died of AIDS in the 1980s and whose mother has objected to the 1992 Huckabee comments.”It’s so alarming to me,” Jeanne White-Ginder said in an interview with the AP.Huckabee said when asked about the family on Tuesday, “I would be very willing to meet with them. I would tell them we’ve come a long way in research, in treatment. I certainly never would want to say anything that would be hurtful to them or anyone else. I would have great regret and anxiety if I thought my comments were hurtful or in any way added to the already incredible pain that families have felt regardless of how they contracted AIDS.”
I don’t see how Brownlee can write that Huckabee is having any trouble explaining some of his previous answers. It the editors & reporters are too lazy or afraid to do any investigative reporting, I hope that they will take the time to read the news before publishing stupid opinions and misleading headlines.
Bill McKeankiakahahaha@yahoo.com293-6079
No one would miss your rants here Billy.
Drift.
From CF2K’s standpoint, it’s highly amusing to watch the civil war breaking out on the right. Democrats are going to clean up next year–big time. And everybody in the GOP knows it.
Posted by: CF2K | December 13, 2007 at 12:07 PM
Are you having an identity crisis? Do you not remember you are CF2K?
There may be some logic to Huckabees ‘92 suggestion that HIV+/AIDS patients be isolated. If such a terrible thing had happened, there quite possibly would be a lot fewer cases of HIV/AIDS in the US today. Maybe? Isn’t that a Kant or Utilitarian way of dealing with things?
Being insulted or labeled the worst by Bill O’Reilly is the best compliment anyone can receive. Anytime you find yourself on the opposite side of an issue than a member of the Rush O’Hannity club, you know you are doing something right. As far as Huckabee goes, the country has had their fill of religious extremism and wackos from the rapture right. In national polls, the Huckster gets absolutely massacred by both Clinton and Obama.
Being insulted or labeled the worst by Bill O’Reilly is the best compliment anyone can receive. Anytime you find yourself on the opposite side of an issue than a member of the Rush O’Hannity club, you know you are doing something right. As far as Huckabee goes, the country has had their fill of religious extremism and wackos from the rapture right. In national polls, the Huckster gets absolutely massacred by both Clinton and Obama.
Agreed, Scott. Well put.
Congratulations Scott!
ksgrm,
If you’re going to try to be snarky, at least try to be clever.
Tracy,
Thanks for the posting. There’s lots, lots more where that came from, including this nice piece from Digby about The Huckster’s son, who was busted for trying to carry a loaded Glock 9 onto a plane. Here’s another memorable event from David Huckabee’s past:
“Two boy scout counselors, 17 year old Clayton Frady and 18 year old David litickabee, the son of Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, have admitted to catching a stray dog during their summer session at Camp Pioneer in Hatfield, AR, and hanging the dog by his neck, slitting his throat and stoning him to death.
Camp officials, who did not report the crime to law enforcement officials, have admitted that the act did occur and have fired the boys from their positions. However, no charges have been filed against the young men.”
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/
The Huckster is toast. But unlike Howard Dean, whose campaign flamed out in 2004, I see little chance of any grassroots movement to bring The Huckster in as head of the RNC, nor much chance that he’d preside over a mid-term electoral realignment.
It’ll be Romney or Ghouliani. The Money Boys who run the GOP can’t let the unwashed, Right Wing Fundo massess call the shots.
There you go again CF, misunderestimating.
That’s the one thing that Libs excel at is character assassination.
Their mommas must be proud.
“Brownlee’s blog is just another example why Bill O’Reilly called the Wichita Eagle the worst newspaper in the USA.”
Ohhhhh yeah. I am sure the Eagle is just broken up over the great journalist Bill O’Reilly’s assessment of the paper.
Bill O’Reilly is a loud mouthed bully whose simplistic talking points style has become a national joke. Steven Colbert’s parody of him isn’t even very exaggerated.
A Blue newspaper trapped in the red state.
I bet they are all itching for a spot on the NYT.
“That’s the one thing that Libs excel at is character assassination.
Their mommas must be proud.”
Kans…I can’t BELIEVE you even said that…think about it…no one, I mean NO ONE does character assasination as well as the right wing neocons do.
I thought about it Mary…you’re wrong. :)
“That’s the one thing that Libs excel at is character assassination.
“Their mommas must be proud.”
Re: Kansas
DNFTT
DNFTT — ANY of them, please!!Yesterday was really good!! But I see we are back to the previous normal junk posts and jabs!! Leave it to God and Sex to bring out the “worst” in people! LOL
Non-person: Your Ryan White post is a bit confusing – how exactly did “the homosexual agenda” kill Ryan White? It wasn’t even known until earlier in the same year as his blood-factor transfusion that AIDS was caused by HIV. As a corollary, what exactly IS the homosexual agenda? You are right to point out, however, that HIV/AIDS is primarily a HETEROSEXUAL disease; it is only an historical accident that it came to be associated with homosexual men in the United States. It could just have easily have been a disease of heterosexual transmission like it is in most of the HIV cases in the world. It’s a virus – protein, RNA and reverse transcriptase. I suppose the Poultry Agenda is behind the centuries of influenza deaths?
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I read that the way HIV was introduced into the United States was by a French Canadian Flight Attendant (Male) who made frequent “excursions” to Haiti (at the time an isolated hotbed of the AIDS virus.)
At least that is what the Public Health Manuals stated during the 1990s clime as the ALPHA for the introduction of HIV into the U.S.
Ummm – My recollection is that it came in from Africa… Maybe somebody has some kind of an active link on that question??
Good night; Good luck; and God bless; whatever you conceive God to be!!
Blessings All!!
MERRY XRMAS!!
Kansas – that’s correct (or something close to that; I can’t remember the specifics). As I recall, this “Patient Zero” had both male and female sex partners and happened to introduce the virus into North America via sexual contact with another man in New York. So, it could just have easily have been introduced via heterosexual contact (possibly even by another person at some other time) like the vast majority of HIV cases worldwide. That’s why I say it’s just an historical accident that it happened to come to be associated in the U.S. (and other places, admittedly) with gay men. The risk associated with IV drug use is largely independent of sexual transmission (although certainly not entirely). In any event, as it stands now, the fastest-growing HIV-positive population (in the U.S.) is heterosexual women, especially African-American and Hispanic.