From the rapist/murderer-releasing Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor who is surging in the polls, a view into his mindset (and “Christian” thinking) about AIDS. This is from a questionnaire back in 1992 during a senate race:
“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. 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 didn’t feel any more funding was necessary, even given his above hysteria.
“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.”Now, you wonder what Huck thinks about his statements today. As usual, he makes sh*t up that isn’t true. He tries to cite that no one knew about how HIV was transmitted at the time.
Huckabee said in a prepared statement released by his campaign Saturday afternoon that he called for quarantine when there was a lot of confusion about how AIDS is spread. He said he wanted at the time to follow traditional medical practices used for dealing with tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.Sigh. Huckabee also said this in the questionnaire — someone should ask if he still believes this:“We now know that the virus that causes AIDS is spread differently, with a lower level of contact than with TB,” Huckabee said. “But looking back almost 20 years, my concern was the uncertain risk to the general population - if we got it wrong, many people would die needlessly. My concern was safety first, political correctness last.”
When Huckabee wrote his answers in 1992, it was common knowledge that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact.… 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 1995-96 season.
“I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk.”Will the MSM give him a pass? Do you think any of his rivals will dare to blast him on this, lest it be interpreted as defending the homos?
Huck on immigration, after the jump.
And how about Huck’s realistic plan to handle the 12 million + illegal immigrants already here — require them to go home and return and enter legally:
“It’s tough,” he said, “but I also think it’s fair, giving people 120 days to go back and then start the process all over. People will say, ‘Well, how will they go back?’ Well, they got here. They’ll figure out the same way they got here to go back.”Let’s see — if some of these folks are off the economic “grid,” how on earth does someone start the 120-day clock? Oh, why am I bothering to ask questions about this insanity? I guess it sounds rational to someone out there.
30 Responses to “Mike Huckabee wanted to quarantine AIDS patients”
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Two words: honour system. I’m sure it’ll work.
Fun fact: I have an ex who truly believed (might still, I don’t know)that all we needed to stop HIV/AIDS was to quarantine all of the infected and withhold life-extending treatments. If he was feeling charitable, he thought that maybe they should be allowed some palliative drugs.
As scary as that asshole ex was, at least he’s not possibly going to recieve some power.
Fun fact: I have an ex who truly believed (might still, I don’t know)that all we needed to stop HIV/AIDS was to quarantine all of the infected and withhold life-extending treatments. If he was feeling charitable, he thought that maybe they should be allowed some palliative drugs.
As scary as that asshole ex was, at least he’s not possibly going to recieve some power.
God, Huck sounds like one of my stupid relatives who think they’re so smart. You know, the ones who still believe you can kill a wart by rubbing it with a potato and then burying it (the potato, not the wart.)
On the AIDS thing, here’s what I wrote after I first read it:
“Maybe if he actually had the disease he’d feel differently.
“I can’t completely dismiss his arguments, because he has a point when he says that isolating carriers of a disease does slow down or stop the spread of it.
“But he’s not taking into account that this isn’t like the bubonic plague or leprosy or SARS or whatever, where just breathing the same air as a carrier can infect you.
“Carriers of AIDS are only as dangerous as their actions, of course. The only scenario I can think of where I might actually condone confining somebody who was HIV positive would be one where they decided they were gonna keep sleeping around and try to infect as many other people as possible just for the hell of it.
“Plus, it is a ‘civil rights issue.’ Patients suffer enough without being isolated from the general population for actions they might take, or dangers they might represent.
“I also wonder how he would propose to find everybody–ask them to step forward and announce their condition to the world so they could be interned? Yeah Huck, that’d go over real well. Hunt them down like dogs? That’d go over even better.
“(You know, it occurs to me just now that a scary number of people might actually be in favor of the second option.)”
On the immigration:
Huckabee the bronze from Keith Olbermann for Worst Person In The World over that.
Argh, I should know that I need coffee before I try to link stuff…without accidentally linking back to this very blog!!! *facepalm*
I am such a cyber spaz.
So here’s K.O. on Huckabee’s brilliant immigration idea:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JRY7qjWhzso
Apparently the MSM will not be giving him a pass on this. Not even the New York Post, of all publications:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/08/huckabee-quarantine-aids-patients-in-92/
Realized that I linked back to this very post instead of K.O.’s Worst Person list, and posted that link and one other of interest. Unfortunately it looks it’s gonna spend some time in moderation limbo.
Back in the 80s and 90s, I routinely drew blood on AIDS patients- and the ones in isolation were in “reverse” isolation, where anyone going in was gowned from head to toe, mask and all, and had to undergo vigerous washing before and after touching the patient. Not because of assholery and ignorance such as Huckabee exhibited here, but because the patients’ immune systems were utterly destroyed and a secondary infection could kill them.
I will never forget the 22 year old boy (I was 24) who begged me to PLEASE be careful with his blood as not to infect MYSELF. He was quite handsome and weighed about 85 pounds- I hope he passed quickly after that. I didn’t know or care if he was gay, an IV drug user, or HOW he contracted HIV- all I know was that a really nice kid was dying a terrible death.
Huckabee is definitely the most dangerous of this year’s crop…
It’s beginning to look like both Huckleberry and Willard are made of Teflon.
It doesn’t really need to be said but Mike Huckabee is a liar and an idiot. I knew about how HIV was transmitted - and how it couldn’t possibly be transmitted - in 1991 when I researched it for a project in the sixth grade. I was ELEVEN and I knew that it wasn’t possible to transmit it by casual touch or that it wasn’t airborne in any way.
I really hope that between this and the early-release debacle that some people who were on the fence might finally realise what a complete tosser Huckabee is. Then again, look who’s in the oval office right now. SIGH.
If you ever get discouraged, teac, remember why you should not fear the Huckabee.
If he was that damn concerned about public safety, he should have kept that murdering rapist in prison.
I wonder if he checked whether or not the guy had AIDS before getting him sprung. After all, plenty of people enter prison without any STDs and leave with them, and by Huckabee’s logic having the disease would be cause by itself for indefinite confinement.
What’s more interesting is the supposed source of this news on Huckabee.
A Murdoch controlled ‘newspaper’.
Murdoch, think Fox News. The White House’s communications agency.
I wonder (Giuliani) who Murdoch (Rudy!) could be supporting… Not that I’m not thankful that someone is stepping up to expose the inanity of the religious right’s candidate though…
He’s also a baptist apocalypse nut. When will someone ask him about the rapture during a debate? When will the MSM mention this?
Given the fact that AIDS is transmitted by petting an AIDS patient’s cat, couldn’t we just quarantine the cats? I also hear you can catch it from public toilet seats so maybe we should get rid of toilets too.
Giuliani was on Meet the Press this morning and was asked by Russert about Huck’s comments. His answer? Huck didn’t know then what he knows now about AIDS and has changed his position. We can all rest easy, knowing that Huck was unaware of basic information available to even children in 1992, and that if another public health emergency were to prevent itself, he’d happily violate everyone’s civil rights and detain the sick until they died.
When Russert asked Giuliani whether he thought homosexuality was aberrant, Giuliani said no, it’s not the sexual orientation, it’s the behavior that’s wrong. And then he followed it up with - oh yes - a quip about how he hasn’t been perfect and knows that everyone sins. So apparently adultery = homosexuality in Rudy’s book. Oh, and he doesn’t support enforcing increases in CAFE standards on automobiles. Yeah, Rudy’s such a moderate.
Huckabee is probably a nice fellow, he is clearly a delusional nutcase unfit for high public office of any kind.
You might hear this from other people as well in the future, specifically the ones who want to appeal to the fundies but don’t want to go so far as to say that they hate gays and wish for them all to burn in hell. It’s my understanding that according to the bible, it’s not attraction to the same gender that God objects to but rather teh buttsex. Also, I think, women “lying with women” in some way is considered sinful.
(I have no idea how people interpreting the bible in this manner would view anal intercoursebetween a hetero couple, but I’m guessing not favorably.)
I don’t consider Rudy much of a moderate either. He lost my respect when he said “thank god George Bush is our President”, supposedly quoting himself on 9/11, and hasn’t done anything to regain it since.
Anybody with a conscience does not align himself with that man (Dubya I mean), party loyalty be damned.
What’s more interesting is the supposed source of this news on Huckabee.
A Murdoch controlled ‘newspaper’.
The 1992 questionnaire and the current story both come from the Associated Press, which is not Murdoch-controlled.
Might not even be all that nice. In the “Do Not Fear the Huckabee” piece I linked to above, somebody in the comments wrote this:
And in response:
I don’t recall the details, but I recall thinking “what a prick” after hearing Huckabee say something snarky. Maybe it’ll come back to me. So the “nasty and sarcastic” description doesn’t surprise me.
And maybe somebody is now manning that spotlight he mentioned, aiming it squarely at Huckabee.
“I was ELEVEN and I knew that it wasn’t possible to transmit it by casual touch or that it wasn’t airborne in any way”
Sounds like you were smart enough to run for President, especially given the current crop of GOPer dopes we have.
Goper dopes is redundant.
Looks like he’s running ahead at this point, according to the evening news, on the ‘want to drink beer with’ ticket. God, I just despair for this country.
“My concern was safety first, political correctness last.”… When Huckabee wrote his answers in 1992, it was common knowledge that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact.
Yet another case where “political correctness” has been mistaken for actual correctness.
All you need to know about Huckabee can be found in these 4 links.
http://www.arkansasleader.com/frontstories/st_07_21_04/huckabee5.html
http://www.arkansasleader.com/frontstories/st_07_14_04/huckabee4.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/05/exclusive-the-complete-h_n_75373.html
http://www.taxhikemike.org
OT: A city councilwoman in Colorado quits her job rather than remove a joke from her website that slurs blacks, gays, Jews, the disabled, and various other groups.
I also note that there were a lot of people repeating Huckabee’s soundbite word for word around that time: “first time a disease has been looked at as a human rights case,” blah, blah.
It was widely denounced at the time as being profoundly untrue, BTW: http://www.e-alliance.ch/resources/documents/html/Theology%20in%20a%20Time%20of%20AIDS.htm
Nothing says freedom like internment!
Looking back, practically speaking, it is even more twisted. While there was never even a hint of scientific truth to it, a majority of Americans polled fairly early in the epidemic reported believing that gay men could get AIDS even if they had never had sexual contact with anyone, infected or not.
The “AIDS is God’s punishment” idea had sunk in to the degree that many people heard “quarrantine all infected people” as “round up the queers.” Which, if the policy had gone forward, would certainly have been the intention.
I could understand him making a statement like that in say, 1984 when we didn’t fully understand the disease IIRC. In 1992 its completely inexcusable ignorance.