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HUCKABEE RESPONDS TO RYAN WHITE'S MOM
Former Baptist minister and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has been on the defensive since it was revealed last week that he had, while governor of Arkansas, called for the "isolation" of AIDS patients from the general population. This weekend, on Fox News Sunday, Huckabee defended those remarks, here via Mark Silva writing for The Swamp:
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."I still believe this today," Huckabee said Sunday, 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.
In response, today the Human Rights Campaign and the AIDS Institute sent a letter to Huckabee asking him to meet with Jeanne White-Ginder, the mother of the late Ryan White, the youngster who contracted AIDS through a transfusion and who lent his name to the cause of destigmatizing the disease. (Ryan White died in 1990.) According to the AP's Liz Sidoti and Mike Glover, Huckabee has agreed in principle to meed with White-Ginder, who called Huckabee's comments "completely beyond comprehension."
In response, Huckabee told reporters in Council Bluffs, Iowa: "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."
Nothing in the report, though, shows any backing off of his position on "isolating" HIV/AIDS patients.
--Adele M. Stan
COMMENTS (6)
A big tell: "regardless of how they contracted AIDS".... Is there a word for the ideological equivalent of a Freudian slip?
Posted by: elle loco | December 11, 2007 1:28 PM
I like it when the Thumpers talk. It reveals how truly bigoted they truly are. Keep talking Mike!!!
Posted by: Richard Adams | December 11, 2007 1:38 PM
His remark about "political correctness" really pisses me off. Is any attempt to consider the lives of people who are supposedly different from his norms an act of political correctness? Democrats need to point out that there is such a thing as right wing political correctness. His comments are littered with the buzzwords and statements that fall right in line with conservative Christian dogma. I'd also argue that Romney's "faith" speech last week was full of right wing political correctness. Enough with the ridiculous use of this phrase. Just because someone does something that isn't what Mike or Mitt would do, doesn't mean that it is being done out of some need to fall blindly into step with what's considered PC.
Posted by: winer | December 11, 2007 3:01 PM
His comment that the response to AIDS was related to political correctness has an element of truth to it.
In the beginning stages of the epidemic it was often argued that the disease claimed all types of victims. When in fact the victims overwhelmingly were gay men.
And remember when, during the height of the crack/HIV epidemic, AIDS activists were OPPOSING having newborn babies tested for HIV -- because it would violate the mothers' privacy rights?
Posted by: captcrisis | December 11, 2007 4:16 PM
Huckabee was running for Senate in 1992. He became Lt Governor in 1993 and Governor in 1996.
Posted by: daveadams | December 11, 2007 5:56 PM
I wonder if his political correctness reflected upon the rule of law.
Though, I'm not even quite sure what he meant by political correctness. Does that mean he is even more of a career minded politician who does not truly represent the people?
Posted by: silus | December 13, 2007 9:42 PM