I'd like to quickly follow-up my earlier post on why Mike Huckabee is wrong for America by citing a newly-minted examination into his past, which has uncovered a startling truth: in 1992, he advocated for isolating the "carriers" of AIDS, namely gays. A full account is available here at this Slate.com piece.

In short, Huckabee ran for Senate in Arkansas in 1992. When asked about AIDS in a questionnaire, he responded as follows:

Nonetheless, Huckabee insisted, "[W]e need to take steps that would isolate the carriers of this plague." Rather than increase federal research funding, Huckabee suggested that "multi-millionaire celebrities, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, and others who are pushing for more AIDS funding [should] be encouraged to give out of their own personal treasuries."

Do you get that? The guy used the AIDS pandemic as a fun opportunity to blast liberals in Hollywood and gays at the same time. Classy man, that.

Also, it seems he had the chance to take it all back. According to the Slate piece:

When faced with his 15-year-old answers, Huckabee told Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace, "I'm not going to recant or retract from the statement that I did make."

Sure, he's argued that they didn't know enough about the disease at the time. Then say that. Don't just go around trying to score cheap political points with your ultra-conservative base by simultaneously attacking "Hollywood liberals" and gays. That's just sleazy and all-too-common. He could have said "I don't know enough about the disease" 15 years ago. He didn't.

But that was 15 years ago. People can make mistakes, obviously. But to not account for them and to stand by his remarks, as he has done, is inexcusable and mind-boggling. We know a lot about AIDS these days, Mr. Huckabee. It's not just a gay disease. Be careful before you go around tilting at windmills for politics; it'll show just how off-kilter you really are.