There is not a liberal, moderate, Democrat, women’s right activist, or sane, smart person who does not believe in gender equality. We want to see women get equal pay, be given equal opportunity, and be represented in the workplace – whatever workplace – in numbers commensurate with our skills, experience, and comparable abilities. That’s a given.

What we don’t need or want is self-serving gasbaggery under the pretense of “fighting for women’s issue” from to a verifiable hard right, fundamentalist Christian, anti-choice, anti-marriage equality, anti-science, anti-women’s issues, anti-logic, GOP hardliner who actually thinks he can come out, pretend he’s fighting for women, and be believed.

That’d be Mike Huckabee.





Never one to waste an opportunity to attack the President, or inject himself into a cultural conversation in which he thinks he can make hay, Mike Huckabee is now painting himself as a bold defender of women’s rights by taking Obama to task for the “lack of diversity” in his Cabinet picks; playing the game of “I know you are but what am I?” by accusing the President of “waging in his own war on women.”

Huckabee, please!

Fussing and fuming in faux “solidarity” with us gals, Huckabee got on his radio show recently to wag a finger at the President:

“Now a lot of those females who supported Barack Obama are scratching their heads, and they’re saying, ‘Whoa! How come there is so much testosterone in the Obama Cabinet and so little estrogen?'” the former Arkansas governor and one-time Republican presidential candidate said during his radio show. “Because if you look around, all of these high-powered appointments that he is making are all white guys.” According to Huckabee, Obama used charges of a Republican “war on women” and promises of “contraceptives and free abortions” to get women to vote for him, but “never promised women would have seats of significance at the table of power.” “But don’t worry about positions of authority,” he sarcastically continued. “They shouldn’t be asking for such things.” [Source: AOL]

Wow, Mike, thanks for speaking up for us “female who supported Barack Obama”! Thanks for looking out for us, ‘cause you’ve been SO on our side throughout your illustrious political career…right?

Hmmmm.

It’s very possible those on the Right who believe everything that falls out of the mouths of their politically anointed, will listen to Huckabee and say, “Why, gosh, I don’t usually give a pinch about how many damn women are anywhere but in front of the stove or drivin’ the kids to school, but he’s right!”

The rest of us cry, “HYPOCRITE!”

Now Mike Huckabee’s worried about women? Now?

He wasn’t that worried about women when he stood by the side of Todd Akin after that hapless man told the world women could “shut the whole thing down” when it came to preventing pregnancy from rape. No, Mike brushed off the insanity of that statement and got all busy defending his buddy:

Mike Huckabee rallied hundreds of Southern Baptists on a conference call Friday night in support of Todd Akin, offering advice about how they can help the embattled Missouri Senate candidate stay in the race…”Todd Akin has done nothing but make a mistake for which he has roundly repudiated the comment and apologized. There’s nothing else he can do.” [Source: Politico]

He wasn’t that worried about women each time he took a stand against a women’s right choose:

Mike Huckabee is strongly opposed to abortion, including in cases of rape or incest. He has stated that abortion should be legal only when the life of the mother is at risk. He believes that it would “most certainly” be a good day for America if Roe v. Wade were repealed.[Source: Wikipedia]

He wasn’t that worried about women when he used the deaths of six of them at Sandy Hook Elementary (along with their 20 young charges) to make points about the godlessness of schools:

“Well, you know, it’s an interesting thing. We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we’ve systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage because we’ve made it a place where we don’t want to talk about eternity, life, what responsibility means, accountability? That we’re not just going to have to be accountable to the police, if they catch us. But one day, we will stand before a Holy God in judgment. If we don’t believe that, then we don’t fear that.” [Source: The New Civil Rights Movement]

He wasn’t that worried about women when he took firm political positions against Obamacare (with its many provisions for women’s reproductive health care), LGBT civil rights issues, marriage equality, gun control, embryonic cell research…all issues that deeply affect women particularly as they relate to the welfare and protection of families and children. [Source: Wikipedia]

Mike Huckabee, despite his folksy persona, religious underpinning, and jovial public face, has never been a man who’s fought for women. In fact, he seems less concerned about women and more hell-bent on defending his GOP buddies and using any issue he can to denigrate the President. In this case, it’s Cabinet diversity; in other cases it’s been…well, whatever comes up: How could we forget when he blatantly and repeatedly insisted that Obama grew up in Kenya:

“If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather,” he said. [Source: CBS News]

The truth is, Mike Huckabee is NOT a woman’s BFF. He’s anything but. For him to co-opt the issue of Obama’s Cabinet diversity in a crass attempt to wrap himself in the mantle of “fighter for women” is beyond pathetic; it’s calculated and insidious.

And very transparent. Sorry, Mike, we women ain’t buying it.

Follow Lorraine Devon Wilke on Twitter, Facebook and Rock+Paper+Music; for her archive at Addicting info click here; details and links to her other work: www.lorrainedevonwilke.com.