Huckabee spins himself in circles on AIDS quarantine

Yesterday, the AP highlighted some absurd comments from Mike Huckabee, offered during his 1992 Senate campaign, when he advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public and warned that homosexuality could “pose a dangerous public health risk.”

“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 [from the general population],” Huckabee wrote at the time.

By any reasonable standard, Huckabee’s comments were ridiculous and offensive, but at least for his sake they were made 15 years ago. Now, as a presidential candidate, he has an obvious course to take — claim ignorance and explain how far his understanding has progressed since 1992. (It may not be the most accurate tack — C. Everett Koop and the Surgeon General’s office explained to the nation that the disease could not be contacted through everyday contact four years before Huckabee expressed support for a quarantine, but it’s still his best strategic option.)

But the candidate who’s still surprisingly far from being ready for prime-time hasn’t yet learned how to respond to these questions.

On Fox News Sunday this morning, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee denied that he ever called for quarantining AIDS patients in 1992, claiming that he “didn’t say that we should quarantine,” but that the onset of the AIDS epidemic “was the first time in public health protocols” that “we didn’t isolate the carrier.” […] Huckabee then asserted that he stands by his 1992 comments, saying he wouldn’t “run from” or “recant” them.

Sweet Jeebus, it’s as if this guy is practically trying to make himself appear foolish.



First, trying to parse the meaning of fairly plain language is ridiculous. Based on his defense this morning, Huckabee didn’t say we “should” quarantine AIDS patients, he only said we “must” isolate them from the public. It’s hard to imagine even the conservative Republican base finding this coherent.

Second, he won’t “recant” obvious nonsense from 1992? Why on earth not? There’s no shame in saying, “What I believed 15 years ago was mistaken.” For goodness sakes, Mitt Romney routinely suggests, “What I believed 15 minutes ago was mistaken.” Huckabee can’t even concede making a mistake when it’s this obvious?

It gets back to a point I mentioned the other day — Huckabee’s easy skate to the GOP’s top-tier is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, he’s been able to quietly sneak up on his rivals, who’ve been going after one another and leaving Huckabee alone. On the other hand, now that the race has reached crunch time, and Huckabee is a credible challenger for the nomination, all of the scrutiny comes at once, and the former governor has to be able to keep up.

So far, he’s shown he can’t take the heat. Pressed on the Wayne Dumond disaster, Huckabee has taken to lying about what transpired. Pressed on the NIE, he dismisses reasonable inquiries about major news as “gotcha questions.” Confronted with obvious stupidity from 1992, he doesn’t know how to distance himself from his own mistakes.

Does this guy even have a staff? Is there no one around to help prep him for these TV interviews? Credible presidential candidates just aren’t supposed to go on national television and parse the meaning of the word “quarantine.”