I'm starting to have some issues with the "Huckster"

[sirs]

...and nothing of them having to do with the moronic & pathetic effort of trying to equate Border Security = Chuck Norris     

Following the mistake of facilitating the release of a rapist for apparent poltical reasons, now we have this op-ed of playing the "Religion Card" and report regarding the idea of segregating AIDS patients
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Huckabee Plays the Religion Card

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, December 7, 2007

When Mitt Romney's father ran for the presidency 40 years ago, his Mormonism was not an issue. When Mo Udall was a major challenger for the Democratic nomination in 1976, his religion was so irrelevant that today most people don't even remember that Udall was Mormon.

Five members of the Senate are Mormon. Are there any intimations that the Mormonism of Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch, Gordon Smith, Michael Crapo or Robert Bennett corrupts, distorts or in any way diminishes their ability to perform their constitutional duties?

Mormonism should be a total irrelevancy in any political campaign. It is not. Which is why Mitt Romney had to deliver his JFK "religion speech" yesterday. He didn't want to. But he figured that he had to. Why? Because he's being overtaken in Iowa. Why Iowa? Because about 40 percent of the Republican caucus voters in 2000 were self-described "Christian conservatives" -- twice the number of those in New Hampshire, for example -- and, for many of them, Mormonism is a Christian heresy.

That didn't seem to matter for much of this year, when Romney had a commanding lead and his religion seemed a manageable political problem -- until Mike Huckabee came along and caught up to Romney in the Iowa polls.

The appealing aspects of Huckabee's politics and persona account for much of this. But part of his rise in Iowa is attributable to something rather less appealing: playing the religion card. The other major candidates -- John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson -- either never figured out how to use it or had the decency to refuse to deploy it.

Huckabee has exploited Romney's Mormonism with an egregious subtlety. Huckabee is running a very effective ad in Iowa about religion. "Faith doesn't just influence me," he says on camera, "it really defines me." The ad then hails him as a "Christian leader."

Forget the implications of the idea that being a "Christian leader" is some special qualification for the presidency of a country whose Constitution (Article VI) explicitly rejects any religious test for office. Just imagine that Huckabee were running one-on-one in Iowa against Joe Lieberman. (It's a thought experiment. Stay with me.) If he had run the same ad in those circumstances, it would have raised an outcry. The subtext -- who's the Christian in this race? -- would have been too obvious to ignore, the appeal to bigotry too clear.

Well, Huckabee is running against Romney (the other GOP candidates are non-factors in Iowa), and he knows that many Christian conservatives, particularly those who have an affinity with Huckabee's highly paraded evangelical Christianity, consider Romney's faith a decidedly non-Christian cult.

Huckabee has been asked about this view that Mormonism is a cult. He dodges and dances. "If I'm invited to be the president of a theological school, that'll be a perfectly appropriate question," he says, "but to be the president of the United States, I don't know that that's going to be the most important issue that I'll be facing when I'm sworn in."

Hmmm. So it is an issue, Huckabee avers. But not a very important one. And he's not going to pronounce upon it. Nice straddle, leaving the question unanswered and still open -- the kind of maneuver one comes to expect from slick former governors of Arkansas lusting for the presidency.

And by Huckabee's own logic, since he is not running for head of a theological college, what is he doing proclaiming himself a "Christian leader" in an ad promoting himself for president? Answer: Having the issue every which way. Seeming to take the high road of tolerance by refusing to declare Mormonism a cult, indeed declaring himself above the issue -- yet clearly playing to that prejudice by leaving the question ambiguous, while making sure everyone knows that he, for one, is a "Christian leader."

The God of the Founders, the God on the coinage, the God for whom Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving day is the ineffable, ecumenical, nonsectarian Providence of the American civil religion whose relation to this blessed land is without appeal to any particular testament or ritual. Every mention of God in every inaugural address in American history refers to the deity in this kind of all-embracing, universal, nondenominational way. (The one exception: William Henry Harrison. He caught cold delivering that inaugural address. Thirty-one days later, he was dead. Draw your own conclusion.) I suspect that neither Jefferson's Providence nor Washington's Great Author nor Lincoln's Almighty would look kindly on the exploitation of religious differences for political gain. It is un-American. It is unfortunate that Romney has had to justify himself in response.


Playing the Religion Card

[sirs]

ROCK, Ark. - Mike Huckabee once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could "pose a dangerous public health risk."
 
As a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in 1992, Huckabee answered 229 questions submitted to him by The Associated Press. Besides a quarantine, Huckabee suggested that Hollywood celebrities fund AIDS research from their own pockets, rather than federal health agencies.

"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," Huckabee wrote.

"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."

The AP submitted the questionnaire to both candidates; only Huckabee responded. Incumbent Sen. Dale Bumpers won his four term; Huckabee was elected lieutenant governor the next year and became governor in 1996.

When asked about AIDS research in 1992, Huckabee complained that AIDS research received an unfair share of federal dollars when compared to cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

"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."

Huckabee did not return messages left with his campaign.

When Huckabee wrote his answers in 1992, it was common knowledge that AIDS could not be spread by casual contact. In late 1991, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were 195,718 AIDS patients in the country and that 126,159 people had died from the syndrome.

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 1994-95 season.

Since becoming a presidential candidate this year, Huckabee has supported increased federal funding for AIDS research through the National Institutes of Health.

"My administration will be the first to have an overarching strategy for dealing with HIV and AIDS here in the United States, with a partnership between the public and private sectors that will provide necessary financing and a realistic path toward our goals," Huckabee said in a statement posted on his campaign Web site last month.

Also in the wide-ranging AP questionnaire in 1992, Huckabee said, "I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk."

A Southern Baptist preacher, Huckabee has been a favorite among social conservatives for his vocal opposition to gay marriage. In 2003, Huckabee said that the U.S. Supreme Court was probably right to strike down anti-sodomy laws, but that states still should be able to restrict things such as gay marriage or domestic partner benefits.

"What people do in the privacy of their own lives as adults is their business," Huckabee said. "If they bring it into the public square and ask me as a taxpayer to support it or to endorse it, then it becomes a matter of public discussion and discourse."


Isolating AIDS patients?

[Religious Dick]

As well you should....

http://taxhikemike.com/

[hnumpah]

Gee, and I thought you just loved him because I expressed doubts about him. See what being contrary just for the sake of being contrary gets you?

[BT]

looks like Mike isn't ready for prime-time.

[Stray Pooch]

My problem is less with Huckabee - who, after all, is a politician gunning for votes, just like Mitt.  It is more with those who refuse to vote for a Mormon simply because he is a Mormon.  Obviously, it's difficult for me to be completely objective but I have far less of a problem with liberals who wouldn't vote for a person of any particular faith simply because of how that faith informs his decisions.  It seems to me that not voting for a religious person because he is (as a matter of faith) anti-gay marriage or pro-life is a rational decision.  It is based on values that are just as valid as anyone's.  I might have trouble voting for a Mennonite because of their anti-military stance and religious intolerance that I have experienced among them.  But I certainly wouldn't disqualify one simply because I thought his religion was wrong (though in this case I don't).  I wouldn't have a problem voting for a Muslim, provided he wasn't running around saying that he was going to try to force Sharia law on the country.  As a matter of practicality, I don't really concern myself with a candidates personal religion.

That said, I recognize that when, say, a Pat Robertson runs for President his religion is an automatic issue because he is a religious figure first.  When Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormon church) ran for President (an ill-fated affair just before he was assassinated) his Mormonism would have been an obviious and valid issue.  Mitt, however, was a member of a powerful political family and an experienced politician himself.  He very nearly defeated Ted Kennedy for Senate several years ago in Massachusetts and got himself elected governor in that very Blue state.  Massachusetts voters uniformly rejected making Mormonism an issue in that race and that was appropriate.  Mitt is a politician, not a preacher.  Huckabee, OTOH, is trying to make his own faith an issue.  I respect his courage in doing so, though I do think it is a subtle pander to the Anti-Mormon element.  But then again other Christian conservatives have run on faith without a Mormon in the field. 

Honestly, my only real problem with Huckabee is that he is probably un-electable because of the emphasis he places (however honorably) on his faith.  I am willing to bet that there are a lot more undecided Americans afraid to vote for a candidate who makes a point of defining himself as a Christian than there are Christian conservatives afraid to vote for a man who happens to be a Mormon.

[sirs]

Gee, and I thought you just loved him because I expressed doubts about him.

Wouldn't be the 1st time you were wrong, H.  And probably won't be your last, either