Washington Blade - December 14, 2007
Joshua Lynsen, jlynsen@washblade.com.

Log Cabin Republicans, Human Rights Campaign and the AIDS Institute all called on the former Arkansas governor to apologize after he declined to repudiate comments he made in 1992 while running for the U.S. Senate.

"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," he wrote in response to an Associate Press questionnaire at the time.

"It is difficult to understand the public policy toward 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."

When asked Dec. 9 on "Fox News Sunday" about the comments, Huckabee said "in the late '80s and early '90s" that "we didn't know as much as we do now about AIDS," and responses then were governed "more out of political correctness" than "normal public health protocols."

He also noted that he "didn't say that we should quarantine," but instead observed that health officials "didn't isolate the carrier."

"Now, would I say things a little differently in 2007?" he said. "Probably so. But I'm not going to recant or retract from the statement that I did make because, again, the point was not saying we ought to lock people up who have HIV/AIDS."

But gay Republicans were quick to note that Huckabee's "deeply disturbing" comments from 1992 "were far outside the mainstream and inconsistent with public health standards from that time."

In a statement, Log Cabin also noted Huckabee's old comments were "in sharp contrast" to the official 1992 Republican platform position on AIDS.

"We are committed to ensure that our nation's response to AIDS is shaped by compassion, not fear or ignorance, and will oppose, as a matter of decency and honor, any discrimination against Americans who are its victims," the platform stated.

Patrick Sammon, Log Cabin's president, said Huckabee must offer "a more credible explanation for his comments" than what was given on Fox News.

"Gov. Huckabee shouldn't try to revise history to explain away his comments from 1992," Sammon said. "He ought to do the right thing and admit he was wrong."

Dr. David Reznik, Log Cabin's healthcare policy adviser, said Huckabee should have been better informed about AIDS in 1992.

"We knew a great deal about HIV and AIDS by 1992 - certainly enough to know there was no need to isolate those who are infected," Reznik said.

'Ignorance and fear'

The AIDS Institute and Human Rights Campaign also called on Huckabee to repudiate his old comments.

In a letter signed by Joe Solmonese, HRC's president, and A. Gene Copello, the AIDS Institute's executive director, the activists tell Huckabee that Ryan White and his family were "ridiculed, shunned and ostracized" after it was revealed in 1984 that the Indiana teenager had AIDS.

"We have a moral obligation as a nation to never allow ourselves to repeat the shameful mistakes of the past," it says. "And we cannot sit idly by when a candidate for president of the United States tries to lead us back down that path of ignorance and fear."

Solmonese and Copello also offered to arrange for Huckabee a meeting with Ryan White's mother, Jeanne White-Ginder.

Huckabee told reporters in Iowa on Tuesday that he "would be very willing" to meet with White-Ginder, and would tell her "we've come a long way in research, in treatment."

The response did not sit well with Solmonese, who said "the mother of Ryan White, for whom the Ryan White CARE Act is named, doesn't need to be schooled about how far we've come in HIV/AIDS research and treatment."

James Driscoll, a former member of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and Log Cabin's former AIDS adviser, said Huckabee's refusal to recant his old comments could destroy his viability among gay Republicans.

"I think it should because it tells us a lot about his attitudes toward people with AIDS and toward gay people," he said, "which I would say are not - he doesn't understand us very well."

Driscoll said Huckabee must recant if he's to win any gay votes in the primary.

"Apologize for the remarks and indicate that he made a serious mistake and wouldn't do this kind of stuff in the future," Driscoll said. "He doesn't seem to be someone who thinks things through very well."

Huckabee's record in Arkansas is undergoing renewed scrutiny this week after a series of new polls showed the once dark horse candidate is now surging in popularity with the Iowa caucuses just three weeks away.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Wednesday shows that Huckabee's support nationally has more than doubled since just last month, with 19 percent of likely GOP voters and Republican-leaning independents backing him. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani still ranks first with 25 percent, but that number is down from 34 percent last month. Several recent polls in Iowa show Huckabee in first place there, with former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney slipping to second.

Huckabee's past statements on gays were also criticized this week. He once referred to homosexuality as "an aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle."

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