The Best Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism

As former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee catapults to the top of the 2008 Republican presidential race, amazed media on-lookers ponder his meteoric rise.  The authentic, charismatic former minister, they say, is swaying disheartened conservative voters, especially the legions of evangelicals in Iowa and other states, disillusioned with President Bush and unimpressed with his potential successors.  But despite emerging stories from his checkered past such as the Wayne Dumond affair or his past AIDS bigotry, a true portrait of Mike Huckabee as a radical reactionary and dangerous extremist has yet to be painted.

Here then, are the Top 10 Moments in Mike Huckabee's Extremism:

1. Huckabee Calls for the Quarantine of AIDS Victims

In 1992, then Senate candidate Huckabee advocated the isolation of AIDS patients. Labeling homosexuality "an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle" which could "pose a dangerous public health risk," Huckabee called for draconian -- and discriminatory -- action:

"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.

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."

Despite the clear understanding of AIDS transmission that emerged years earlier (even an AIDS demagogue like Ronald Reagan spoke publicly about it in 1987), Huckabee still insists (wrongly) that "we didn't know."  And speaking to Fox News on Sunday, Huckabee refused to "recant" or "run from" his words in 1992.

2. Huckabee Enables the Politically-Motivated Parole of Repeat Rapist/Murderer

As Murray Waas documented at the Huffington Post, Mike Huckabee might claim to be a man of God, but he acted a pure partisan operator in the parole of Wayne Dumond in Arkansas.  

The expanding scandal surrounding Dumond, a convicted rapist, is not limited to Huckabee's direct personal involvement in securing his parole.  Nor is Huckabee's disgrace merely compounded by his later denials that he had no way of knowing the dangers posed by Dumond, who went to rape and murder against after his release.  (Waas produces extenstive documentation, including letters to Huckabee from Dumond's past victims.)  Huckabee's abominable role is all the more shocking because it was done at the behest of conservative zealots like Steve Dunleavy and Guy Reel furious because Wayne Dumond's victim was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton who also happened to be the daughter of a prominent Arkansas Democrat.

Baselessly calling the coverage by ABC and the Huffington Post "complete exploitation" and full of "factual errors," Huckabee tried to deny his role in the Dumond affair and instead attacked the messenger:

"What a sad thing that in an election year, we're going to take the grief of these people...and make this a political issue, and try to point fingers and blame."

The former minister might have been better served by rereading the Ten Commandments: you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

3. Huckabee Offers Faith-Based Pardons

As the AP reports, Governor Huckabee didn't merely intervene to help past and future felons for political purposes.  Huckabee used his pardon power at an unprecedented rate (1,033 times over 10 1⁄2 years, compared to 507 times over the 17 plus years of Bill Clinton, Frank White and Jim Guy Tucker).  And as case after case shows, Huckabee was quick to offer clemency when his fellow ministers requested it.