Mike Huckabee

We have long marvelled at how Mike Huckabee manages to use his folksy "aw shucks" charm to craft a reputation as a rather reasonable moderate rather then the anti-gay Religious Right ideologue that he is.

Huckabee regularly associates with all sorts of radical Religious Right figures and promotes the same agenda but, for some reason, these connections never seem to damage his reputation with the media or the general population.

Nothing better demonstrates this disconnect then the fact that today Huckabee is in Michigan headlining a fundraiser for radical anti-gay activist Gary Glenn as he makes a quixotic bid for the US Senate:

Fox News host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will be making a pitch for U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn at the Birch Run Expo Center.

Huckabee will appear Thursday at the free rally and a $1,000-per-couple reception for Glenn, one of at least eight Michigan Republicans running for the chance to take on Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow.

Glenn, in his capacity as head of the American Family Association of Michigan, has been a vicious anti-gay activist, saying companies should not to hire gays on the grounds that "individuals who engage in homosexual behavior given all of its severe medical consequences [do not] constitute the best and the brightest."

Glenn has also openly advocated the criminalization of homosexuality:

Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, has added his voice to a growing course of American leaders calling for the re-criminalization of homosexuality in the U.S.

In an e-mail to Michigan Messenger, here’s how Glenn responded when asked if he supported the criminalization move proposed by the Family Research Council’s Peter Sprigg’s comments last week on Hardball:

“The short answer to your question is yes, we believe that states should be free to regulate and prohibit behavior that’s a violation of community standards and a proven threat to public health and safety — including, as most of the United States did throughout its history, homosexual behavior.”

Huckabee has a long history of supporting Glenn, even filming a message for an AFA of Michigan banquet in 2009 in which he heaped praise upon him, saying that "if we had leaders like Gary Glenn across America, our work wouldn't be so hard":

Now, Glenn is seeking to take his radical anti-gay views with him to the United States Senate and Huckabee is proudly raising money to help him accomplish that. 

Today is World AIDS Day, a day for "people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, show their support for people living with HIV and to commemorate people who have died."

Which, of course, means anti-gay activists like Peter LaBarbera decided to "commemorate" it with press releases calling for cutting AIDS funding while promoting efforts to "re-stigmatize" homosexuality.

So, in this vein, let us "commemorate" World AIDS Day by highlighting a few of the Religious Right's more outrageous AIDS-related statements from recent years:

• Rick Scarborough says AIDS is God's judgment for an immoral act:

• Sally Kern stating that AIDS is more dangerous than terrorism:

You know if you just look at it in practical terms, which has destroyed and ended the life of more people? Terrorism attack here in America or HIV/AIDS? In the last twenty years, fifteen to twenty years, we’ve had maybe three terrorist attacks on our soil with a little over 5,000 people regrettably losing their lives. In the same time frame, there have been hundreds of thousands who have died because of having AIDS. So which one’s the biggest threat? And you know, every day our young people, adults too, but especially our young people, are bombarded at school, in movies, in music, on TV, in the mall, in magazines, they’re bombarded with ‘homosexuality is normal and natural.’ It’s something they have to deal with every day. Fortunately we don’t have to deal with a terrorist attack every day, and that’s what I mean.

• Bryan Fischer saying that gay sex is just like domestic terrorism:

• A quote from former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop from the book "Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite" claiming that Gary Bauer fought his efforts to inform President Reagan about the AIDS crisis:

[In 1986] President Reagan asked the surgeon general to prepare a report on AIDS as the United States confirmed its ten-thousandth case. Leaders of the evangelical movement did not want Koop to write the report, nor did senior White House staffers who shared Koop's evangelical convictions. As Dr. Koop related to me, "Gary Bauer [Reagan's chief advisor on domestic policy] ... was my nemesis in Washington because he kept me from the president. He kept me from the cabinet and he set up a wall of enmity between me and most of the people that surrounded Reagan because he believed that anybody who had AIDS ought to die with it. That was God's punishment for them."

• And who can ever forget Mike Huckabee standing by his 1992 remarks calling for "carriers of this plague" to be removed from society and placed in quarantine:

"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," he said. "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.

"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."

When Gary Glenn, the head of American Family Association’s Michigan affiliate, announced his run for U.S. Senate, Kyle wondered “how long it will be before Glenn receives Mike Huckabee's endorsement given that Huckabee believes that ‘if we had leaders like Gary Glenn across America, our work wouldn't be so hard.’”

Well, today Huckabee made it official, endorsing Glenn and saying he “will be a Senator that will take his values with him to Washington”:

I am very happy to endorse and support Gary Glenn for the United States Senate in Michigan. Gary is a person whose clarity of conviction is refreshing. He has boldly led on issues of life, traditional marriage, and the Fair Tax. When I needed help in Michigan in 2008, Gary didn't wait until it was convenient or popular, he stood with me out of sheer courage of his views. Gary Glenn won't take a poll to find out where he needs to stand. He will be a Senator that will take his values with him to Washington. I hope you will join me in getting behind Gary with your prayers, your generous and sacrificial contributions, and your vote.

Glenn faces a competitive primary against former congressman Pete Hoekstra and charter school activist Clark Durant and, if he wins the nomination, an uphill climb against Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

While leading the AFA’s state chapter, Glenn has amassed a tremendous anti-gay record. He not only led the successful campaign to enshrine a ban on marriage equality for gays and lesbians in the state constitution, but also targeted openly gay candidates and was a plaintiff in the unsuccessful lawsuit to block the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which expands hate crimes laws to protect people targeted because of their sexual orientation.

Glenn supports the criminalization of homosexuality and joined anti-gay radio host and Mission America head Linda Harvey to warn companies against hiring gay and lesbian employees, saying, “What ridiculous folly to suggest that only those individuals who engage in homosexual behavior given all of its severe medical consequences constitute the best and the brightest.” During an interview with anti-gay extremist Peter LaBarbera of Americans For Truth About Homosexuality, Glenn said that anti-bullying programs were a “Trojan Horse” of “homosexual activists” and said that the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell “defies reason,” predicting repeal will lead to more “sexual assaults” and “security,” “moral,” and “medical” risks.

But for Huckabee, Glenn’s “clarity of conviction is refreshing.”

Earlier this year, Mike Huckabee appeared on Bryan Fischer's radio program where the two of them attacked President Obama's "fundamental anti-Americanism."

Shortly thereafter, Huckabee was a guest on Alan Colmes' radio program where he was asked about why he was associating with a vicious bigot such as Fischer, to which Huckabee responded by claiming that was not familiar with Fischer's long record of undeniable bigotry and that he was not responsible for things Fischer may have said.

Since then, it has become pretty clear that there is nothing that Fischer can say that might get anyone in the conservative movement to treat him as the pariah that he is, as leading conservative figures continue to appear on his radio program on a regular basis.

Huckabee himself has appeared on Fischer's show multiple times and did so again yesterday to discuss his upcoming appearance at a fundraiser for Personhood Mississippi and declared that he was "delighted to stand" with "courageous leaders" like the AFA's Don Wildmon in supporting this effort:

So this is just another reminder of the fact that seemingly nobody on the Religious Right finds Fischer's relentless bigotry in any way objectionable or unacceptable: