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There are conservative politicians that are supported by the religious right, and then there is Mike Huckabee who might as well be leading the religious right into the 2012 presidential elections. You could put religion and politics in a blender and you wouldn’t have a drink as religiously stout as Mike Huckabee.

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Mike Huckabee has a long history of mixing his religious fervor in with his political aspirations. While an Arkansas Senate candidate in 1992, Mike Huckabee responded to an AP questionnaire about homosexuality with, “It is crucial that the country not legitimize immorality.” Huckabee went on in a question about gays in the military, “I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle.” He has advocated for AIDS patients to be isolated from the general public. As governor of Arkansas, Huckabee led a policy that prevented same-sex couples from being foster parents. In his 1998 book, Kids Who Kill, he wrote, “It is now difficult to keep track of the vast array of publicly endorsed and institutionally supported aberrations—from homosexuality and pedophilia to sadomasochism and necrophilia.” All of the views were a wedge in Gov. Huckabees’ 2008 quest for the Republican presidential nomination.

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Mike Huckabee is being touted as a potential Republican candidate for 2012, but obviously Huckabee doesn’t learn well from past experiences. His hysterical and surplus demeaning of homosexuality might have raised a few cheers from a handful of religious zealots, but even the Christians that were hurling “magic underwear” at Mormon Mitt Romney wouldn’t go so far as segregating AIDS patients and grossly comparing pedophilia to homosexuality.

Just last week Mike Huckabee compared homosexuality to incest, polygamy, and drug use during an interview at The College of New Jersey.

Mike Huckabee told a student journalist for the campus Magazine, The Perspective, that not every groups interest deserve to be accommodated, if their lifestyle is out of “the ideal.”  “That would be like saying, well there’s there are a lot of people who like to use drugs so let’s go ahead and accommodate those who want to use drugs. There are some people who believe in incest, so we should accommodate them. There are people who believe in polygamy, should we accommodate them?” says Huckabee. He went on to ask, “Why do you get to choose that two men are OK but one man and three women aren’t OK?” Huckabee still supports banning gay couples from adopting- adding, “Children are not puppies.” Huckabee wanted to make it clear that his goal want to tell others how to live and that the burden of proving gay marriage success falls on the activist shoulders.

These remarks regained Gov. Huckabee his five minutes of fame and shame. The web is buzzing with outrage over his remarks. Mike Huckabee responded yesterday claiming that The Perspective college magazine sensationalized his views. The college journalist who interviewed Mike Huckabee released the audio in response. Listen to it here.

My Two Cents
It is disingenuous to compare gay marriage to pedophilia, sadomasochism, necrophilia, polygamy, etc..  I too believe that marriage is a traditional practice that is between a man and woman. However, it is unfair and sickening to compare two consenting adults to behaviors such as sexually violating children, having sex with dead bodies, etc.. Not only is it comparing apples to potatoes, it devalues sexual acts that are not consensual or legal.