It's kind of funny how, in the world of Republican wingnuttia, being taken seriously can turn you in

[thepurpose]

to a real nutcase.


Take Mike Huckabee. Back before he started climbing in the GOP presidential polls, he was inclined to say reasonable things about immigration, things that were almost kind of human-sounding, such as: "Unfortunately, instead of being angry at the federal government for totally failing us , sometimes get angry at themselves." It was enough that the nativist wing of the party decided to declare him a "disaster" on the issue.

So to head them off at the pass, as it were, as he gained in the polls, pretty soon he was joining the rest of the Republican field in immigrant-bashing, even going so far as to issue an immigration plan calling for the deportation of all 12 million illegal immigrants within 120 days. That and his altered rhetoric were enough to win him the support of Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist -- who is a special kind of right-wing nutcase himself, most recently promoting conspiracy theories about a looming "North American Union".

Of course, if this were a Democrat engaged in such a wholesale "repositioning," the term "flip-flop" would be on all the cable-network tongues. Ah, but the Village idiots Heart Huckabee, building up his image as a likeable fellow while ignoring a host of questions about his record as Arkansas governor.

And what that record suggests, of course, is that this rightward shift on immigration was inevitable for Huckabee, given his own pedigree in xenophobic wingnuttia. As Bloggernista notes, he's been especially toxic in his dealings with Teh Gay:

In a 1992 senate race Huckabee when asked about allowing openly gay Americans to serve in the military said:


I believe to try to legitimize that which is inherently illegitimate would be a disgraceful act of government. I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk.


Wow Mike! Tell us how much you really hate The Gays.

This revelation comes on the heels of Huckabee defending his statement about quarantining people living with HIV, Huckabee saying homosexuality is a sin and saying that gay marriage is a threat to civilization.

http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/