Mike Huckabee Wants You to Ring in the Holidays with Homophobia

Mike Huckabee might be pitching a new book on the joys of Christmas, but he somehow found the time to sit down with Katie Couric to wax on about how gay marriage will lead to the decline of society. For Huckabee, it's a holiday season full of egg nog, playing football with family members, and telling gay people that they're immoral and undeserving of loving relationships.

Huckabee's interview with Katie Couric is yet another example of the new right-wing talking point, "It's not that I'm against gay marriage, it's just that I'm for traditional marriage." And then in a case of political shrewdness that might even have Machiavelli jealous, Huckabee goes on to say that he's the one who is persecuted by gay rights activists simply for believing that marriage should be between one man and one woman.

""In all the recorded years of human history [marriage] has only meant one thing. It has meant a man and a woman relationship, that not only created the next generation, but that trained the next generation to be their replacements," Huckabee told Couric.

With talking points like that, one has to wonder if Huckabee forces his gay relatives to eat holiday meals in a separate room.

Huckabee has long tried to spin his opposition to gay rights as polite disagreement, even though he's openly called for gay people with HIV to be forcibly isolated by the state, and has joked around with Ann Coulter that people who engage in sodomy are disgusting. Yeah, that's class. But it's par for the course in the rightest wing of the Republican Party, where Huckabee has long planted a stake.

Huckabee also tells Katie Couric that gay marriage is akin to polygamy. That shows both a stilted understanding of relationships on Huckabee's part, but also shows a disturbing sense of logic that Huckabee would compare apples to celery (oranges are even too close to use as a metaphor for Huckabee's delusions).

Marriage equality for gays and lesbians is simply about wanting to be in a relationship with one other person, committing to that person, and receiving equal benefits under the law with that person. The key word there, of course, is "one other person." That's what defines a marriage, and no law allowing gays and lesbians the right to marry will change that definition.

It's more intellectual dishonesty from Huckabee -- a cup of homegrown folksiness mixed with homophobia and a slam of gay marriage. Sure, Huckabee may be the author of a new book on the joys of the holidays, but he sure has a lot to learn about the meaning behind what is supposed to be the most peaceful time of the year. Perhaps instead of coal this year, Santa will be giving bad kids a copy of Huckabee's latest book. Now that would be punishment.

But don't get me wrong: It's not that I'm against Mike Huckabee. I'm just for politicians who understand the definition of civil rights.

(Photo courtesy of Donkey Dish)