Quoth the Huckster:

“What people do in the privacy of their own lives as adults is their business,” Huckabee said. “If they bring it into the public square and ask me as a taxpayer to support it or to endorse it, then it becomes a matter of public discussion and discourse.”

What a great argument for debating the increasing role of religion in elections and in government policy and spending!

Oh, wait. He just meant it was OK to be a hateful homophobe.

The affable compassionate conservative once urged that people with HIV be quarantined and for celebrities to foot the bill for finding a cure (“…it does not seem that additional federal spending can be justified”). He also said, in the sweetest possible way, no doubt:

“I feel homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk.”

But he’s the media’s official Nice Guy candidate, so why let the rights and dignity of one in ten Americans and the need to cure a deadly disease get in the way?